How are dogs handling the pandemic

August 21, 2020 6:23 PM

The Washington Post collected anecdotes on pets in the age of the coronavirus. There have been anecdotes and threads, but the Washington Post collected tales of how readers' pets were coping with changes caused by the pandemic.

The changes include social distancing and human's increased time at home. The American Veterinary Medical Association has some tips on helping pets cope with that.
Science looked at the risk of pets becoming ill.
Previously

posted by Arctan (37 comments total)

okay here's what we do we replace the entire Internet with pages that are just pictures and videos of dogs, plus short funny little anecdotes about how those dogs are doing. this article is the only good pure thing in the world.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 6:30 PM on August 21, 2020 [17 favorites]

This post was very doggist, but that's probably for the best, because your cats are just using the close proximity to better plan your eventual murder.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:50 PM on August 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

Bunnister Crowley, Metafilter's Unofficial Rabbit (tm), has been loving Covid Times. We are so scatterbrained that he can con us into giving him not just second breakfast, but in an amazing stroke of guide, third breakfast. For us humans, time has lost all meaning, so when we see a rabbit banging his empty dish around, we think "Oh! Bunnister has not been fed!" and get him some lettuces, parsleys, and kales. He managed his third breakfast one day by turning his food dish over the remaining scraps of what turned out to be his second breakfast.

He gets more time out of the cage with us home, so hopefully he will bink off the extra ounces.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:52 PM on August 21, 2020 [31 favorites]

robocop_is_bleeding—my lovely cat has gotten more than one second dinner since all this started. My memory is frazzled and it’s just easier to go ahead and feed her if I’m not sure...
Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done without her these past few months. Pets are just the best.
posted by bookmammal at 7:07 PM on August 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

"If you had a dog, you'd let him sleep in the house."

-Mr.Ed.
posted by clavdivs at 7:12 PM on August 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

My doggo Luce has been enjoying having us home all the time. She's recently turned 12 and suddenly my puppy is an Old Girl. One perk of all this is that I get to spend so much time with her.
posted by Gray Duck at 7:32 PM on August 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

We own 2 greyhounds. The younger was adopted in April once we knew we'd have work-from-home to afford us the extra time to welcome him in.

We do structured crate time from 9ish to 1ish 7 days a week, and we play video games on our PCs, so I'm not sure the dogs really understand the difference between a work day and a weekend.

When we actually do have to leave the house for a full day, I'm sure they'll see a difference, but fingers crossed that the world's changed to understand that work-from-home is a new normal.
posted by explosion at 7:40 PM on August 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Our dogs have figured out that we will give in to any demand whenever my wife is on a zoom call. Dinner an hour-and-a-half early? Absolutely, just stop ruining mommy's meeting.
posted by anhedonic at 8:10 PM on August 21, 2020 [16 favorites]

My strawberries and tomatoes have never felt so loved. Yes, they are plants. But in my isolation, I tell myself that they are happy to see me.
posted by SPrintF at 8:17 PM on August 21, 2020 [17 favorites]

Difference between how dogs and cats view quarantine
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:25 PM on August 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

Beso, our chonky orange cat, has never been people oriented. He likes being in the room with us, but not laying next to or on us like our other two. He's also always been partial to our daughter, but mostly he lives in his own little world.

Since the quarantine, they've bonded a bit more. He's still far from a lap fungus, but she lets him into her room (it's usually a disaster, so we don't encourage it), and he hangs out on her bed as though it was built just for him.

I know it sounds like Typical Cat Stuff, but for him, it's a big step.
posted by MrGuilt at 9:11 PM on August 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

We got our first puppy back in June. Our other two we got after they were a bit older. Worse than infants, tbh...

EDIT: But, puppy
posted by Windopaene at 9:28 PM on August 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

My dogs reacted to quarantine by getting old. My 10 year old rescue chihuahua mutt came back from one night at a dog hotel, less than a week before lockdown, with a limp from arthritis in her knee. Luckily we were able to get her cheap knee surgery and she's not only lost weight but is happier and more energetic than she's be in a year or two. The 12 y.o. chihuahua waited till Rosie was home from surgery before manifesting neurological damage at the base of his spine as stumbling a bit and walking while he pees. This whole fucking quarantine I've just been coming to grips with my dogs dying while my industry disappeared, possibly forever, and I'm close to the end of my rope.
posted by Uncle at 9:48 PM on August 21, 2020 [18 favorites]

