The recent Covid social distancing guidelines negatively affected many people. But it also impacted pets who were used to playing with their besties on the regular. Such as this dejected bulldog who was sad because he couldn’t go play with the neighborhood kids.
Big Poppa took the lockdowns hard and missed playing with the kids in the neighborhood. So much so that he’d sit on the patio looking about as forlorn as a sad pup could get. One day, his mom took this picture, which summed up exactly how the pup was feeling.
User, Rae Elle, then decided to share the picture on Twitter. At the time, she had no idea that the image would go viral, but it did. Which made Big Poppa an overnight celebrity. The caption of the image said:
"Big Poppa has been sad today. I think he misses playing with the kids in the building. He just watches them from the patio.”
Normally, Big Poppa’s pictures get a couple of likes but when Rashida Ellis woke up the next morning, Big Poppa’s sad picture received over 30,000 likes. Then the likes exploded to over a million!
Big Poppa now has new online canine friends who are trying to cheer him up and share how they are coping with the pandemic. Such as Bailey, owned by user Tile Thrower, who shared a picture and this sweet post:
“Bailey says, “Hi friend – I’ve been coping by taking extra naps and extra cuddles.”
The response to the image is all the good things social media can be to help build community. It seemed everyone wanted to send their love to Big Poppa to help cheer him and his mom up. The reward for all this? Twitter temporarily suspended Rashida’s account thinking she must be violating community standards because the account suddenly became so popular. But once Twitter got the real story, they reinstated it so it could continue spreading smiles.
Big Poppa is now recognized as he strolls the neighborhood as gets his daily exercise. Even though he has a sad face, the pup is spreading cheer everywhere he goes and in his new online community.
His mom is awesome and happy to share Big Poppa with all of us who can use some cheering up. Her smile lights up the room as she shares the story about how Big Poppa is helping bring happiness to people.
We hope you enjoyed this uplifting story. As always, please share it with your friends.
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