ROSSFORD — Alexis Waclawski and her dog have been in for some surprising awakenings lately.
Ms. Waclawski, a 20-year-old Rossford resident, filmed her dog snoring last week hoping to capture the way he was practically smiling as he slept. Instead, Moose — a mixed breed dog — comically jolted awake at the end of her clip.
His own snoring woke him up and I cannot stop laughing pic.twitter.com/wBV4rELESw
— lex (@axwaclawski) March 16, 2018
Hoping to make a few friends laugh, Ms. Waclawski shared it on her social media platforms. She said her tweets usually get 20 likes and maybe a retweet or two, but by the time she woke up Saturday, it reached 300 likes.
On Sunday, it reached 75,000 and had a million views.
“I guess it’s relatable, because a lot of people wake up in their sleep or wake up like that when their alarm goes off,” Ms. Waclawski said. “Everybody loves dogs, so that obviously helped it too.”
The attention online has been overwhelming, so much so that Twitter freezes on Ms. Waclawski’s phone and she’s had to turn off her notifications. People from across the world are posting about the snoring dog, even captioning it in languages entirely foreign to Ms. Waclawski. It’s resulted in plenty of memes and funny responses, including one of her friends who compared Ms. Waclawski’s status as a “mom manager” to Kris Jenner, who manages the Kardashian family as their mother.
Momagers of the Year❤️ @axwaclawski pic.twitter.com/TjCPhZuigO
— sum🖤 (@summer_lovin696) March 18, 2018
Ms. Waclawski had to step away Monday night just to escape the messages from people offering her money for the video.
“That’s usually an escape for people my age, just to go watch a funny video or something,” Ms. Waclawski said. “I can’t keep track with everything. I tried to at first, but now I’m just kind of blowing some of them off I guess. I feel bad, but I don’t need to promote it more.”
Moose isn’t just an internet sensation — he’s a part of Ms. Waclawski’s family. She rescued him last summer from a nearby humane society, and Moose is registered as an emotional support animal to aid her with anxiety and depression. She and her entire family attended six weeks of training for Moose, and now they make “a really good team.”
“You don’t always get the dog you wanted, you get the dog you needed,” said Carol Humberger, a dog trainer at Oregon’s A Promised Friend. “They’re in a really good relationship. I think [the classes] really built Alexis’s confidence, and what a difference it can make in a dog’s life too.”
Because he’s a rescue animal, Ms. Waclawski isn’t too sure of Moose’s history other than that he’s likely 2 years old. She also said he’s a lazy dog, so catching him sleeping wasn’t particularly surprising.
Even bigger than the viral video, though, Ms. Waclawski hopes this newfound platform leads to increased conversation around mental health issues. She believes it’s a taboo subject — she’s heard it said that people who struggle with anxiety and depression is comparable to the amount of people who wear glasses. The problem is that we can’t see them as easily.
She’s also reminded those who ask that her dog wasn’t particularly expensive and shelters are full of dogs that can help with issues just like Moose.
“He makes me smile all the time, that’s why I got him in the first place,” Ms. Waclawski said. “Now I guess he’s making literally millions of other people smile too.”
Contact Jimmy Miller at jmiller@theblade.com, 419-724-6050, or on Twitter @miller_jimmy.
First Published March 21, 2018, 12:03 a.m.
