Furry Tails: One Year Of Social Distancing With J.J.
By: KDKA-TV Digital Content Producer Heather Lang
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A higher power. A reason for everything. Fate.
Around this time two years ago, I got a puppy. I knew that I wanted to give a dog a home, but I hadn't done any life planning around it yet.
There they were though. A litter of puppies, rescued from the South and brought to Pittsburgh to find forever homes. Irresistible, adorable faces. My heart melted.
I decided, on a whim, that I just had to have one of those puppies. Oh my, did I get one! A little 14-pound girl pup who I named JJ, short for Jasmine Joy. She's a mixed breed, mostly brown fur with white markings on her chest and paws.
Oh, she was cute alright, too cute. I should have known!
I didn't even have to wait for that 14-pound puppy to turn into the 50-pound dog she is now for the mischief to start.
JJ, as it turns out, happens to be THE most rambunctious, crazy, stubborn, persistent and loud dog that ever existed.
But, you know what, thank goodness she is.
Yes, there were a lot of trials and tribulations that first year. No one though could have predicted what was to come in our second year together.
Thank goodness for JJ this past year. Because if it weren't for her, the weight of a historic, heinous pandemic likely would have crushed me alive.
A few short weeks before marking our first Gotcha Day last year, I started working from home. On another whim, that same day, I decided to start documenting these unprecedented, unpredictable days.
So our "Social Distancing Diary" was born on social media. A daily video or photo of JJ with some brief thoughts or some event that made the day special or even just ordinary.
When I first started and I began counting the days, I wondered how many there would be.
"This won't make it past much more than two weeks," I thought, naively, at the time.
Two weeks turned into a month, a month turned into the entire season of spring, spring turned to summer and so on and on and on.
Here we are. Social Distancing Diary Day 365. It almost seems surreal.
One year of a horrible pandemic. Families separated, friends kept apart, co-workers meeting through technology, empty store shelves.
A March time warp, wrapped up in 365 photos of JJ.
But it turns out that looking at an upside down world through JJ's eyes is perspective changing. Other animal lovers have also looked through this lens during the pandemic.
Think like your furry friend for a moment. Imagine getting to spend an entire year with the person who plays with you, takes you outside, provides you with food.
A year of them sleeping on your feet while you Zoom, lunch breaks with those begging eyes, squeaky toys strewn across your home office floor.
Think about all those times they made you laugh when you were stressed out.
Looking back at my diary, there's the day JJ napped next to the toilet paper. She knew that precious commodity needed a watchdog. That was on Day 3.
We also tried on her reindeer ears for Christmas in July on Day 130. She hates them, but we all got a laugh out of it.
There was also the #DisneyDogChallenge back in the summer. Pull up the big-eyed, long-lashed filter on Snapchat and suddenly your pet looks like they belong in a song-filled, animated feature film. Mark that day down for JJ as Social Distancing Diary Day 154.
I caught JJ stealing a pair of my Harry Potter socks back on Day 221. A daily occurrence I just happened to add on to my cellphone camera roll that day.
On Day 246, JJ made the couch into her own personal fort. She was quite cozy.
For as many good days, there were also days of overwhelming strain, worry, sadness and even anger.
For example, Day 196 marked the date of the first presidential debate of the contentious, to say the least, 2020 election. On that evening, JJ kept me company on the loveseat and we watched funny re-runs instead. Her mere presence, curled up and warm, a calming one.
On Day 329, we mourned JJ's best buddy, Oreo, who was lost too young to cancer. Still, when we walk passed his house, JJ looks up at the fence wanting to say hello - nose to nose.
There's been too many sleepy days to count, like Day 45; and then there has been hungry days. One of those is Day 290 when JJ wanted my New Year's Day pork dinner. Also, playful days, like 259, when JJ romped in the first significant snow fall of the season.
Throwback days and selfie days, the dog days of summer, cuddly days, and days when I couldn't get a photo of JJ at all because she was being camera shy.
Day after day after day of uncertainty, but there was always one constant. JJ. She was there through it all.
When I look back to this time two years ago, it all makes sense now. At the time of JJ's adoption and for a long time after, I thought long and hard about whether I made the right decision. Was I really ready for a new dog? Was my place and family right for her? Was I the right person for her?
When the world came crashing down nearly a year later, little did I know what a sustaining, comforting and steady force she would become.
JJ, through all her antics, kept me sane, kept me going. Our diary also kept me connected to a self-isolating outside world.
Local rescue Pet Search put it best.
That's her reason. Her higher purpose.
Whatever it was that brought her to me, somehow it knew that I would need her. More than she ever needed me. I would need a friend. I would need moments of laughter and fun. I would need her warm fur to cry into when my empathy kicked into overdrive or when times were especially difficult. I would need a cuddle buddy for all the times in between.
Knew that I would need unconditional love in a time of unbelievable challenges.
Thank goodness for JJ.
Social Distancing Diary Day 365: Thank you, JJ. You'll never know all that you've done for me, but thank you. Thank goodness for you!
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Stay tuned animal lovers for more Furry Tails! You can follow me on Twitter at @HeatherLang24
