A photo of a miserable-looking dog has been making the rounds on social media for representing the mood of many during lockdown.
Rashida Ellis lives in Atlanta, USA, with her three-year-old English bulldog, Pop, which she nicknames Big Poppa. After she took to Instagram and Twitter to share a picture of the pooch looking so very sorry for himself, the post quickly went viral.
"Big Poppa has been so sad today, I think he miss playing with the kids in the building. He just watches them from the patio," she wrote on Twitter. The 38-year-old then took to Instagram to upload the same picture, but captioned the post from the dog's perspective: "All I want to do is play with the kids in my building but due to Covid-19... I can't. I just watch them from the patio. Flatten The Curve please."
The post received over 650,000 likes on Twitter, and even garnered responses from the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams.
This dog played dead to avoid going home during a lockdown walk:"I will find a cure myself if it means seeing Big Poppa smile again. 14/10 [sic]," wrote one Twitter user, while another corroborated "Not to be dramatic but Big Poppa is the #1 reason we need to flatten the curve and I am 1000% ready to sacrifice my life to him [sic]."
"Stay inside. Flatten this curve. Do it for Big Poppa," added popular talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres.
Speaking to Buzzfeed News, Rashida said: "I think when people look at that photo, we can all relate right now. We can't do the things that we used to do, we can't hang out with our friends."
"I think it just happened to be this dog - and not only is he so sad and cute and you want everything to change for him, but you want everything to change for yourself, too, because we're all in this situation."
.jpg_DVgObs?tr=h-184)