You may know Isabel Klee by her social media handle, @simonsits: Across TikTok and Instagram, she has nearly 2 million followers. Or you may have heard of her famous (former!) foster dog, Tiki, whose journey went viral last spring as he went from what Klee described as “an extremely fearful, shut-down” candidate for behavioral euthanasia to a loving little guy who was eventually adopted by an adoring family. Muddy Paws Rescue, the New York-based group Klee works with, released “Be Brave Like Tiki” T-shirts in May that sold out immediately, raising more than $100,000 for the organization. In a dark world, the effort put in by Klee — plus her fiancé, Jacob, and her dog, Simon — to heal Tiki with patience and love felt like a balm.
Klee already had a big following, but his moving story brought her a new kind of attention: Klee and Tiki appeared on NBC News, and when the popular social media account WeRateDogs selected Tiki to be its No. 3 dog of the year in 2025, founder/Dogfather Matt Nelson described Klee as “a legend in the foster space.” Klee had already been profiled by “Today” in August 2024, and that fall, Kristin Davis adopted her foster Chewy, after DMing Klee as soon she began posting about him. Davis is just one of Klee’s celebrity followers — her fans also include Rachel Zegler, Kylie Kelce and Alyssa Milano, among others.
On Sunday, Klee will be featured during Animal Planet’s annual Puppy Bowl, both in a pre-taped “Pup Close and Personal” segment, and on the field alongside with her now-adopted senior foster dog Moonie. Klee documented the experience herself as well, posting about their day and showing Moonie as he mugs for the cameras. The Puppy Bowl appearance comes just ahead another professional milestone for Klee: At 32, she has become a full-time content creator, and her memoir “Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About” will be released by HarperCollins on April 28.
Courtesy of Animal Planet/Warner Bros. Discovery
Having grown up “obsessed with dogs,” Klee’s first job after college was working for a dog photographer. (That’s also how she learned how to edit video.) Back then, Klee couldn’t afford to get a dog of her own, so she began fostering, since rescue organizations pay for food and vet care. The fifth dog she fostered was Simon, whom she fell in love with and adopted (a “foster fail,” to use the term of art). She gave up fostering until she, Jacob and Simon moved into an apartment in Brooklyn that had a backyard, which was when she told Jacob, “I think I want to start fostering again.” With Jacob’s help, and with Simon modeling brotherly love, Klee brings her audience along to see each of her fosters’ stories, beginning with her going to pick them up and ending on their adoption day — with their sometimes extreme ups and downs recounted throughout. Since Simon has idiopathic epilepsy, Klee specializes in taking in medical foster dogs, as well as dogs who otherwise would be hard to adopt.
Thirty-three foster dogs later, Klee talked to Variety over Zoom about her Puppy Bowl experience, life as a successful content creator, her crusade to educate people on why it’s kill shelters that need your donations — and what happened after she posted about being horrified by ICE.
I feel like I’ve been in your living room so many times.
Yep, just got a little dog next to me.
Raven! I’ve followed you since King, I think?
Oh, my God, I love King so much.
What was your Puppy Bowl appearance like?
For the very first time, they are doing a senior segment as their halftime show, and they asked if I wanted my senior foster dog to be a part of it. And I said, “Of course — that’s the cutest thing ever.” We spent the whole day shooting, and he actually goes on the field and plays, which was very cute.
A few days later, a camera crew came to my apartment and we did a sit-down interview, because I think they do three to four featured stories throughout the Puppy Bowl — pre-taped interviews with people in the pet space. They interviewed me about my fostering journey, and about Moonie and about why I love senior dogs.
Courtesy of Animal Planet/Warner Bros. Discovery
They sent me a picture of Moonie with a referee.
Yes, yes! Moonie is one of the only foster dogs that I’ve ever had that I’ve considered adopting, because he’s just such a great dog, and we really formed this very special bond. So much so that when they put him on the field, he tried to escape to get back to me. He’s this tiny little chihuahua: He, like, jumped the fence to run back to me. So the ref had to go run after him, pick him up and put him back onto the field, which I was very flattered by. He was a little troublemaker on the field.
Last spring, Tiki obviously blew up and became an international superstar, as he should be. But what was the first foster when you thought, “Wow, this is becoming really big”?
