‘Pet pics to reduce election anxiety’: Photos of rescued dog bring relief to netizens

May 5, 2022 - 6:48 PM
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Photo of Norkis, a rescued dog, from Redditor u/thehowsph (Reddit/u/thehowsph)

A Reddit user greeted a rescued furbaby a “happy birthday” on an online forum as a form of relief from election-related stress.

The user who also owned a Facebook blog called “The HOWS: Home of Well-loved Strays” posted photos of the stray dog named Norkis on r/Philippines on May 3.

“First birthday sa kanyang 2nd life ng rescue kong si Norkis (angel emoji) Wala lang, SKL (share ko lang) para maiba naman,” the Reddit user said.

The online user shared four photos on the post. They showed Norkis’ journey to recovery into an adorable, healthy dog.

The post was warmly received in the online community. So far, it got 3,742 upvotes.

It also garnered several Reddit “awards” from other members of the community. These include 10 “helpful awards,” 19 “wholesome awards” and nine “silver” awards.

In the discussion section, users were impressed by how the uploader nursed the dog into life.

“OMG what a transformation. Thank you for giving him a chance. Wishing him the best of life,” one Reddit user said.

Others also encouraged each other to post pet pictures after the elections as stress relief.

“More of this after ng election please,” one user said.

“After ng election, lahat tayo dapat mag post ng pet pictures,” another user suggested.

Amid the looming Election Day, on May 9, several Filipinos have expressed their struggles with growing anxiety and stress related to the results of the national and local polls.

Some private health clinics and organizations have previously posted tips online on how to cope with these sentiments.

READ: How to keep calm and carry on amid election anxiety, stress 

Meanwhile, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, research has shown that pets are also effective stress-relievers.

The medical website listed the following benefits of owning or taking care of pets to humans:

  1. Simply petting a dog reduces stress or lowers the stress hormone cortisol. An interaction between people and dogs increases oxytocin or the “feel-good hormone.”
  2. Pets help lower blood pressure.
  3. Pets also increase humans’ physical activities.
  4. Consequently, they boost people heart health.
  5. They help ease loneliness and depression.
  6. Some dogs help specific cases such as mobility issues of handicapped people.

READ: Pet therapy: How dogs, cats and horses help improve human wellbeing

Norkis’ international reach

Norkis’ birthday also became popular on other international forums.

The birthday greeting post on r/dogpictures with 830,000 members got 8,812 upvotes.

“1st Birthday of Norkis’ second life with us,” the Redditor said.

As the name suggests, the subreddit is dedicated to pictures of dogs.

Meanwhile, the post on the r/BeforeNAfterAdoption community with over 968,000 members garnered 4,521 upvotes.

“1st Birthday of Norkis with us after rescuing,” the user said.

The r/BeforeNAfterAdoption forum is a place where Redditors share their furbabies’ journey before-and-after adoption.

The HOWS, a Facebook blog and animal shelter, shared more photos of Norkis’ transformation.

Based on the photos, the people who take care of him found him on May 3, 2021.

“Happy 1st birthday with us – to our rescued dog, Norkis! (heart emoji) Look at him from the day we rescued him up to now. He is now a handsome guy, right?” the post reads.