How COVID-19 is impacting our dogs
Now that we are all social distancing and under “stay at home” orders we are spending more time with our fur-kids. While they may love it, there may be some adjustments we humans need to make when trying to work from home. I was reminded this morning of an extremely powerful short film I saw a while ago. It’s a Hungarian film directed by Zsófia Zsemberi called Gift.
Summary of Gift-SPOILERS AHEAD
I encourage you to take 5 minutes to watch the film. But if you just want to skip ahead here is the gist of it. The film starts with a small child being introduced to a new family. No explanation why circumstances brought her to this new family but all looked happy about it. As she is adjusting there are happy scenes of them all playing and going out for walks in the country. Then things changed. The little girl would get caught doing something wrong or breaking something. Tensions grew, tempers flared. As the father tried to work she would bring her toy up to him to play but he would get frustrated and shove her aside. Her behavior grew worse in response. Eventually the father and child, clutching her favorite toy, get in the car for a drive. After reaching a nice forested area the father throws the toy and the girl goes to get it.
Stop here if you don’t want to know the ending before watching it.
As she runs back with the toy, the car drives away. The camera follows the car as the father looks into the rearview mirror and we see what he sees. The child is actually a dog sitting in the road, favorite toy dropped to the ground, watching the car drive away.
Yeah, it’s a tear jerker but also a poignant reminder. We so easily forget that our pets don’t always have the same priorities we do. They don’t understand that human adult-ing is hard and stressful at times, especially now. The world as we know it is grinding to a halt to deal with something the likes of which we have only seen in movies. We have yet to understand the scope of the repercussions both in human lives and human finances that COVID-19 will have on the world.
So while you are stressed and trying to cope with these changes and your dog comes up with their favorite toy insisting you play, stop, give it a couple tugs or toss it playfully across the room. Give your dog a pet and some love. It will do you both some good!
Stay safe, stay calm, stay informed. And hug your dog, we all need it right now.
