Aimless…

on a path to wherever

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Category: Opinion

November 11, 2018January 19, 2019 Amy Palleson

God/Us

My @amythesitter pet sitting IG feed

“The grass just said she’s going to miss me too.” #dog #dogs #autumn #seasons #tb #dogstagram #dogsofinstagram #pet #pets #petsitting #petsitter #saltlakecity (Greta; I forgot I had this picture but it brings me peace to see a season that was and know that the growing days will become the music of spring)

“I don’t want to be petty but I think you and I both know it’s a mistake for him to get this comfortable.” #rivalry #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #siblings #pet #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #petsitting #petsitter (Missy and William have quite the gladiator pit relationship; what is actually happening here is I had just gotten to their house and was going around finding and saying hi to everyone with three kitties following me into where we found William slumbering at which point Missy pointedly reminded me that it’s insulting to her that we were so far off task from getting her her Temptations. Missy is also called The Duchess, which naturally comes with all of the power and authority she requires)

I’ve decided to stop at 50 animal pages. And just want to say that, as everything I do in the course of my day, it’s been quite the labor of love to where I can’t imagine not doing a second venture. But those of who you know me irl also are aware of my other labors of love (words/stories) so it’s possible that might be where I’m going next instead. But please understand that if your animal isn’t here, it’s simply the most random circumstance that it isn’t; I literally chose these IG posts from ones whose captions I thought were “done” (most I do then undo then archive then redo/post again,...in a dizzying pattern of creative-nonsense) that also had pics that were of acceptable quality (and that I could locate originals for), and with 30,000 pics and a mind bent on understanding the world through all lenses, some of the funniest and most endearing moments of my life are as of yet undocumented and might remain so. I’m actually thinking right this second of a moment with Tux two days ago, who miscalculated the distance between himself and the side of garage, that caused his Mr Charisma Somersault Routine (he knows it is my favorite) to be him doing a handstand against the garage—butt high in the air, head at a catastrophically-comic angle while he looked upward—about which he wasn’t at all fazed and instead looked up at me like “good one, right?” because everyone knows his show is wherever and whatever since that’s just how life rolls sometimes. Ah. Every day, all day, they teach me. I love and am so grateful for them all. Again, if you see your animal here and want me to send you an email of their page, let me know. Each is 8 x 8. [Edit: I just realized I spelled Zoey’s name wrong in the second slide and it’s taking everything I have not to run home and correct it. Zoey, my apologies; I’ll do it “as ASAP as possible”]

“I’m going to be honest with you: I don’t even think I want to be that happy.” #stepford #cats #cat #catsofinstagram #catstagram #pet #pets #petsitter #petsitting #saltlakecity (June)

[Repost/revised]. Dear Benny, I cannot explain my species. Can’t encapsulate for you their darkness; have no idea why your entry into this world saw you endure cruelty to where even now that you’re safe, with a new family, you panicked when you saw me—shaking, cowering, running—like you have no hope. I cannot help with this. I cannot do that for you. For that there is cruelty calls us to a pain within which we might always sit yet never understand. But, Benny, there’s something. For that it is from the same heart which quaked from trauma—fleeing from me in instinctual fear; eyes huge, shaking, growling—that a path could be illuminated to seeing your furry mouth licking my fingers in affection bares the secrecy of our magical world. Because I can’t tell you the answer to cruelty. Because I don’t know. But I can tell you about the sunrise. About how the water dances in the air when the star arrives near the mountains. I can tell you about greeting the day to a baby breathing beside you that still smells of heaven, and about songs and words that heal scars, waking broken hearts into new days. I can tell you about the great darkness from which somehow you find a stronger self, and about the dawn of a day in which you discover that the most beautiful thing in your life is actually you. And I can tell you about the magic of gentleness and the healing that lives inside showing up for a tender world, and about the tears I shed when you licked my hand, as I rose up to a hope that our world was already better. For the breath of love anoints us both when we rise to the call to be there for one another. So, Benny, keep fighting the good fight and I promise you, so will I. All my best, always. Amy (As a just-born puppy, Benny spent a year with his mama, locked in a yard outside even over a frigid Idaho winter and I didn’t know him except for a few days [they were moving to Idaho permanently when they got back from their trip] but the difference in him by the end of the week was palpable and on our last visit, I really did tell him to keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together). #pets #animals #dogs #kindness #love #petsitting #petsitter #dog #saltlakecity

[When you didn’t use an authorized installer for your pole and your accident attorney wants a promo]: “I could have died.” (Skippy is a shameless ham, who knows how to pose, purrs the entire time I’m at his home, and I told his family that I’ve started rubbing—what I call—his Buddha Belly for good luck and I think he kind of digs it) #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #pet #pets #petsitter #petsitting #saltlakecity

“Nope. I’m not gonna let it go. And I guess that’s something you shoulda thought about before flinging the stupid thing in my face.” #cat #cats #playtime #catsofinstagram #catstagram #pet #pets #petsofinstagram #petstagram #petsitter #petsitting #saltlakecity (Miss Hiss; Not the best picture but it’s exactly what happened and she did eventually let it go which I guess was purely out of the benevolence you’d expect from any overlord. Yesterday, I told her family the story of our morning visit when she must’ve thought I was taking too long to give her the treats I’d pulled out of the treat bag because as she sat on the table and I was distracted talking to one of her staff (a.k.a. the other cats in the house) she very calmly placed her paw on my hand as if reminding me of what I needed to be doing. And it made me laugh because not only was she communicating just like a human might, but Missy isn’t a shrinking violet and that she touched my hand delicately was like she was so confident in her authority she felt no cause to overreact since a paw delicately placed on someone’s hand will obviously suffice]

I’ve often dreamt that someday I’ll be able to sit down and go through the 20,000 pictures I have on my home computer so as to harvest, organize and post them; but considering that I currently have almost 18,000 pictures on the iphone I’ve only been using since November 2017 that’s starting to feel like a soap opera story arc. So I hope that those of you who’ve never seen their pet on my Instagram understand that not only is it sometimes extremely hard to get good pictures (esp. in certain lighting and with limited opportunity) but even when I do, just doing the sits and choosing the pics to send you after the visit is a full-time job. :) So that this other social media world just feels like a bit of random frosting slapped down on the go is definitely accurate but know that I love all of your pets and certainly hope that outside this invented world of social media that it shows.

That awkward moment when you pull out this picture after the stylist asks how you want your hair. #guineapig #gorgeous #pet #pets #petsitter #petsitting #saltlakecity (Finn)

String. [‘It’s very simple to be happy but it’s very difficult to be simple’—Rabindranath Tagore. Thank god for animals, who show us how to step aside from our “selves” so as to just be]. #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #pet #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #petsitter #petsitting #saltlakecity (Frankie)