Dogs and delivery people don't always have the greatest connections. Many pooches have strong reactions to sudden drop-ins by unfamiliar faces. When your dog does get to know your local delivery driver, though, it can make for an exciting new friendship. A UPS driver in New Orleans has proven that dogs and delivery people can have good relationships, and he shares photos of all the pup friends he meets on his delivery route.
The sweet UPS driver is 30-year-old Jason Hardesty. Jason decided to start a hashtag as a fun way of sharing photos of the dogs he encounters each day. Doing deliveries with UPS can be pretty thankless work, but Jason seems to have found the best perk the job has to offer.
Jason shares a photo every Friday under his hashtag #pupsofjay. From the looks of it, he started documenting his encounters with pups about a year ago using the hashtag. Locals loved watching the hashtag, and it recently got some national exposure when author Jami Attenberg tweeted about it.
This week, author Jami Attenberg alerted her Twitter followers to one of the most wholesome hashtags the internet has to offer. She tweeted out her UPS driver's Instagram hashtag for the dogs he meets on his route.
Jason Hardesty, who goes by Jay, is a UPS driver based out of New Orleans. He also happens to love dogs.
Jason hasn't always gotten to play with dogs during his time as a driver. He talked to Insider about his previous experience.
"My old route that I was on, the dogs in that area weren't really too friendly. [They] would always want to be guard dogs, or aggressive dogs because it was more of a family area," Jason explained.
His new route offered him some friendlier dogs. "When they moved me to a certain part of town which has not as many families, the dogs are a lot nicer," Jason said.
The new pooches were just as excited to get to know Jay as he was to get to know them. "I realized they would let you pick them up and pet them," he recalled.
As Jay got to know the pups, he got the idea to post pictures with them. "So I guess maybe a few years ago I started throwing up a dog on it every week," he told Insider. "Just a cute pup."
It's easy to get carried away, especially when it comes to adorable dogs. That's why Jay limits himself to one post a week.
"I don't want my account to be known as a dog account, but I'll still find a cute dog and post it that week," Jay explained. He's still got an awesome life outside of those pups that deserves to be seen, too.
A quick scroll through his feed will show you that he's a devoted uncle to an adorable little girl. He also takes awesome pictures of colorful houses he encounters.
That busy life doesn't make it easy for Jay to have a dog of his own. That's why he appreciates all the time he gets with the dogs on his route.
Jay's not the first UPS driver to document his four-legged pals. There's a whole Facebook page dedicated to UPS drivers meeting dogs!
If you're waiting for the latest New Orleans pups, check out #pupsofjay. Jay tries to post a new pup every Friday around 6 p.m.
This brings a whole new reason to celebrate Fridays. We hope Jay continues sharing peeks at his fun times with these good boys and girls!