I had a foster named Lucchese. When I picked him up, I said, “He looks like Steve Buscemi.” That’s what he looks like to me. He just had this face. He’s so cute, but he’s so funny looking. And he was really my first — I mean, compared to Tiki, not viral — but he was the first one where I was like, “Oh, people are obsessed with this dog.” Every video I posted of him just blew up. I think he was the first one where I was like, “Oh, people really are invested emotionally into these dogs.”
Courtesy of Isabel Klee
How did being a creator become your full-time job?
About three years ago, I was let go from that job with the photographer. I had had such an unconventional job for so long, it was so hard for me to imagine having a 9 to 5, so I literally emailed every dog brand that I had worked with and asked if they needed anybody to create social media content for them. And a lot of them said yes. For a long time, my largest freelance job was with Adopt a Pet, which was a dream come true, because I got to go to shelters and highlight adoptable dogs and make little videos about them to help them get adopted. And I did that while simultaneously building my own platform for about two years.
In the midst of that, I got my book deal, and I was doing all three for a bit, for probably six months, and it just got to a point where I was like, “I can’t do this anymore!” I had to write an entire book, so I made the decision to step away from my freelance jobs and just focus on my own projects. And that was probably a little over a year ago.
I know Kristin Davis adopted Chewy, and I see Rachel Zegler commenting on your posts all the time. What other encounters have you had with celebrities who follow you?
I’ve had a few crazy moments that have been very pinch me. Kylie Kelce has commented on some of my things, and follows me and has been so kind. Abby Wambach was a huge one. She was a huge Tiki fan, and really reached out, and we would message back and forth. Alyssa Milano comments on a ton of my stuff. Rosie O’Donnell. Sarah Paulson — that’s a new one. All these people are just the kindest, the most supportive. They love rescue animals. It’s been pretty surreal.
I’ve learned so much from your account, like when you had Biggs, who was a poorly bred Frenchie. How and when do you decide to speak educationally?
My approach in creating content is always to serve a purpose, and to also open a conversation that is mostly free of judgment. I just posted something the other day being very publicly, anti- this administration and anti-ICE, but….
We’ll get to it!
As far as animals, I try to go into conversations with as little judgment as possible, because I don’t think judgment gets us anywhere. A lack of education is why we’re in this animal welfare crisis to begin with. People don’t know any better. People don’t know about puppy mills. People don’t know that their French Bulldog with a shortened snout and what they call a rope over their nose is not ethical and is really inhumane, actually.
I need facts; I need people who are experts; I need articles; I need science-backed information, and that is what I like to put out into the world. And I think it is much more impactful for people to see information in that form than to feel like somebody is attacking them for a choice that they made. And if they did buy a poorly bred French Bulldog, maybe they could reconsider doing it again in the future, or advising their friends not to do it.
Courtesy of Isabel Klee
I have two rescue dogs, and one of them is a Pomchi, and he was clearly bred and bought and then was neglected and mistreated. It’s such an epidemic.
Yeah, people who want a dog fast will go to a breeder who will get them a dog fast. But then they’re not prepared for the repercussions of said dogs. It’s bad. I mean, it’s a systematic issue. There needs to be crackdowns on breeders. It’s way too easy to be a breeder. There’s no criminal offense to it — I could talk about it all day. It’s awful.
You also really educated me on kill shelters versus no-kill shelters. Can explain the background of that terminology?
This is something I’m very passionate about. In the rescue space, I think it’s changing, and people are starting to understand it better. But for a long time, people would look down on what they call “kill shelters” and only support no-kill shelters. In reality, this is completely backwards and not productive and actually really damaging to animals that are in shelters. Because what they are deeming as “kill shelters” are actually open intake municipal shelters.
Take the Animal Care Centers in New York City, for example. The ACC is New York City’s shelter. So any dog that comes in from a criminal case, from the streets, found as a stray — no matter what the situation is, the ACC has to take that animal. They love telling the story about the 700-pound tiger that they had to rescue from Harlem. At one point I went there, and they had 200 chickens in their backyard. They have to take any animal that shows up at their doorstep. So then there’s the question of, OK, say, one month they get 2,000 animals, which happens, and they only have room for 500 animals. Where do those other animals go? They do a great job of partnering with rescues — like Muddy Paws Rescue, who I foster with — to pull dogs into rescue, to pull dogs into foster homes. But they can only do so much, right? They only have X amount of shelters, they only have X amount of foster homes.
