Meet SU’s most adorable campus celebrity: Jax the Samoyed

You can catch him walking around campus with his owner, Erika, a senior Geography major. But not only is he famous here on campus—he has an Instagram with almost 2,000 followers, documenting his daily adventures.

I sat down with Erika and Jax to find out how it all got started.

Does Jax do all the Instagram posting himself, or do you help him out?

Well, his thumbs—when they work, he does the posting, but if not I’ll help him out.

How old his Jax?

He just turned three. He had a 21st birthday party last month, downtown at a bar. All his friends were there, it was great.

Did you adopt him?

My roommate and I adopted him when he was one. We were sophomores, and we wanted a puppy, but the puppies of his breed are, like, $2,000, and since he was one and a runt he was on sale, we decided to get him instead of a puppy. It was a great decision because I don’t think I could have handled hiding a puppy on South campus. And he’s just a lot of energy, I don’t think I could’ve handled puppy and Samoyed energy at the same time, so I’m very happy we got him.

Has it been hard to keep a dog on campus as a student?

It was rough, the first year we got him, because we were hiding him. We didn’t know that he was a howler, so that was rough. He was very destructive in the beginning so we had to hide everything in sight if we left, but now we’re used to his tactics and his crafty techniques, so we can prevent things from happening. So it’s good and bad, and it’s actually gotten a lot more focused and on-schedule, because I know that I have to get things done and follow a dog schedule. He keeps me going.

So how did the Instagram account get started, what made you want to start it?

Well I was super obsessed with him, and every time I was talking to people I was like “Oh, want to see a picture of my dog?” And I was sick of going through my photos, you know, so I was like, why don’t I just make something where I can just dial up his photos quickly instead of making an album, so I just made an Instagram to have a collection of his photos, and I thought it was fun to keep going.

Do you get recognized a lot when you walk around campus?

Yeah, it’s weird. Like, sometimes we walk around campus, and [people] will be like “Jax!” and like I don’t know who these people are, coming up to me. Or they call him “Ajax” sometimes or like “Cheeto” because he’s named after the Cheese puff.

Do you think that Jax has let the fame go to his head at all?

Yeah, sometimes. He doesn’t give me proper recognition, like when there’s a crowd of people around him, he just ignores me like I’m not there. But that’s it.

It seems from your Instagram that you guys go on a lot of adventures, what are some of the things you guys will do for fun?

I like to take him to all the places that I go, just to get him tired out, and to get him used to people. Whatever I do, he normally does. If I’m running to Schine, he’ll come. If I’m going to the box office or a department office, he’ll come with me, just to keep him social and active.

Does he have a lot of dog friends on campus?

Yeah, we actually started a dog club. We meet most days at the women’s building, but the main day is Wednesdays at 5:30pm.

What do you think that Jax would want to say to all of his fans that love him so much?

“I love you all, please say hi to me anytime you can, come hang out.”

Make sure to stop and say hi to Jax if you see him around campus. He’s fluffy, friendly, and capturing the hearts of SU students everywhere.