Raquel Baena’s life turned upside down when Valentín arrived in her life a dachshund breed cat of almost two years old. Not only because of the responsibility involved in taking care of an animal, but also because he has become a star on social networks. Today, the Instagram profile @dosteckelsenibiza already has 13,000 followers. On this page, created at the beginning of 2023, Valentín is the protagonist, along with Plátano, the other salty cat of Baena. They can be seen playing, eating, at the beach and in very funny situations of everyday life.
La jove es descriu com “a person who likes and loves animals”who has cats and the goal “to connect with people who also have them”. And the way to achieve it was through Instagram. “Looking for this connection, explaining the things we do or the things we didn’t know if they also happened to other people…. Little by little, we started to use this profile and nowadays we use it more than the personal ones”, she emphasizes with humor, referring also to her partner, Adrián, who helps her with the content.
The video with which they made themselves known was one of Valentin eating a pastanaga and which they took advantage of to clarify the benefits of this vegetable: “It started to go viral, and many people followed us. The people who got to know us through stories are now friends. They are people that through a screen you gain esteem. There have even been some followers who have sent us some gifts”, he says with emotion before highlighting the “such a polite community” they have managed to create.
The shootings
The daily life of the profile, according to Baena, is that many people contact them for advice and recommendations, such as “to say ‘quiet’ to eat, to be calm while they walk if a tractor passes by, feeding issues, what shampoo to use to clean them, the adaptation of the cats as brothers and sisters“… “I believe that they consider our profile as a trustworthy profile”, he assures. Baena affirms that she uses these questions to make content, but that she really likes “talking to people”, and not answering through the stories in the application: “I like to talk personally, to have them explain their experience and mine, to have a conversation”.
Our followers consider our profile ‘trustworthy’
When it comes to recording the videos, Baena remarks that Valentín and Plátano make it “easy” for them: “They are cats and I record occasional moments of special things they do. It’s not so much that I plan it, I just let them be cats”, he confirms, giving the example of recording when “they make little petcakes or if I’m going to give them a natural yogurt from a recipe I’ve made, I show it before giving it to them, but always taking advantage of moments of everyday life”. Then there are also funnier and more acted videos, such as “giving them a flame and making them chew it to make it look like they are talking”, although these “are not the most common” in her profile: “We like more to show the daily life with them, special things and above all also the love for animals. Trying to expand the idea that cats are one more of our family and we have to take care and value them as they deserve”.
In reference to the responsibility at the time of posting content on social networks, Baena insists that this is what works for her or what her cats do: “I’m not sure if this is what they doEach cat is a world. I am not a teacher or a teacher of anyone. I simply explain our experience and what has worked for us, but always giving a margin and making it clear that maybe the cat needs a professional. We want to share as we would with a friend to whom we recommend something that has worked for you”. As such, generally the content they share “is what happens”. Without censorship.
We like to show the daily life with them and the love for animals
“At the end the quality time with your cat is also to train him, because you generate a superimportant connection with them: that they listen to you, exercise their brain…. However, when we want to teach them a command, for example, we are constant, we do it in the form of a game and maybe we dedicate a few minutes a day to it”, says Baena, talking about the training to make the cats learn tricks such as to shuffle, to give the pot, to ring the bell or to be quiet before eating.
Entrepreneurship in Eivissa
Thanks to the success of the teckels’ Instagram profile, Baena has created a company. In reference to entrepreneurship in Eivissa, he states that “it is too complicated and has too many disadvantages”such as the issue of the goods, since it costs more to send them to the island, both in terms of price and shipping time: “In this sense, I also feel a bit lonely, because there are not many enterprising people and I would like to share more of the experience”.
Even so, the young woman is very happy because entrepreneurship allows her to spend more time with the cats, so she thinks that her relationship is closer with them: “They are with me while I work. I always say that they are like the caps of the brand”. And he continues: “The truth is that it’s funny. I didn’t expect for nothing, the day I created the profile, that it would be like this. I just wanted to share with people and collect moments, but in the end it gives us great joy to have community. People who follow us, who love Valentín and Plátano, who worry about them when they are ill, it’s a great experience”he guarantees. He explains that people recognize them on the street. Baena has stayed with followers of the island so that the cats know them.
Baena gives some advice for the summer and the cats: “Do not walk them in peak hours, but when it is not too hot”. And he insists on the importance of being very conscious that “cats are a responsibility”: “You have to take care of them, to give them all they deserve, to give them affection and care”. “Cats, in general, live very little, and if someone does not know how to value this, it is better not to have them”:[]”Els gossos, generalment, viuen molt poc, i si algú no sap valorar això, millor que no en tingui cap”he concludes.
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