Ian Somerhalder’s baby girl is following in his footsteps.
In honor of National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day on Aug. 22 and his partnership with Royal Canin, the 39-year-old actor chatted exclusively with Access about sharing his love and passion for animals with 1-year-old daughter Bodhi.
Ian and wife Nikki Reed are raising their little girl surrounded by a total of nine pets at the moment, including dogs, cats and horses. But “The Vampire Diares” star admitted he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I was just sitting with her on the floor having a cup of coffee and watching the interaction between the cats and her,” Ian said. “Our little young kitty is just in love with my daughter, and my daughter is the same—just so in love with her kitties.”
He continued, “Three of the biggest things in the world that can heal so much are things you can’t teach, but things you can show, which are reverence, gratitude and compassion. When you expose young children, or adults for that matter, to animals, you are shown through your interaction compassion, gratitude and reverence.”
“It informs who you will become as a person. So, I love watching my daughter grow up with all these incredible animals that we have. They will shape her life and inform who she becomes. I can’t wait to see it all.”
Ian’s immense love for animals also began when he was a child. As a toddler growing up in Louisiana, he would crawl into his dog Lady’s house and cuddle up with her puppies.
“I remember how warm and amazing it was,” he recalled. “I was a tiny baby—I’m talking like two years old. I would crawl in there and have eight or 10 puppies to curl up with and [Lady] used to lick me and comb me like I was one of them. It was that immersion.”
He added, “My grandparents also had a farm with dogs, cats, chickens, goats, pigs, horses and cows, so I was just surrounded with them, always. So much so, that I wanted to become a veterinarian very badly when I was young.”
Now with a baby girl and nine pets of his own, Ian admitted his house can be overwhelming at times. But for him, that’s just life. “It is a choice for sure, but what’s the alternative? To not have these just incredible, amazing kiddos running around the house?” he said. “It’s just an ecosystem. It’s a full little environment with all of these babies. I cannot imagine it any other way.”
“It is, I will say, a lot. Not every household would be able to or want to manage that many, but it’s also two people coming together. Once Nikki and I got together, she had three dogs already and I had a dog and two cats and then we ended up getting three horses together and all of a sudden you’ve got 10 animals.”
The couple, who has always connected over a shared passion for helping and saving animals, often travel around with their fur babies.
“Our lives are enriched as a result of the animals we have, particularly our kitties and dogs, because they actually travel with me everywhere. It’s a little harder to bring the horses around! But we are a traveling circus.”
Check out more on National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day here.
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