Louboutina is learning to hug again.
The 6-year-old golden retriever became famous on Instagram for putting her paws around strangers in need of affection, but after a fire ravaged the dog’s home, leaving her and owner Cesar Fernandez-Chavez homeless, she stopped embracing others.
“She didn’t hug for many days,” Fernandez-Chavez, 46, tells The Post.
On Christmas Day, a fire ravaged the Chelsea building where Fernandez-Chavez and Louboutina lived. The pair was thankfully not home — they were out on one of their famous walks, giving dog embraces to needy New Yorkers — when the blaze struck. Their apartment and most of their belongings were destroyed.
‘She didn’t hug for many days.’
Louboutina and Fernandez-Chavez, a manager of translation services at Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital, have been staying in a temporary Midtown West studio, but the transition hasn’t been easy. After the fire, little Louboutina — who has nearly 200,000 Instagram followers — started barking and pacing. Worst of all, she quit hugging for well over a week.
Her behavior may be a symptom of anxiety, says dog-behavior expert Christina Shusterich, owner of NY Clever K9 in Queens.
“A very abrupt change to an entirely different type of environment would trigger a high degree of anxiety, compounded by the additional change in the owner’s now understandably distressed behavior,” Shusterich says.
Fernandez-Chavez says that Louboutina seems too traumatized to walk anywhere near their old apartment, something they used to do about three times a day, giving out hugs to loving fans along the way.
“She doesn’t want to walk by our old block,” says Fernandez-Chavez, noting that he’s similarly reluctant. “The image of Loubie’s toys floating in the [sprinkler] water still haunts me.”
Still, he believes love may be the best medicine: A couple days after the new year, Louboutina gave her first hug since the fire to a fan who recognized her and took a selfie.
“That was the first sign my Loubie was coming back,” Fernandez-Chavez says.
This week, he and Louboutina will start to look for a new home, so they can get back to their beloved routine. Fernandez-Chavez says he didn’t have renter’s insurance, but fans have donated more than $76,000 to a GoFundMe page for the pair to cover their losses.
He says the hugs of others — even when Louboutina didn’t have the emotional energy to return the embrace — have gotten them through this difficult time.
“She was putting a lot of positive energy into people on the streets of New York,” Fernandez-Chavez says. “And now that energy is coming back to us.”