They've also been good dogs while we moved across the country and stayed with a much younger dog who was in heat and was confused as to why Buddy the 12 y.o. wouldn't get up on her.
posted by Uncle at 9:54 PM on August 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Our dogs love this humans around all the time thing, but have been very frustrated that my partner and I will not work in the same room. It’s very important that they monitor both of us at all times and we’re just making their lives more difficult by being a hallway apart. Early solutions included napping in the centrally located bathroom but it had limited success do to us unreasonably kicking them out throughout the day. Their new solution is to divide up the labor, one naps in the office and another at my feet, with the assurance if anything interesting happens the other will be notified.
posted by lepus at 9:56 PM on August 21, 2020 [16 favorites]

Our pup had nine or so teeth removed after a cleaning — during quarantine — which then required a 2 AM visit to a 24hr vet in the drug zone north of Seattle, when he ran into problems a week after. This lockdown has reminded us just how much we love him to bits and will do pretty much anything for him, within our power.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:05 PM on August 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

The Vet by the Oak Tree?

i have that story... Ended well so...
posted by Windopaene at 10:12 PM on August 21, 2020

Science looked at the risk of pets becoming ill

I always felt this was obvious, that dogs would be at greater risk from humans than the other way around. Dogs aren't flying around the world and clear-cutting natural habitats of bats and other intermediate vectors of disease.

Cats, maybe, probably, but definitely not dogs.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:16 PM on August 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

My old man cat had his first seizure at the beginning of March, right before lockdown started. He turned 16 last week. He's a giant pain in the neck and I love him to infinity and I keep working in super unergonomic positions just so I can hang out near him, because I know the clock is ticking. Of all the things I would change about the past 5 months, the amount of time I've gotten to spend with him isn't on the list.

He seems to be enjoying it too, or at least appreciating the constant stream of food being dropped during the first grader's 25 daily meals and snacks.
posted by Ann Telope at 10:25 PM on August 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

This whole fucking quarantine I've just been coming to grips with my dogs dying while my industry disappeared, possibly forever, and I'm close to the end of my rope.

So sorry to hear that, Uncle.
All the best to you and your dogs.
posted by M. at 10:33 PM on August 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

Between the total knee replacement I had earlier this year and the COVID lockdown that immediately followed, our wiggle ham has grown VERY fond of nap/cuddle time, but of course that can't happen without her sherpa blanket and the presence of her human. If she doesn't get that cuddle time in the afternoon, she'll scold me in her deflating squeak-toy voice until I capitulate at bedtime. Knead knead purr purr nurse flop wiggle wiggle, repeat until she passes out or saturates the whole blanket with drool.

Her older brothers are a bit clingier as well (and one has recently become obsessed with donuts, so truly he is my catson), but her devotion to naptime is heart melting.
posted by Vervain at 12:45 AM on August 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

This post was very doggist, but that's probably for the best, because your cats are just using the close proximity to better plan your eventual murder.

Early on in the pandemic my cat wet sneezed right into my face. It is not the first time an interaction with her led me to think "Oh well, I'm dead now" but the others all involved the more typical bleeding out route.
posted by srboisvert at 3:34 AM on August 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

I was hoping they'd included an anecdote I heard from the early days of the pandemic - a dog who developed weird pain in his butt and tail about a week or two after his family had been sent home to shelter in place. One consultation with the vet later, they realized that it was because during the first few days his humans were home, the little guy had been constantly and excitedly wagging his tail 24/7, and had literally sprained his tail.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:40 AM on August 22, 2020 [26 favorites]

Foggy Bun and Thea Bun reacted to quarantine by bonding more thoroughly than before. We’d been trying for a year, with varying success, since Foggy came to House Cupcakeninja. Now, with humans at home 24/7, they play happily and are out of their enclosure almost all of our waking hours, and they become very cross at the slightest suggestion that they might get less than the full freedoms that are their right.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:46 AM on August 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

We've been looking to adopt a dog for three past few months, but given that we're in an apartment and travel by train (or hope to again one of these days), we have to look for a smol doggo. And the small dogs up for adoption in the NYC area are being snatched up moments after the ads go up. We've gotten as close as second in line for a pup, but so far, no luck. My wife is allergic to cats in a major way, as is a good chunk of her family, so it has to be a dog.

