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Josie Day

@josieday444

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My father's favorite writer.

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I’ve prayed two times in my adult life. Like the real kind of prayer, where you put your hands together, close your eyes, and you ask your God for help.

Nelly was my first foster. My next was a bulldog named Holly. I had her for three months and was DEVASTATED when Holly was adopted.

Couldn’t stop crying, hands together in prayer asking “Please show me I made the right choice,” devastated.

The next day I was sitting in my then home’s courtyard w/ all my neighbors. My phone rang, it was Nelly’s rescue, she was being returned. That was 6 years ago.

My big girl passed away yesterday at 1:37 pm, in her home, surrounded by her toys, her Puppy (@maggieday555) and myself. She’d been bravely and successfully battling lymphoma for 6 months, since just before my 40th bday.

Feb 2nd the cancer returned. I don’t remember much from February, just that we didn’t sleep through a single night, even when Maggie helped, she helped so much. I remember the kindness and generosity from my best friend Marley and the exact moment when Nelly looked at me and said “Mom, please no more. I’m tired.” And so I said, “ok big girl, no more.”

She went into comfort care & after a very scary night this week we made the decision to let Nelly go.

When her spirit left her body Maggie & I wept. Nelly’s pain was gone, up to Chihuahua she went. I am filled with relief she’s at peace. I will miss her everyday, forever.

Nelly loved her people. She had so many. She loved car rides, she loved jumping on my bed every morning for cuddles. She loved vacations and staycations, she was my Explorer Dog. She took me everywhere.

She loved watching her programs with M, I’ll never forget hearing sis explaining all the plots.
My heart breaks for Maggie.

More than anything, Nelly loved to make you laugh.
I hear ppl say their dogs saved them & I used to joke that I was def Nelly’s savior.

But the truth is, Nelly was the answer to all of my prayers. She made my life so bright, even in complete darkness. I will miss her humor, her big warm body, her wagging tail, her nightly watching me shower, taking her next door to visit sis.

You can stop working now, my Big, my Brave, my Beautiful Nelly. ♥️ by @josieday444

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7 months ago

Turns out it was you all along. ♥️💕♥️ taken in Burbank, California by @josieday444

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3 years ago

I suppose we should thank Maggie’s neuro-surgeon who said the benefits of cuddling dogs far outweighs the germs they “might” carry. Nelly became Maggie’s at home nurse Day -75, before her surgery was even scheduled.
Happy belated #nationaldogday🐶 to Nelly. Over the past year she became Maggie’s nurse, became a patient, has always been the biggest baby dog.
In order of appearance ⬇️
1. Accepts the job
2. Works with Gwanpa on couch
3. Takes Christmas card VERY early
4. Cuddles w/ her patient and Mawm
5. Post-op cuddles w/ Mawm
6. Post-op cuddles w/ Puppy Patient
7. Post-show kisses
8. Driving Puppy Patient to hospital
9. Encourages Mawm in hotel
10. Helps Mawm get through work Zoom in hotel bathroom
11. Helps Auntie via Zoom catch up
12. Nurse becomes patient, first drive home
13. Mawm gets patient mirror bc favorite things
14. Nurse Nelly takes Puppy Patient outside
15. Mawm steals mirror from Puppy Patient - see above
16. Makes Mawm smile
17. Cuddles bc the nurse is wiped out
18. Works w/ Mawm (Mawm stole bed)
19. Bath time is favorite time ♥️ by @josieday444

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a year ago

🍂🤍

@dangerjonesbalayage @dangerjonesbold

Money Piece- cream lightener w 5vol / 7-4 8-46
Gloss Toners ⬇️
Roots- 6-46 7-3 7-4 Splash 7-0
Ends: -6-46 7-3 7-4

#fallingfordangerjones26 🎃 taken in Los Angeles, California by @josieday444

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2 days ago

I miss Instagram. Instagram before the ads, before the pretense and the productivity machine it’s made everyone. I used to love posting photos and looking at my friends updates. I realized all of this today on the 100th ad I just angrily scrubbed through. A summer of updates in a post because the algorithms got me forgetting to take photos which was once a pathway to joy.

And because it’s finally Fall and while it might be hot as hell in Los Angeles - the sun sets earlier and the darkness brings a reprieve from the 100 degrees. For me, a time to breathe.

And share.

June 1st I moved out of my beautiful apartment next door to my sis. Not out of desire, but necessity. My lovely wonderful most generous friend Sarah opened her spare room to me and what was supposed to be a month is now hitting four.

I got sick for four weeks from June to the end of July.
Drank vodka from a Red Bull after climbing to the top of a tree house in Hollywood.
Saw friends I haven’t seen since I first moved to LA - 20 years ago now.
My best friend forced me to leave LA for a week in August.
My dad came for a visit to help with Big sis, I went to the beach for the first time in 3 years.
My Little sis came for a visit to help with Big sis, I went to the beach for the 2nd time in 3 years.

I remembered the smell of the ocean heals the broken.

I caught Covid for the first time on my 41st birthday.

I remembered that Nelly was the best Nurse and that missing her will be the greatest honor of loving her and accepting the love she gave.

I learned that Grace is patience - with chronic illness and pity parties. Grace is allowing a friend to sleep for five days. Grace is forgiveness and the hope that maybe in an hour from now things will feel…different. Grace is the belief that people can only show up how and when they’re able. And that more often than not, the wait is worth it.

Hopeful for a Fall that feels a touch lighter, on the body, the heart, the spirit. Thank you to all who continue to share your Grace with me.

