Dear Ernie and Jaxon and family,
In reaction to your Post “Yellow Tape, Chains, and Panic” I wanted to get in touch and let you know a bit about the situation of your friends in Germany. Here, there are currently 120.000 people infected, we have been under lock-down for 3 weeks and the social distancing slowed down the spreading enough that some politicians are talking about loosening the restrictions. In our house, we don’t appreciate the idea much, because one of our human has had a stroke last year and we are worried that he might be affected by the virus severely once he catches it. Our other human has to go to work on some days and it’s frightening enough to think about what she brings home, even though she is taking precautions to minimize the risk.
My Jack-Russell-Sister Klara and I try to keep our humans’ outlook positive by supporting them in every way we can: Helping them on home office days by soothingly snoring beside (or sometimes on) the keyboard, leading them on on long walks in the woods, or doing our exercises indoors or in the garden.
Being in touch with our dog friends helps a lot: We are staying in touch with Instagram friends around the world and I am currently doing online courses with two different dog schools. We all are sharing our exercises videos and it’s very encouraging to see the creative ideas everybody comes up with. The videoing thing, weirdly, seems to bring us closer together, because we can take a look in each other’s homes, see each other in our not-so-perfect-home-outfits and generally glimpse much more of our human (and canine, of course) side. Everybody is more emotional, too: a little bit scared, a little bit insecure, and this, too, makes them more accessible and willing to share and care.
I enjoy hearing and reading about people that help each other through this by shopping for each other, putting food and drink besides motorways near (closed) borders for people stuck in the jam and (most important of all) taking the dogs of elderly neighbors for a walk. In Germany, soldiers are helping out in nursing homes, where the regular staff are sick or exhausted, by sorting sheets, handing out meals and just generally “being there for the residents”, as one tank commander put it.
This might be one of the better outcomes of this crisis: That new ways of doing things are figured out, not only medically or technically, but also on a societal level. Soldiers helping out in nursing homes, car manufacturers producing ventilator parts, people using delivery services of local shops instead of buying from giant online platforms. Everybody is getting more tech savvy (never have so many grandparents been using Skype!) and teaching methods are getting more creative (at our human’s university online teaching has been possible for a decade or more, but it’s only now rocketing skywards).
Staying connected with friendly, funny, creative and helpful dogs and people will make all this endurable. So, keep blogging, Ernie, stay healthy and in touch! Your fans and friends need you!
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