People think that they’re just killing dogs left and right. It’s not as common as people think. But some dogs do end up having to be euthanized. A no-kill shelter is a closed intake shelter that can go into ACC and say, “I want this dog, this dog and this dog,” and they can stay for as long as it takes for them to get adopted, because they don’t have to take in any more dogs. They have seven kennels, and they can fill seven kennels, and when one dog gets adopted, they get a new one.
So it’s all backwards. It’s all marketing. And in reality, the kill shelters are the ones that actually need the most help. It drives me crazy when people are like, “Well, I don’t want to support the ACC, because it’s a kill shelter.” I’m like, “They’re killing the dogs because you’re not supporting them!” It’s a very backwards way of thinking.
With the ICE nightmare in Minneapolis, you came out — as many creators have — against what the Trump administration is doing there, tying it to animal rights and saying that to turn away is “irresponsible and incredibly privileged.” You then interviewed a federal immigration expert. What went into that?
It’s never been a secret how I feel about the current administration. I would repost a lot of things, I’d reshare a lot of things — I always want there to be facts to back it up. I want real, concrete information to be shared. I have a large platform at this point, and I feel like it’s my responsibility to actually educate people. I am not an expert on immigration law. I know how I feel about it, but this woman who’s amazing reached out to me, and said, “Hi, I am a federal immigration lawyer. I’m more than happy to lend my voice.” And I thought it was the perfect way to get that information across, because it is so intrinsically linked, animal welfare and human welfare. I really wanted it to be direct and concise. So that was my goal with that.
I am planning more on Minneapolis and ICE. But I that was my first real video about that specifically. And I thought it went as well as it could have.
Did you lose followers?
I definitely did. But I think I also gained a lot. So there was not a significant loss.
I follow this one woman who’s a farmer and a creator, and she said that the followers she lost made her feel so much safer on her own social media. Because she said, I can’t believe all of these people who I consider to be reprehensible were following me. Get out of here!
Yeah! And if somebody is open to having their mind changed or having a conversation, that is best-case scenario for me. Again, I’m not trying to completely alienate people, because on the flip side, I have had a lot of people be like, “I found your page and you’ve completely changed my mind about fostering. You’ve completely changed my mind about kill shelters. You’ve completely changed my mind about X, Y and Z.” So I’m like, maybe I can change somebody’s mind about this? I’m not trying to get on here and be like, “You’re all a bunch of idiots.”
But if somebody sees my opinion and says, “I’m unfollowing you,” that’s fine by me. I can’t do anything about that.
Your book is coming out at the end of April. How are you gearing up for that?
Yes, my book comes out April 28 — we have just locked in a tour. I think it’s, like, seven cities. Like I said, I was just a college student studying who loved books and loved writing, and never in a million years thought that this could be my life, and the fact that I get to write and tell stories, and specifically tell stories about dogs, is my dream come true. These events where I’m doing readings where I’m meeting people — I’ve never really done that before. Sometimes I’ll see people on the street who will come up to me, but I think it’ll just be a very special experience to share that with everybody.
You’re getting married soon. Will any of your past fosters be at the wedding?
I posted the other day that a bunch of my fosters were on our save the dates. Our dog Simon will, of course, be there. And we’re getting married at a sleepaway camp, and it’s dog friendly, so everybody can bring their dogs for the whole weekend, and swim in the lake and all that stuff. But I don’t know if my foster dogs will physically be there.
Well, maybe they’ll send you video messages.
Oh, that would be so great!
They should! You’ve posted about Simon’s health challenges recently. How’s he doing?
He’s doing good! He’s adjusting to his new meds. His liver values have gone down, which is great, but now we’re just trying to adjust his meds so that his liver is in control and his seizures are in control, and we haven’t quite struck the balance yet. I mean, he has a ton of energy. He just has a seizure every two weeks or so, which is obviously not fun. But at this point, unfortunately, we’re used to it. But in general, he’s doing great.
This interview has been edited and condensed.