In March of last year, Lexi Smith adopted a Dalmatian puppy who she named Wiley. At the time, she had no idea that Wiley would go on to become a famous internet sensation!

Lexi, who lives in Colorado, got Wiley from a breeder in Oklahoma. She’d had a hard time picking among the litter of 11 Dalmatian puppies when it came time to choose one.

“He came from a litter of 11, and 8 of them were boys, so I had a tough choice in choosing him,” she said. “The heart was there, but not fully formed to the point where I believed it would stay since dalmatian spots change so much as they grow. I chose him because the breeder told me that all he did was sleep, snuggle, and eat, so we already had a lot in common.”

Lexi decided that Wiley was too cute to not show off, so she started an Instagram page for him. His first post simply stated, “Hi, I’m Wiley,” but it earned over 3,000 likes!

Lexi described Wiley as “54 pounds of goofy, clumsy, sassy, hungry, cuddly, curious, wild, crazy, silly, happy love.” One of his favorite activities is to tag along hiking with Lexi.

“No amount of pictures on could ever fully capture all that he is and all that he means to me, he’s my best friend,” Lexi said.

One of the cutest things about Wiley is his heart shaped nose. Social media users can’t get enough of it!

Wiley has already garnered over 135,000 Instagram followers, and Lexi enjoys running his account for him.

“Photography has always been something that I have toyed and experimented with, and suddenly I had an adorable puppy who made the perfect model,” she said. “I have a personal account, but creating a separate one dedicated specifically to Wiley seemed like a great way to kind of store all my photos of him and keep a running timeline of his life.”

Though Lexi said that Wiley was easy to train, she also admitted that like most Dalmatians, he was a bit stubborn at times.

“Wiley’s truest dalmatian traits are constantly making me laugh,” she said. “Usually, it’s a giggle paired with shaking my head, laughing off total frustration from his stubbornness, but that’s part of owning the breed. If you can’t laugh it off and be creative in finding a solution and training the naughty traits out of them, life with a dalmatian would be such a challenge.”

We wish Wiley and Lexi many years of happiness together!