We all had so many plans for this year, don’t we? But sadly, here we are, stuck inside our houses, away from everything that we like. It seems like nothing is going to get back to normal anytime sooner, and we will get insane in this quarantine.
Well, that’s life. It throws lemons when we are least ready for it. But it does not mean that we should sulk until things get better. Rather than waiting for things to get normal, we should start enjoying ourselves even at the worst.
And to give you a little motivation so you don’t rip each other’s head off, we at Hiptoro have brought a sweet story. The story is about Brian Stanley, a highly creative guy who has come up with a brilliant idea to keep his whole family and dogs busy.
Actually, Brian’s dog Ripley and Burger King, have a habit of staring at people through a hole in their fence. That’s when Brain decided to do something creative and fun with the cardboard that can entertain everyone. So, he put cardboard cutouts on the fence. And when his dogs poked their heads through the fence, those images came to life.
Dogs Burger and Ripley just love looking through this fence hole and spying on the neighborhood
Their owners decided to not miss the opportunity to make people smile and put up this custom-made, Jaws-themed poster around it
“The whole thing started last August when Burger was just a few months old and started digging under the fence so that he could look at people going by. To solve this, I cut a hole in the fence to act as a window for him. He immediately started using the window and stopped digging.”
“Fast forward to this March and the COVID shutdown. I found myself out of work and my son home from school. The two of us noticed an increase in foot and bike traffic on the street side of the fence. I came up with the idea to paint a dog-themed painting to frame the window, which would be brought to life when Burger stuck his head through the fence.”
We had talked with Brian to know how often does the looks out of the fence. He said “we have 2 dogs and both are sweethearts. Ripley, however, is more tentative. She is somewhat more of a barker towards anyone approaching the fence. She loves the attention but is more hesitant than Burger to embrace it. Burger, on the other hand, loves attention. The fence window I cut is the first place he goes when I let him outside. I’ve seen him just stand there with his head through the hole watching the world go by.”
Seeing how many smiles this brought to their neighbors during the pandemic, they started making more posters and changing them up! This one is inspired by Pacman
“Burger is the star of the show. The hole I cut in the fence is the first place he goes when I let him outside. Even if he and Ripley are running around in the yard, he keeps an ear out for anyone that goes by and will run over to the hole to look out at them.”
“Both are amazing dogs. Ripley is shyer while Burger is more outgoing. Burger is the classic knuckleheaded dog. He’s always happy, always smiling, and willing to please and make people happy.”
The Dog with the Bone Earring inspired by the famous Girl with the Pearl Earring
Brian further told us that “my son helped match colors, paint, and hang ‘The Bark’ which was our version of the famous ‘The Scream’ painting. In the beginning, we just thought it would brighten the day in the neighborhood and hopefully bring a few smiles to people’s faces. There was an immediate positive response to it. My son and I have no plans to stop putting up new paintings and have enough ideas to keep doing this for years.”
The more they did, the more positive feedback they got. This is called The Bark, a much cuter reimagination of The Scream
To know how neighbors are reacting to this whole thing, we asked Brian what his favorite reactions from the people are. He said “people in the neighborhood will stop and take pictures at the fence with the dogs. They will bring treats and give love to Burger who is usually the one with his head sticking through the hole. Both my wife and I have been stopped by walkers, runners, bikers, and people in their cars who they tell us how much they love what we are doing.”
Brian even told us which is the one poster that he likes the most. He said, “I love the Pacman piece we did and I also love ‘The Dog with the Bone Earring’ but for different reasons. Pacman because it’s not a 2d piece. We cut, painted, and attached individual pieces to it so that it had a more 3d look to it. “Bone Earring” because of how challenging it was to duplicate the original piece of artwork so people would recognize it”
Burger pretending to be a dinosaur. This piece is called Jurassic Bark
He even told us about how many other such creative posters he is thinking to make. “When the Uncle Sam piece was up on the fence I sat down and brainstormed ideas. Right now, we have enough ideas to keep this going until the spring of 2024. As we come up with more ideas, it extends how long we can keep this up. Basically, it will continue until my imagination runs out of ideas.”
“The quarantine has taken a heavy toll on our family. It was a struggle with me out of work. All of us have had to adjust to this new reality we find ourselves in. Like the rest of the world, we’ve had to make sacrifices. We will be stronger on the other side,” Brian further told us.
I want you for fetch, nearest backyard
“I hope that if our little art project gets more of an audience we can continue to make and post new pieces on our fence and also to feature adoptable animals on our social media pages like Instagram.”
Making of the Dog with the Bone Earring
Behind the scenes
Ripley and Burger
