Through a dog’s eyes, this last year of quarantine, decreased social events and work-from-home protocols seemed like the ideal situation. Rather than being locked away, when the world shut down in March of 2020, dogs finally had their day.
And while furry friends that were already a part of families had more time to spend at their feet, new dogs were adopted both from animal rescues and breeders in droves. Families fostering pets was on the rise as well. A response to the increased need for COVID-friendly companionship, the new relationships were only strengthened by adverse circumstances.
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“I fostered Bacchus (formerly Cassidy) in March 2020 from Companion Animal Alliance the day the state shut down due to COVID,” explains Sally Stiel, who officially adopted the pup a few weeks later. “I truly believe we found each other for a reason that day.”
Rifling through the submissions from this year’s Dog Days of Summer contest, the inRegister team found that countless families throughout the Capital City feel the same as Stiel. Azizza Darwish wrote of her poodle-schnauzer mix Lucy, “I adopted her during quarantine and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made.” If these dogs could talk, we think they would express the same feelings about their new owners.
Read on for the winners of inRegister‘s Dog Days of Summer contest here. And check out more of the submissions from this year here. This story originally appeared in inRegister‘s July 2021 edition.