I adopted a dog during the coronavirus pandemic, and he's helping me find a sense of routine amid the lockdown

Whistler isn't great at selfies, but he loves Central Park.Meghan Morris/Insider

• When I started working from home, my fiancé and I began to seriously consider fostering a dog, and then decided to adopt when we realized we'd be home for months.
• It took about five weeks to adopt from start to finish.
• A week into adopting Whistler, I've found the routine that I struggled to establish on my own, and I've felt far less isolated.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

I've completed the millennial trifecta of quarantine: bread baking, home renovation, and now, dog adoption.

My process of looking for a dog was similar to that of finding an apartment in New York. In both cases, demand is high – one agency told me their foster applications are up 1,700% year-over-year. Shelters can move fast, and it helps to have all your paperwork on hand ahead of time. Just like a New York apartment, you're likely not the only ones applying for the dog.

It took us about five weeks from when we started looking until we brought our new dog, Whistler, home.

Here's how we prepared ourselves for the process, what it entailed, and how we feel now that Whistler has been living with us for a week.