A paw-pular driver has been spotted cruising around San Luis Obispo.
Olliver, a 7-year-old corgi, went viral after being recorded crossing Chorro Street in downtown San Luis Obispo in a toy remote controlled pink Porsche.
I was pissed because I didn’t make the light but then I got to witness this pic.twitter.com/Jocni1FWtF
— Kels (@Kelciium) April 7, 2019
Olliver’s owners Angie and Sasha Shkurkin operate his car with a remote control. Sasha Shkurkin said the couple always wanted to get Olliver a car and jumped on the opportunity to purchase one at a local garage sale.
Shkurkin retrofitted the car with a dog bed and bluetooth speaker so that Olliver “can rock out better” to tunes like “Riding Dirty” by Chamillionaire and “Gold Digger” by Kanye West.
Although Shkurkin said the couple had no plans to monetize their dog’s virality, Olliver has already received a sponsorship from a vegan dog food company.
“It’s really exciting to have a platform where we can speak what we believe are good values to the community, which we believe would be veganism and Christianity,” Shkurkin said.
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On the other hand, parks and recreations senior Kelsey Nowakowski, who recorded the viral video of Olliver, spoke about how social media virality is not all it is cracked up to be.
“Honestly going viral isn’t that big of a deal. Essentially after the video was posted and gained some steam, I was contacted by a licensing company to get the video licensed. I had to turn off my Twitter notifications because I was getting close to 100 likes a second,” Nowakowski said.
Since Nowakowski tweeted about Olliver nine days ago, the tweet has received more that 150,000 retweets and 500,000 likes. Needless to say the Internet is loving Olliver and so are Cal Poly students.
Students, staff and San Luis Obispo community members have shared their excitement when encountering Olliver through social media.
my coworker sent me this lol pic.twitter.com/FJ0umlO2pR
— aves (@avableubean) April 9, 2019
Biology senior Melanie Nuthals was walking downtown with a friend when she passed what she said she thought was a child in the pink Porsche.
“We looked closer and saw the corgi. We were actually walking past a homeless man playing guitar who stopped and said ‘Wow if that dog has a Porsche, where’s mine?’ and we all laughed,” Nuthals said.
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Psychology sophomore Lily Packer was driving home when she saw Olliver in action.
“We were stopped at a light and I saw the corgi going through the crosswalk. I freaked out and immediately pulled out my phone to take a video. It was a very pleasant surprise and totally made my night,” Packer said
Although Olliver has just recently achieved his Internet celebrity, he is not new to the social media world.
People have more opportunities to see photos of Olliver on his Instagram account @pinkporschecorgi. The account, created and run by the dog’s owners, has more than 3,000 followers. The account features Olliver playing with friends, rocking various outfits and of course em-bark-ing on more San Luis Obispo travels in his pink Porsche.