We’re about a year out now from when we found out about COVID-19 and started learning how to live in a pandemic. What we know about the past year is that many pets were adopted, many of them by people who were “just waiting for the right time” and who jumped at the chance to take advantage of their expanded hours at home to add an animal companion to their lives.
How’s that working out for you, if you adopted a pet in the last year? I asked friends on social media to tell us about their pandemic pet experiences, and I heard from many—not only adopters of puppies or kittens, but also folks who brought home some more unusual pets . . . like rats!
Mark Cee (Washington) How about a Plague Rat? Reepicheep was a feeder rat (snake food). She looked really out of place in the cage and, once we made eye contact, there was no turning back.
Reepicheep was the only female in the cage. She had rex (curly) fur, and she was very friendly. How did she end up with the feeder rats? I asked the staff what the difference is between their feeder rats and “pet quality” rats, and they told me it was based on socialization. (More on this later.)
I snatched her up and brought her home. Funnily enough, she had to quarantine from the other rats for eight weeks to make sure she wasn’t pregnant. In the summer, all five rats got a trip to the vet because SOMEONE (ahem, Reepi) had brought lice home from the pet store.
I’m really glad I got her. I lost all my other rats between October 1 and January 20, so Reepi is now my only rodent. I really lucked out. When I was thinking of getting companions for her, I went back and looked at their “pet quality” rats. They told me the rats were very skittish because the staff didn’t have time to handle and socialize them. I don’t know how this friendly little girl ended up in a feeder cage full of males. Sometimes, I wonder if she just got lost or put in there by mistake, because there is no way this sweet creature was meant to be snake food. And, in case folks are don’t know, she’s named after the talking warrior mouse from Chronicles of Narnia.
Photo by Mark Cee
Glenda Lee (Maine) Daisy came home with us at the end of January 2020. At that point, there really weren’t any guidelines. We went to the house. We met both parents and decided to bring her home. Supposedly, it was an “oops” litter. She’s a crazy mix of Lab, pit, and Pyrenees. Within a couple of weeks, the corona crap hit the fan and vets were seeing only emergency cases. As far as I know, the vet we use is still curbside only. I had never “sent a dog in to the vet,” so it was stressful. Dixie wasn’t thrilled that she had to go in alone for the first visit, but Daisy went willingly the first time. After that, she was very reluctant. After all, she was going with strangers into a strange place and getting stuck with needles. The vet found this unacceptable and lectured that she was “too needy and too frightened.” She was still a baby! Not looking forward to having to repeat vaccines soon.
Yes, she did lack socialization, but we took her everywhere we went. She went for walks. We did car rides. We did drive-throughs or carry-out and walks on the beach. Eventually, we did take her into stores. She is a bit uncomfortable around strangers but in no way aggressive. She is happier staying at my side and watching “big sis” make new friends. Once she feels safe, she too is happy to make new friends.
Daisy is 16 months now and a good dog. A little excitable, but that could just be the Lab genes. I’d like her to be a little more open to other people and dogs, but that might just be who she is. She has a circle of people she knows and trusts and a small circle of good buddies. Those she’s great with.
Some folks seem to think people saying their dogs were “COVID pups” is an excuse for being poor owners. I feel bad enough already that Daisy didn’t have as varied a puppyhood as most of my pups have had in the past.
Laurie Schlossnagle (Utah): My experience with a new pet adopted during this pandemic year has had a very different to-do list than I used with previous puppies. I adopted a greater Swiss mountain dog puppy from a breeder. No difference on the adoption process (handled under pandemic safety protocols). Vet visits with the new pup, though, were completely different. I changed vets with this puppy and I’ve seen the inside of the clinic only once, when I went in the fall with my more fearful older dog.
“What surprises have you had with your new pet?” She’s my most social dog! I’ve taken classes online and worked with a trainer. Other sources of help and advice? Follow my gut. It is completely possible to have a great puppy even with COVID.
Sarah Adams (Oregon) I bred a litter and kept a puppy. I wasn’t able to have as many socialization experiences for the puppies as I usually would, but I took the litter to hang out in an exercise pen outside the local brewpub so they could get petted by people coming and going. A friend also met us at the puppies’ eye-exam appointment and brought a bunch of people to cuddle them, and that helped. The breed is naturally social, so just getting to see that other humans exist was adequate.
Sending the litter for their vet exam/vaccines and for their eye exams was tough, because I couldn’t go in with them, but I made sure they had microchips and collars to ID them, and it went okay.
My keeper puppy is benefitting from the fact that I can bring a dog to work, so he’s been going to the office with me, now that he’s the only one. He gets to meet lots of people and other employees’ dogs.
He’s going to be a couple of weeks late for his second vaccine, though, because I didn’t remember to call for an appointment early enough, and vets are all so booked.
Trudy Meakin Rogers (Washington) I foster kittens for a local animal shelter. I had six one-day-old bottle babies. When it came time for adoption, it became very difficult. I would bring the kittens out to the prospective adopters’ cars. SCRAPS is part of the county, so I had to follow each COVID rule. It was not possible to schedule time slots for adoptions for the quantity of animals needing homes, so putting them at the shelter was not a choice. Of those six kittens, I never did have an adopter for the two tabbies. This spring, my daughter is going to welcome ten-month-old Squeaks and Buttons to her home in Ohio.
Photo by Trudy Meakin Rogers
Shallan Knowles (Washington) It’s crazy that it has been almost a year since we adopted our rat terrier mix Fernie. Just as things were starting to shut down, my husband Derrick blurted out one morning that we should get a dog. It’s not something we had been planning on, but we knew that adding a loving dog to our family of three would be an emotional boost for all of us during those scary times at the beginning of the pandemic. We had pulled our kiddo out of school and were preparing for a spring and possible summer of intense togetherness. The thought of a dog for our son to play with and a reason to get out for walks sounded like a good idea.
I spent a week immersed in the online dog adoption sites—Petfinder, Herd-you-need-a-home, and others—looking for an Aussie mix. As things were starting to shut down, I booked an appointment at Petsmart on the north side and showed up early to get in and get first choice. There were only a handful of dogs at the shelter when we (Derrick and our five-year-old son Remington) arrived. We walked by the row of big barking dogs until we got to the last one. A little smaller than the others (about 40 pounds), Fernie wasn’t barking like the others when we walked up to her. She was hopping up and down excitedly with what looked like a smile on her face and, when we knelt down at her level, she rolled into the side of the cage so we could pet her. We spent just a few minutes before filling out the paperwork and taking her home. We had found the perfect pandemic pup!
Adopting Fernie helped us keep our spirits up as our family business immediately began to suffer from the pandemic shutdown. We own Out There Outdoors magazine and most of our advertisers were also struggling and began pulling their ads. Fortunately, we were early adopters of mask-wearing and, in our search to find comfortable, high-quality local masks (which was impossible at that time), I teamed up with my seamstress mother-in-law to start making our own stylish masks that we began providing to friends and family. Within a few weeks, we launched Spokane Masks and began selling our masks all over the Northwest and beyond, which has been an economic lifesaver for our family.
Through all of the tough times and uncertainty and hard work of this past year, our Fernie dog has been there with a wagging tail, a smile on her face, and endless love. She even snuggles while we work!
Photo by Shallan Knowles
