Tech

Meet Boo, 'The World's Cutest Dog'—And The Secret Facebook Employee Behind Him

Alyson Shontell

2012-08-08T22:03:00Z

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Today, a great world mystery was solved by Mike Isaac, a writer at tech news site AllThingsD.

Isaac unmasked the owner of Boo, "the world's cutest dog."

No, really. Boo is the world's cutest dog. Google it. Or check out the book that came out last year.

Skip straight to photos of boo >

According to Isaac, Boo belongs to Irene Ahn, a finance lead at Facebook. She joined the company in 2008 from Yahoo.

Ahn's identity as Boo's "mom" has never been revealed before. She's used the stage name J.H. Lee to keep the spotlight on her dog.

Boo is known around the world with nearly 5 million Facebook fans. We spoke to Boo's publicist at Chronicle Books, April Whitney, to get some more color.

Whitney says not many people get rich publishing books, but according to her, Boo's first book was "pretty successful."

The $12.95 title went to market last summer and has since been published in ten languages—Portuguese, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, and a Chinese-language edition sold in Taiwan.

Thanks to the success of Boo's first book, he has a second that will be released soon called Boo: Little Dog In The Big City. It's about Boo and his friend Buddy talking on their city, San Francisco, and it will also retail for $12.95.

Chronicle Books has also released a calendar for Boo, which sells for $13.99. In addition, Boo has a line of Gund stuffed animals coming out and an A-B-C book for children.

While Whitney didn't confirm Ahn as the owner, she did talk a little bit about Boo's owner. Boo and his owner live in San Francisco. She also says Boo's owner never sought fame or fortune.

"She didn't contact us, we contacted her when Boo only had 60,000 Facebook fans," says Whitney. "It might appear to people like she's creating all these things for Boo, but the only online presence she's made for him is his Facebook page."

Whitney says everything else that's online about Boo, including his Twitter account, his YouTube videos, and his website, are fake.

Ok, now here's the good part.

In case you don't believe us, Boo actually is the cutest dog in the world, according to Google.

This is Boo's Facebook page. It's the only online profile Ahn has ever made for Boo. Everything else, including his website, YouTube videos, and Twitter handle are fake or run by fans.

Facebook/Boo

This is Irene Ahn, the woman who owns Boo. She is a finance lead at Facebook. She joined the company from Yahoo in December 2008.

Ahn created Boo's Facebook page in 2009. "My friends loved looking at pictures of him," she told Time last year. "We started the first Facebook page as a joke."

Ahn told Time that she tries to keep his Facebook page updated regularly. "I try to post photos twice a week, whenever I see him around the house doing something cute," she says.

Soon, celebrities began to notice Boo. Khloe Kardashian dubbed him "The Cutest Dog On The Planet" on her blog.

But Ahn joked that she always thought Boo would get discovered by Oprah.

Boo's first book came out last summer. It's since been released in ten languages.

Boo's new book is called "Boo: Little Dog in the Big City." It features him and his friend Buddy taking on San Francisco.

Gund will soon be releasing a line of Boo stuffed animals. Boo doesn't look too happy about it.

All right, enough about Boo's career. Let's just look at the pictures. Here he is in some sweet shades.

And just before bedtime.

Here's Boo eyeing a stuffed-animal giraffe.

And all wrapped up in a blanket.

And curled up in some lucky person's arms.

Here, Boo's hiding in some shrubbery.

Clearly, Boo owns his city.

But puppy competition is fierce at Facebook. Check out another famous dog in nearby Palo Alto:

BREAKING: Mark Zuckerberg Makes Huge, Fluffy, Super-Cute Acquisition—Woof! >

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