“They bring so much joy to our lives,” Chanen Johnson tells PEOPLE
Juwan Johnson of the New Orleans Saints and his spouse Chanen Johnson got married in 2020
and didn’t wait long to have a dog.
According to Chanen, “We really jumped into the whole parenthood thing fast,” PEOPLE.
Fitzgerald and Hendrix, the couple’s dogs, were welcomed into the family in the months that
followed the nuptials. “It was incredible. It had a huge effect on our lives. 2020 was undoubtedly a
wild year.”
“They were literally emotional support,” she says. “They make our lives so much happier. Our
infant and the dogs get along great now that we have a little one. It’s the loveliest little family, and
they are the sweetest.”
J’adore Blessing Johnson, the couple’s first child, was welcomed in July after they originally met
while attending Penn State.
Hendrix, the parents’ first dog, is a French bulldog who they claim has a Napoleon complex.
“He’s small, but he tries to attack anything,” Juwan describes the dog, a companion recognised for
its side eye, to PEOPLE. “I was vacuuming the other day, and he was trying to chase the vacuum.”
“He thinks he’s big and buff, but he’s a tiny little dude,” Chanen says.
Fitzgerald is dog number two. The dog, which Juwan retrieved as a present for Chanen from a
Mississippi shelter, is believed to be a combination of a Chihuahua and terrier. The puppy, who
Juwan calls “very sweet,” has grown to be 60 pounds, greater than anticipated.
“His personality is the Chihuahua in him, for sure,” explains Chanen. “He thinks that he’s so little
and always wants to be cuddling.”
The pair became involved in pet adoption activities in New Orleans after adopting Fitzgerald.
“Getting Fitzgerald from the shelter literally made me sob because of the number of dogs that I saw
there, and I know that they’re getting overcrowded and just going through all that, so I can’t even
imagine having to deal with that, just being a little puppy,” Chanen shares.
The Johnsons are collaborating with Greater Good Charities and Hill’s Pet Nutrition to help collect
money for Shelter Bowl 2024, an event that benefits animals in need. Hill’s will contribute meals to
animal shelters and rescues nationwide during Shelter Bowl, which runs through February 11. Hill’s
and other partners will match every donation up to $30,000.
Even though Hendrix and Fitzgerald are “polar opposites in every way,” according to Chanen, they
like performing music together.
J’Adore, often known as Dori, has just lately begun attempting to pet Fitzgerald.
“Fitz is very attached to Dori, so they have their little moments, and he’ll come and lick her and play
with her,” Chanen explains.”He would just sit there and defend her at any costs when she was a
newborn. She continues, “And he wasn’t having it if someone came and walked by.”
According to Chanen, taking care of the two dogs helped them become parents.
“It’s really similar, to be honest,” she remarks. “We obtained both of our dogs as puppies, so there
are the early stages of life. With dogs, it goes much more quickly. Even though our dogs are now
mature and old in dog years, it did help to prepare us. It made us develop a habit of looking out for
others before ourselves.”
“Yeah, it just gets you in a routine because when they’re newborns and they’re crying in the middle
of the night, they need to go to the bathroom, you got to train them, you got to potty train them,
and then you got to teach them morals, manners and things like that,” Juwan continues. “It’s just
with the dogs, it’s expedited, rather than kids that take months and years.”
The dogs also got the couple through a difficult period before to the birth of Dori.
Get more update on…sportupdates.co.uk
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