Life isn’t fair: some pets living with rich families eat far better than some people. Meanwhile, some wealthy pet owners can be slightly out of touch with reality. However, if you have a good sense of humor and some flexibility, you can find the silver lining even in the strangest situations.

Popular TikTok content creator Jordyn Burdette recently went viral after sharing a witty childhood story about how a fancy ham she got from her well-off friend, meant for dog scraps, was enough to feed her family for months on end. Scroll down for the story in full.

Bored Panda got in touch with the creator of the video, Burdette, and she was kind enough to share her thoughts about her viral video, spreading kindness, doing good deeds, and her goal to make others laugh on the internet. You’ll find our full interview with the TikTok content creator below.

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Sometimes, pets get higher-quality food than most people eat every day

Image credits: Jonathan Cooper / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

TikToker Jordyn went viral after recounting a hilarious childhood story about receiving a massive ham that was meant for her family’s dog

“So I had a friend that was very wealthy comparatively with my family. And she was always great about never making it weird, but there were just some things that happened that still crack me up to this day.

So one day I am at her house and her mom’s like, ‘Hey, I saved a ham bone for your dog from our Christmas dinner. It’s out in the outdoor refrigerator.

Yeah, there were two of them.’

And she’s like, ‘Just get it on your way out’. And so I’m like, ‘Okay, sounds good. Thank you!'”

Image credits: jordynburdette

“So as I go to leave, I grab this big bag, and I walk to my car and I get in the car. My mom’s like, ‘What’s that?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, Sarah gave us a ham bone to give our dog’. But when I opened it up, y’all, it was a Honey Baked Ham from the Honey Baked Ham store. Now these hams are like the elite hams, they’re like $120. They are ham that poor people only dream of.”

Image credits: PreviousExpert (not the actual photo)

“We had not even fully backed out of their driveway before we were all eating it, okay. We were eating the same down the road. We were in shock that they gave us this ham and it still had so much meat on it. Then we were also hysterically laughing because we’re like, the scraps that were given to our dog, we are so excited about right now.”

Image credits: jordynburdette

“We ate off that thing for days and then my dad made pinto beans. And then he froze leftover pinto beans. So we really ate off that for months and months. So this is where the story gets good, though. So my mom’s telling this story to a bunch of people at church one day at some function, and I was embarrassed. I don’t get embarrassed easily, but this one embarrassed me because she’s talking about us like gnawing on the bone.”

Image credits: jordynburdette

“And then a couple months later it’s Christmas time, and I see a package on our front porch. And it’s huge. Like, what is this? And one of the ladies that heard that story sent us a Honey Baked Ham from the Honey Baked Ham store. And we were just in shock. We were so excited. And she ended up sending us a Honey Baked Ham from the Honey Baked Ham store every single Christmas until I turned like 18 years old. And I just think that’s the coolest story. And we got the biggest kick out of that, and still to this day, we just laugh about it.”

You can watch Jordyn’s video in full right over here

@jordynburdette Replying to @LeeAnna Manley #honeybakedham #kidness #wholesomeplottwist #wholesomemoments #gift #giving #poor #rich ♬ original sound – Jordyn Burdette

“You don’t have to wait until you are in a great place financially to pay it forward”

We asked Burdette about why she thought the video became so popular around the internet. “I think people either related to it or it made them feel grateful they didn’t relate to it,” she told Bored Panda via email.

“I also think it made many people want to buy a ham from The Honey Baked Ham store,” she quipped that watching the video probably made a lot of folks feel hungry (we sure know we worked up an appetite). “Their hams are the elite honey-baked ham.”

The video creator said that she didn’t expect her TikTok to get so much attention everywhere. Going viral is something that is incredibly hard to predict, even for veteran content creators. But as a rule of thumb, authenticity and humor are often two key ingredients.

“I never seem to know what videos of mine will go viral,” she opened up to Bored Panda. “The ones I think will go viral don’t. The ones I think that only my friends in real life will find funny do go viral.”

We were interested to get the content creator’s opinion on how everyone can spread some more kindness this holiday season, in their day-to-day lives.