If the portability issue wasn't there and we had more space, we could easily adopt a sweet pitty, (the shelters here are full of them), but no one makes dog miniaturization machinery.
posted by Hactar at 7:24 AM on August 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Our greyhounds seem to be adjusting pretty well to lockdown life. Big Frank is the new guy, adopted during quarantine when we realized being home all the time would make it easier to integrate a new pup with our household (we also have two cats.)

Frank was a return, apparently first adopted by a family with 2 small, rambunctious kids. He's huge - 90lbs - and relatively young and easily excitable. He kind of defies all the typical traits of greyhounds - he pushes his sister (and us) around with his weight, has a good amount of energy, pretty much is oblivious to behavior correction, and loves to roo/bark/growl. I can see why he didn't fit a family that thought it would be okay to put his bed in front of the kids' closet door so they had to walk over him (!!!). But it's fun to have a bit more life in the house and although he's a slow learner, we're working on training with him and he is such a love. The adoption group was super worried about him being very protective of his space because of the previous situation, but in fact he loves when we get down on the floor with him and cuddle and pet him. He's a big, derpy, lug of a greyhound; a funny contrast to our tiny, spritely, gentle Roxy.

The dogs love getting a (new to our routine) midday walk; I'm a little worried about what a return to the office looks like but honestly we're kind of hoping that even post pandemic we'll both have regular work from home days that we can alternate so someone is nearly always home. They do also like that the pandemic pushed us to furnish our backyard.

The cats are just the cats; I don't think our being home has impacted their routine at all. Although Milton reaaaally loves walking back and forth across the keyboard to demand pets - he'll push his face into your hands as you are trying to type/mouse which makes working a little difficult.

My partner and I have repeatedly talked about how I don't know how we would be getting through this without a house full of pets and all of the energy, laughs, and chaos they bring. I'm so grateful for them!
posted by misskaz at 7:29 AM on August 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

Sad lock down pet story. Start of March my 16 year old cat - Nimbus - stopped eating entirely and after a few weeks of intensive IV treatment, the next steps were to hospitalize her the week of March 22nd and see if that would help her recover. I was in Portland and Oregon was about to issue the stay at home orders, meaning I'd likely not be able to see her easily if at all at the hospital, so I opted to let her go peacefully with me present instead of by herself in a hospital.

The silver lining in all of this was that I was able to move up my relocation plans to Northern Ireland and have been here with my fiance for most of the summer. Her cat, Mia, is on my lap as I write this. Mia has grown accustomed to having two people to keep her company now and whenever we've had an errand or taken the day to go for a hike somewhere, she loudly demands make up attention whenever we get home. We've started thinking of her as the really annoying third roommate who is up at all hours making a racket, sleeps in, then comes bumbling into the kitchen as your enjoying your coffee and demanding to know whats for breakfast.
posted by mrzarquon at 7:48 AM on August 22, 2020 [5 favorites]

We had to put down our 13 year old Boxer right after the lockdown in March - the vets wouldn't even let people come in, they had to hand their pets off at the door - and the at-home services couldn't come in your home but we were lucky to find Angel Paws who agreed to let him go on our front porch. God this has been the longest, bleakest 5 months without him to hang with us - such a soul-crushing absence when we're home all the time and all we do is go for long walks and hikes w/o him.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 8:41 AM on August 22, 2020 [8 favorites]

The one cat who has changed during the pandemic is the young lady of the household, Lydia Gwilt. She's always been a lovebug, but has followed a a strict Rule: lap-sitting is only allowed if I'm at the computer. Anywhere else, and she comes over, spends a long time looking sadly at the available lap, and then sits down next to me. Because, um, Feline Reasons, I guess. However, during the pandemic, she has discovered two exciting new Rules: 1) if I lie down on the living room couch, then of course she can lie down on my stomach (she still can't sit on my lap on the couch, mind you); 2) if I lie down on the guest bed, then she can come over and do happy snuggling for thirty minutes on end (but not lie down on my stomach or sit on my lap). There is no doubt a future MA in animal behavior in store here about cats and the geospatial distribution of modes of affection.
posted by thomas j wise at 9:06 AM on August 22, 2020 [5 favorites]

Our dog is deeply confused by my lab/home split schedule. Some days Mom disappears for nine hours, some days she's home and available, and some days she's home but ignores me all day to stare at screens! What's a dog to do?
posted by Flannery Culp at 9:47 AM on August 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

My dog is probably quite happy about the pandemic. She gets to go outside more often during the workday now. The few months when dog parks were closed were pretty rough but they're back open now and we've also been doing some weekend hikes with her, which she loves.

