Americans are finding creative and humorous ways to pass the time while in coronavirus lockdown. A woman named Nancie Wight has been entertaining Facebook users with videos of her dog Pluto giving advice about surviving through it all. Here’s Pluto:
Pluto has received over 1 million views on Facebook, and NPR’s Deborah Amos discussed the dog’s popularity with Wight, writing (abridged):
Pluto and her human, Nancie Wight, have been churning out viral videos with advice on hair trims, how to do without toilet paper, how to find snacks and how to stay cheery at home.
The dog looks straight into the camera and her mouth seems to move (with the help of a video program) and a high voice appears to come out of it.
Wight created the Facebook page, PlutoLiving, for her friends, who urged her to offer it to a wider audience. She hit the public button last week.
“I did not expect that by the end of the second day we would have a million views and now it’s over 4 million,” she says from Montreal. Pluto.living has a growing following on Instagram, too.
Wight says she’s grateful she can provide comic relief. She is overwhelmed by the messages.
“We get the watery eyes, as Pluto likes to say,” she says.
Wight is a wildlife photographer, but an earlier calling may be the key to her success. “I was a stand-up comic way back when I was able to stay up late enough for The Late Show,” she says.
The Facebook page is now followed around the globe. Wight has gotten messages from Australia, Tasmania, Bolivia and Spain. Pluto, unaware of her fame, spends her off-camera time sniffing stuff around the house, but is wise beyond her years, says Wight.
“She talks about putting on the button pants because if you’re wearing stretchy pants every day, your waist perception is going to be a little bit altered,” she says.
Practical advice from the four-legged to the two-legged, which is the way Pluto divides the population, and thanks her followers for keeping cats out of any messages.
The plan, says Wight, “is just to stay the course with people. And if we can help. That’s what we’re going do.”
P.S. In the Age of Coronavirus: a Homemade Throat Sanitizer.
P.P.S. If you can’t find hand-sanitizer, you can make your own.
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