“You don’t have to wait until you are in a great place financially to pay it forward,” Burdette said that there are lots of ways to give someone a helping hand.

“It can be making someone a meal that is sick. It can be having your family help someone move into their house. It can be getting a group of friends together to sing a few carols or socialize at a local nursing home,” she shared a few examples that many of us can do today.

“We had many people do generous things for us growing up when we struggled financially. But my dad always taught us it cost $0.00 to show up for people and pay it forward.”

Image credits: Nicole Michalou / Pexels (not the actual photo)

The giant ham lasted the family several months

Bored Panda also wanted to find out what keeps Burdette passionate about making videos for TikTok. “I love people and I love to make people laugh. In 2020, I started making videos for fun and was surprised when people started following me,” she told us.

“It’s been a really great creative outlet the last few years. I enjoy telling stories from my past because the thought of the world having some of my stories long after I’m gone is nice to think about.”

Funnily enough, Burdette shared that after she posted her story on TikTok, her friend, Karen, gave her a gift card to The Honey Baked Ham Store. “I can’t wait to get a Christmas ham,” she said.

Burdette has a loyal following of 85.4k users on TikTok. Meanwhile, at the time of writing, her video about the ham meant for her dog had 1.6 million views and counting.

The TikToker’s wonderful sense of humor, as well as the hilarious topic, made a huge splash on the video-sharing platform, as well as elsewhere. Something else that really resonated with people was the disconnect between her wealthy friend’s family, in terms of what was seen fit to feed others’ dogs.

The content creator shared how she and her family ate the honey-baked ham for months and months after that.

Image credits: Zen Chung / Pexels (not the actual photo)

Generally, it’s not a good idea to feed your dog too much ham

Don’t get us wrong, we all love our pets very much, but feeding them extremely expensive gourmet food meant for humans is going to break the budget. Not only that, but some foods aren’t going to sit well with your pet’s stomach, either.

To make it very clear, you shouldn’t be feeding your dog too many honey-baked hams. It’s not exactly toxic, but neither is it healthy for them. According to the American Kennel Club, it’s not clear how (in)digestible ham is for our pooches.

Whatever the case might be, hams tend to have a lot of sodium in them which isn’t great for our four-legged friends. On top of that, they tend to have various sodium-based preservatives like nitrates and nitrites.

Too much sodium can lead to a lot of health issues for the animal, from vomiting and diarrhea to kidney damage and seizures. In short, avoid giving your dog anything with salt.

On top of that, ham tends to be quite fatty. And dogs find fat hard to digest. Too much of it can lead to weight problems, too. Giving your pooch a small amount of Christmas ham won’t be the end of the world, but there are other, healthier holiday options available if you want to reward them.

For instance, as Purina points out, your dog can eat turkey and chicken, as well as plain green beans, carrots, and even cranberries.

Plain cooked and mashed potatoes are also fine, as are pumpkins—just avoid the canned variety which probably has tons of sugar and spices mixed in.

Image credits: cottonbro studio / Pexels (not the actual photo)

Sharing food with those in need is one way to be charitable this holiday season

It’s essential to remember to be charitable and kind throughout the year, not just during the holiday season. And there are plenty of reasons to do so. For one, human beings are social animals, so when we’re generous with members of our community, we’re doing what’s natural to us.

On top of that, research shows that people are as happy giving gifts as receiving them, so long as they care about the other person. This means that our brains reward us for being social and altruistic.

That ‘warm glow’ you get after doing something nice or volunteering isn’t just spiritual—it’s biochemical, too, as oxytocin (aka the ‘cuddle hormone’) gets released from doing social things.

Luckily for everyone, kindness is something that (nearly) everyone can learn. If someone feels that they’ve been far too focused on their own needs, they can start by doing small acts of kindness.

Even something as small as holding the door open for someone or acting more polite than usual are good first steps. Then, you can move on to doing some charitable work in your local area. You could, for instance, help out at a soup kitchen.

Or if you know a family in need, you could always send them a holiday ham and a basket of other food.

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