My Little World: A Day in the Life of Jjong Jjong

Cindy Liu

Our fur baby who has changed our lives so utterly and beautifully that we can’t imagine a day without her:

Since adopting my dog a year ago, I’m constantly reminded of all that is dear and true: community is what will ultimately save and heal us. That animals show us unconditional love in ways we can all learn from. That everyone deserves safety and a home. It has been one of the most meaningful and rewarding experiences to watch my dog’s personality, confidence, and joy bloom every day.

Sharing this life with Jjong Jjong is a privilege we’ll never take for granted. Here’s to our furever family and endless park adventures, zoomies, stinky frito paws, terrorizing squirrels, stalking rat rocks, furiously licking pup cups until they disintegrate, frolicking with friends, and everything in between 🐕🐾🥺

Morning Walk

• Good morning! The second I walk outside I’m practically exploding with giddiness. So many smells I can hardly contain myself. Halal, my fellow comrades’ 💩, mommy’s socks, 🌿(;)), bacon egg ‘n’ cheese, hoomans commuting to work bringing all the scents from whence they came.
• Every day brings endless delights, like a mystery box of delicious sweets. My pawrents often say walking with me is like switching out normal glasses for 3D movie ones. The quotidian feels new, the commonplace feels exciting.
• Central Park is my favorite place in the city. My pawrents feel so fortunate to live in proximity to its idyllic meadows, lush trees, sweet-smelling air and uniquely diverse & luscious microbiome. And I am so fortunate to sniff all its bounty of olfactory delights! Squirrels (dead or alive, you’re mine 😈); water fountains; yummy picnic leftovers; freshly mown grass; stinky rolly dirt patches; rat holes (more on that later); chipmunk hideaways; pigeon creepies.

Breakfast

MEEAAATTTTT!!! YUMMY MEAT NOMNOMNOM COOKIE GET IN MY BELLY NOWWW I AM SO HUNGRY EVEN THO I GOBBLED UP COUNTLESS TREATS JUST MINUTES PRIOR

IF YOU DON’T FEED ME IMMEDIATELY I TURN INTO THIS

Morning/Afternoon Nap

mlem mlem I luv to smell treats and replay the scrumptious scents from my morning frolicking in my dreams. Sometimes I’ll run in place so fast that I kick myself awake (hehehehe)

Afternoon Walk

• I know we just walked this route yesterday…and the day before…and the day before that but I PROMISE it’s different this time!! It’s in the scents themselves, can’t you tell?? Everything from the takeout strewn on the ground that I sneakily scavenge (daddy always catches me tho…), the trails my friends leave for me to find, the weeds poking out from the grates that I love to greet with a lil’ sniff.
• My pawrents sometimes end our afternoon family walks with something called a “pup cup” which is quite literally the BEST thing I’ve ever ever ever smelled, it awakens something entirely feral within me. I yearn for it every walk and live for the hope of turning the corner where this magical fluffy scent resides. I make myself as cute as possible to manipulate them into giving me one, which isn’t hard at all since my pawrents are the weakest hoomans ever and crumple the second they see my face.

Dinner

MEEAAATTTTT!!! YUMMY MEAT NOMNOMNOM COOKIE GET IN MY BELLY NOWWW I AM SO HUNGRY IF YOU DONT FEED ME RIGHT AWAY I WILL CRASH OUTTTTT AND REPORT U TO THE ASPCA

Evening Walk

There’s only one thing that matters to me right now and that’s rats. Rats rats rats rats rats–my friends, foes, and most prized hunting possessions. And I mean that literally, because I get POSSESSED the second their delectable scent permeates my snout. This is what I was built for. I must find them and bring them home to my pawrents as a present. I passionately sniff all around the perimeter of my favorite place in the whole park, Rat Rock–think Pride Rock meets Ratatouille and x marks the spot.

Sleepytime/sweet dreams

When I’m ready to curl up for the night and burrow myself between my pawrents, I do a few mlem mlems and secrete my signature Frito smell. Thousands of years of evolution mean my paw’s microbiome bacteria is delicious and nutritious. My warmth in sleep generates more bacteria and signal to my friends that it’s safe to sleep here. Night night!

I recently read Jenny Odell’s marvelous Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock, and was struck by how much Odell’s idea of “gardening time” (where gardening itself is an act which contains infinite possibilities) applies to spending my days with Jjong Jjong.

Odell interrogates how we experience time through the meaning and value of presence–which is to say, life itself–and I have noticed that scent informs Jjong Jjong’s concept of time. Smells certainly hold memory and her sense of the past as well, but nowhere is there a stronger link than that between her embodiment of the present and her sense of smell. Indeed, they’re completely inextricable from each other, and by observing this, I am also reminded to drop into greater awareness of this astonishing miracle of presence, of being alive, of now.

I am fascinated by this literal alternative timeline my dog lives in. We might objectively be experiencing the same minutes on a clock, but for Jjong Jjong, each moment contains the universe. She may walk the same paths and go through the same routine every day, but she nevertheless seems completely enthralled each time, as if these were all day 1 encounters. The urgency of the present moment and the thrill of the future exist simultaneously, blossoming and converging until they are virtually indistinguishable, made tangible through a veritable perfume of scents and sensibility ;-)).

Both Odell’s work and witnessing Jjong Jjong go through life have recalibrated my view of mortality and seemingly mundane moments. If it is true that infinite possibilities constitute the entirety of being alive, of our precious time on this planet, then I choose to revel in this joy, to smother myself in ever more luscious scents in this garden of earthly delights.