Photograph by Whitney Curtis
Kelly Jackson left her job as an anchor at KSDK-TV to anchor morning news in Sacramento, Calif. Once she settled in, she started to notice signs that her beloved Shih Tzu, Meeko, was aging. She used every reporter’s trick to research his issues, but found precious few resources. Then her mother died, and grief focused her dreams.
“I’m a woman in my forties, getting up at 2:30 every morning, barely staying awake throughout the day,” she thought. “Who am I doing this for?” She moved back to St. Louis, working part-time at KSDK while she built herself a business that felt purposeful and meaningful: aarff.com. She filmed interviews with experts on older dogs and suggested helpful products (softer chews, louder squeakers, warmed beds). She even shot a “reality show” of Meeko trying to lose weight (she had to catch him when he stopped trudging and slid backward off the treadmill).
Now, Jackson’s added My BFF Network (mybffnetwork.com), which offers dog-walking, dog-sitting, and customized services like taking a senior’s dog to the vet or lugging home heavy dog food. Its main purpose is to find ways for slower, gentler senior dogs to visit slower, gentler senior humans. For both species, fading vision and hearing loss make it tempting to withdraw from interaction just when they need it most. So Jackson rounded up sweet, quiet, lovable senior dogs who were being fostered for adoption by the St. Louis Senior Dog Project, like Sophie, a 10-year-old golden retriever. Like the people she visits, Sophie doesn’t have her own home and relies on the kindness of strangers. Other volunteers are home alone every day, lonely and bored—like Scout, a tirelessly and indiscriminately affectionate miniature schnauzer who fills with a trembling happiness when she gets to sit on laps all afternoon.
“Even one hour a week makes such a difference,” Jackson says—speaking of the humans, although her program’s brilliance is its mutuality. “This could be the only visit they get that’s just for them.” Maybe someone’s lost everyone she loved and now gets hugged only by strangers who are paid to care for her. A dog’s overtures will be just the opposite: eager and unconditional, with no clinical purpose—yet immensely healing.