🎈🎈🎈🎈 by @josieday444

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20 days ago

July 2026

For some reason Instagram keeps shutting me down before I can complete my novel on the BTS of this video and the month of July.

Never Just. Never enough. But somehow still always too much. Or so I’m told.

For now, I’ll reiterate how grateful I am for the gift of the color blue, as above, so below, my heart on my nails.

Ps - these photos are not an accurate representation of the Josie of today - in case there were any doubts.

🎈🎈 by @josieday444

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2 months ago

There’s always beauty on the other side of a bold choice.

Created with @dangerjonesbalayage taken in Los Angeles, California by @josieday444

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4 months ago

Based on a poem I wrote, FOCAL POINT is a small scene about grief and the experience of life after. Acknowledging that there is strength in asking for help yes but also the real fear that because you’ve experienced trauma or loss in your life and survived it, could it be that there’s no “fix” for the scars left behind. Is it easier to know the truth or continue to run from it? Who will you be if the pain never goes away?  
**This project was created, written, performed, and edited without the use of generative AI**

Co-creative collaborators that I couldn’t do this without 🩶
@josieday444
@carterkioski by @josieday444

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5 months ago

The power of perspective.

My girl is snoring next to me by the grace of Clementine, Slade, Pix, Meeks, Marley Casey & of course, the VCG.

I remember moving home to LA from Iowa, getting as high as possible (a half a gummy!) on my couch w/ Nelly, our first apt back, across from Warner Bros, bored to tears. I uploaded Nelly’s pics into this thing called Canva (it was 2022 I didn’t know!!)

1. Iowa, carrying an antler for a neighbor two days before the grand finale
2. Florida, a fancy dog park in Atlantic beach we needed a code to access. Luckily, some rich bitches took pity on my girl and let us in. In true Nelly fashion she followed her mom and ran away from the crowd, preferring to play alone in the water and dream of a life after.
3. Florida, enjoying the sunrise with a sleep deprived mom (little did we know… how little we did know at this moment).
4. Florida, trusting the salty water, her mother, her dad, knowing that even in grief the world will move forward, no matter how much we wish we could turn back the clock.

What I would give to wake up sweating in that Floridan heat, my clothes EVERYWHERE, Nelly in bed next to me, and her dad one room over.

I have no doubt when I speak for Nelly’s dad, that she wouldn’t give an arm, a leg or some wild & crazy dream for one more day plucked from the week before, a day to cuddle, to snooze, to say another “I love you.”

I love you. I love you. I love you.

Some might say, I speak the L word too much, but I would say, it is not TOO MUCH love I suffer from, but rather the lack of SPOKEN “I love you’s” that break my heart.

So I say again, glad to watch y’all cringe

I love you. I love you. I love you.

Crazy to think, It was boredom I felt when making my silly images. When I reflect on life with Nelly, I can’t remember EVER being bored. My Nelly has given me a run for my money, my energy, my patience. But she’s also handed me back a repaired heart & loved it every day, no matter the cracks, the choices, the wild ride of the last 2 years. I know there won’t be 2 more, but there is right now. And for that, I am grateful, forever more.

5. Tucson Arizona - a reminder to all

🐦‍⬛ > 🪺
Truth > 🏝️ 👵 by @josieday444

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8 months ago

Today was a hard day.
Hard hard hard hard day. Nelly is ok, snoring away on the couch next to me. Thank you Marley, for the gift of 🌟life🌟
Which, I’m realizing, is far too short. When I was young the days would drag on to years, the future ahead of me just, stretching.

Now, at 40, I look next to me and I think “fuck, I forgot AGAIN.”

There’s never enough time. A reminder like a brick to the stomach.

I think it’s the curse of the human condition to forget that. Because we walk around and stuff it so far down, we get so busy with living this life, we forget that our time here is finite. Here today, gone today, something like that.

Today, I am grateful to have a few more days with my gentle giant, who came into my life unable to walk for anyone, terrified to get into a car, and refusing to move into my room and sleep for her first two weeks in my home as a foster.

Her first thunderstorm, i woke to her feet pounding on the ground, her nails skidding across the wood floor and her jumping into my bed. The rest…well the rest is a very long story - she was adopted, I fostered another who also got adopted - Nelly came back, we moved to Iowa, left Iowa, went to Florida and moved back to Los Angeles.

Maggie got sick and four homes later we live next door to my sister and now my biggest baby of them all is getting ready to cross the rainbow bridge.

I’ve got some very difficult decisions to make over the next week (again, thank you @marles_in_charge ) but at least, for the first time in six months, I don’t give a fuck about the dishes In the sink or the overflowing laundry bins because I’ve got my Nelly, and my sister, and when I zoom from out to in I’ve got all the laughs from this video and so much more from everyone around me. by @josieday444

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8 months ago

Happy birthday big sis.
Can’t imagine going through this crazy thing called life with anyone but you. Love you so so much.
I know one day we’ll get back to the top of that mountain.
#happybirthdaymaggie by @josieday444

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9 months ago

Three days in and off to a gr8 start.

Stepped in a heaping pile of dog shit BUT only on one shoe 🐕

Got bit by a cat BUT caught the infection b4 the infection caught me (don’t wait friends, advice from multiple friends 🫡)

Finally realized the dead of winter is NOT the time to start anything new so to celebrate I’ve been eating a hefty amount of donuts and sleeping until 10am

Started a Discord today and am already overwhelmed so I’ve silenced that group’s notifications

Oh and it’s my big sister’s birthday in six days (@maggieday555 )- if you know her number you better fu*king text her ✌️✌️

Happy new year folks 🖤🎀🖤 by @josieday444

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9 months ago