Culture

People Are Already Cyberbullying Albo’s Pet Dog, Toto

Woof ?

Toto Albanese

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Anthony Albanese might’ve become Prime Minister this week, but someone close to home has stolen the spotlight from him — his pet dog Toto.

It all started when user Toto Albanese came out of the woodworks on Tuesday, retweeting a bunch of candid snapshots of the Cavoodle during the election campaign — harmless, right? But things went south when Australia’s First Dog was given a voice reminiscent of 2013 doge culture and ‘DoggoLingo’.

“Hello friends!” Toto innocently posted in her first tweet. Then the puns started trickling in with: “Dad thought it’d be a furry good idea to get me a Twitter account so here I am! Woof!”

Toto became an overnight sensation, racking up more than 20,000 followers in less than 24 hours, and learning the hard way that fame comes with a price — becoming an internet darling also risks being turned into a meme. Her evolving tone started to send people over the edge when she referenced a “furry busy playdate” where she made “new doggy and hooman pals”, and then wished good morning to all her followers slash “fwends”.

Obviously, the digs were more rogue dark humour than ill-willed-borderline-animal abuse, and plenty of middle-aged people hopped on the Toto bandwagon as well to share snaps of their own pets — mainly cats, more oodles, and crusty white dogs.

The most confusing thing of all is that it’s not Albo’s office behind the account, but a 20-year-old law student from Brisbane, who told The Feed they made the Twitter because they “just like the dog”.

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison also had a pet dog, Buddy, who mocked media students trying to break into the industry nationwide by managing to snag himself a byline in the Daily Telegraph last July.

“I don’t mind telling you that being locked down in Kirribilli House with Scott can be ruff … ruff, ruff,” said Buddy at the time.

Please, enough.