‘Fun’tastic furry stories

Chennai girl Shivani Patel is an accessory designer while her close friend Juhi Sharma is a cinematographer. They were classmates in school and friends ever since but one passion that they share is their fondness for animals. Last year, they started Furry Tails, a Facebook photo-blog community that serves pet owners. It is an animal equivalent of what ‘Humans of New York’ is to humans.

“Juhi and I grew up together and are best friends since we were in first grade. When I lost my pet, two years ago, I was talking to her about how connected I feel with my pet. That’s when she suggested that we write about it and the story of my pet and I was the first one in the photo-blog. Also, my pet was the first one that Juhi also got close to. That’s how we launched ‘Furry Tails’ in mid-2016,” starts Shivani.

Though they started off by clicking pictures of family members and friends who are pet owners, the duo soon started documenting stories of other pet owners as well. “We met a lot of people who shared their stories with their pets. We got a lot of pictures and after that, the Furry Tails’ journey was smooth and lovely,” shares Shivani. “We’ve met a lot of people who have really heart-warming stories — how they got the pet, how they developed the relation and how the pet had an impact on their lives. Each story is different and engaging.”

The stories are written by Shivani while the pictures are clicked by Juhi. The duo wants to promote adoption and encourage pet owners to have meetings regularly.

Shivani also shares an interesting story that Juhi had come across. “A cinematographer by profession, Juhi travels a lot for her work. During one such journey, she met a hip-hop artist who had adopted a dog. It was so amazing that she (the musician) takes the dog in trains and buses, wherever she goes...Though people were apprehensive at first, they later realised that the dog is harmless. The bond they shared made a good story,” reminisces Shivani.

Though Juhi and Shivani are busy with their respective professions, they always find time to collect love stories between animals and their patrons. “We are doing this out of passion. There is nothing more heavenly than seeing the pictures of animals with their masters,” sums up Shivani.