Patrick Stewart talks about how his foster pit bull Ginger has changed his life

Find someone who looks at you the way Sir Patrick Stewart looks at his foster pit bull, Ginger. 

Hearts melted last month (we’re not just talking a few throwaway “awwws” here, this was a large-scale, the-ending-of-Pixar’s-Up-esque heart-melt) when a video of the esteemed actor and the adorable pooch went massively viral. 

A reminder of said video, as it’s Monday morning:

Patrick Stewart really loves this dog. 

There’s more. Loads more.

Actual mid-stroke sneeze incoming. 

In a recent interview with People, the X-Men star talked about the impact Ginger has had on his life in the short time they’ve been in each other’s company. “I find that my relationship to the world and to the news every day in the papers and on the television has been changed by Ginger, because she has brought such a quality of patience and tolerance and fun into our lives, that it has, in a very short space of time, shifted my sense of where our world might be going,” the 76-year-old explained. “I literally find myself more optimistic than I was, and there is only Ginger to account for this. It is the impact of sharing my life for only seven or eight days with Ginger.”

But reader, we have sad news. We would genuinely be up for someone commissioning a show called “The Many Adventures of Patrick and Ginger the Pit Bull” to run for at least the next 10 years, but Stewart and wife Sunny Ozell can’t pursue an adoption. Part of their year is spent in a UK residence, and breed legislation regarding ownership of pit bulls makes it near enough impossible to bring Ginger to England. The couple’s focus is now on finding her a permanent home in America. 

The dog lover has also partnered up with The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to help bring an end to dog fighting, for which pit bulls are sadly so often bred to participate in. 

Last Friday was officially National Dog Fighting Awareness Day, and to help raise awareness for what is a very worthy cause, Stewart took part in a social media campaign, where owners shared selfies with their animals to combat the negative stigma often attached to pit bulls, a stigma they can do nothing about as long as the barbaric fighting industry continues to exist. 

He himself admitted to being put off the breed in the past because of negative stereotypes, but told People that meeting another pit bull, Sadie, five years ago at his home in Brooklyn, changed his mind. That new-found affection is what eventually led him to Ginger, and he said he’s committed to helping more foster dogs in the future. 

But for now, let’s just enjoy Patrick Stewart and Ginger one more time. Because it’s Monday.