During the workday she likes to lay down in the hallway between our two "office" rooms to keep an eye on both of us and make sure we don't get into any trouble (or secretly eat anything without her).
posted by randomnity at 10:38 AM on August 22, 2020

It's not impossible that quarantine saved my cat's life.

I was WFH most of the week even before COVID, but usually went into the office on Fridays. A few months ago, Owain started showing incredible, scary distress on a Friday, suddenly, out of nowhere. Cue a call to the vet down the block, a quick visit to them and a quicker visit to the emergency vet in town, to get his urethral blockage cleared. Stuff like that can apparently go south very quickly, and it would have been hours before I'd come home from work in normal times.

(He wound up getting PU surgery, starring in his own AskMe question, and is doing wonderfully and he is my best friend. My other cat remains unruffled and serene except for 90% of her waking hours when she's screaming at me to pet her, bless her.)
posted by kalimac at 11:25 AM on August 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

My cats are scarily good at helping me keep to a schedule. Breakfast time is SACRED. Work covers their four-hour midday nap, but if the People In The Laptop are talking to the housemonkey (my on-ear headset is not fun, so if I don't have to give input I just use the laptop speakers) one of them may wander in to give his Valuable Opinions. Sometimes the midday nap may even take place on the guestroom/office futon or chair.

The cat of the Valuable Opinions knows when the workday is over and will come bug me to do cat things. Post-work is time for cats to hang out with the housemonkey. They're agnostic about bedtime, but very serious about claiming their three-quarters of the bed.

They've been great and I am so grateful for them.
posted by humbug at 5:08 PM on August 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

I petted a dog today for the first time since March. A neighbourhood dog of long acquaintance: Harry, a quiet, graceful white whippet with a couple of light brown patches. Normally he shows a sighthound's affection by leaning on me, sometimes standing on my foot, but since March I've been keeping a necessary distance.

His owner told me that during quarantine Harry had been attacked by another dog, suffered a stroke and nearly died. Thankfully he's recovered well; his owner is very devoted. Today he was walking fine. I asked his owner if I could pet him: he said yes, and Harry very graciously allowed it. Greyhounds and whippets have the softest ears.
posted by Pallas Athena at 7:16 PM on August 22, 2020 [9 favorites]

My cats absolutely love having me home all the time. I used to have a heavy travel job and they haaaaaaated it, I would be randomly gone for days at a time and no way to explain when I would be back versus the sitter coming to see them.

Weirdly, it's fine for me to sit on the couch with my laptop and various art projects all day, but sitting on the yoga ball at the table with my laptop agitates Rembrandt, who comes and demands various things from me. He's also no better at letting me sleep through the night, since I think his nighttime anxiety is driven by his worsening medical condition.

For me I'm really glad to get the time with him, it would stress me out so much if I had to physically go to work and be away from him for most of every day. The other two also like having me home - I'm honestly fairly concerned that Magnus will have a rough time readjusting to me going to work, because I've been home for so much of his life. My old lady cat Zatanna is harder to read and more self-sufficient than the two boys, but she hangs out with me next to the laptop while I work pretty frequently, and flops next to me on the couch when I'm there.
posted by bile and syntax at 8:29 AM on August 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

Pallas Athena, you've reminded me of a dog I occasionally see on visits - someone at work has a big doofy labradoodle named Teddy who she brings to work sometimes. I met him sometime in April when I was in the rest room, in a stall with a door that didn't lock all that well, and suddenly Teddy nosed the door open a crack to grin at me. His mom apologized but I told her it was the first smile from a stranger I'd gotten since March.

I see Teddy about once every other week and he is ridiculously chill - he mostly just lays around her office at her feet. The most activity I've seen out of him since we met, I came over to say hello to him and he spent several seconds methodically licking a spot on my knee, and I'm still not sure what was up with that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:11 AM on August 24, 2020 [2 favorites]

I broke my self-imposed covid-19 protocols this morning to pet a falling over with friendliness 7 inch corgi pupper this morning before my run. If you can't stop and pet a corgi puppy what is the point of even living?
posted by srboisvert at 11:56 AM on August 24, 2020 [4 favorites]