I also kept close track of how I spent my screen time. A huge portion of it is spent reading about pets. Pet training. Pet health. Pet travel. All of the knowledge I gain obviously benefits my pets. But is it worth sacrificing actual, physical time with them? My final decision has been no. And I am working to get the balance right. That correct balance is different for everyone yet I encourage all of you to take a closer look at how much time you spend reading about life with pets or sharing to help animals, and how much time you spend interacting with your pets and physically in nature. Could your dog use an extra walk each day? Would any of your pets benefit from more mental stimulation or training? Does your local shelter need volunteers? Is there someone in your neighborhood who could use help feeding the birds? Do you have a local park that needs a clean up? I believe prioritizing how I spend my time to help animals can make a bigger impact on the lives of animals. When I am not working virtually to better the world for animals, I am engaged physically with animals and their environment. Other humans committed to helping animals could also benefit from each of us balancing how we spend our time. Virtual and physical communities all prosper with a reboot in passion for a cause. And renewed vigor in helping animals is exactly the kind of fervor for the present that animals inspire in me to begin with. Share this post: Typist: Bethany Our neighborhood's pet friendly street fair started on Friday and ended last night. The high temperatures prevented us from spending as much time at the West Seattle Summer Fest as we had planned but I still expected to have a lot of dog, parrot and cat debauchery to share in today's post. At last years Summer Fest, Wilhelm attempted to swallow an entire hot dog he had found laying on the ground and Leo attended his first ever live music concert. But besides the hot sun, very little mischief occurred any of the three days we attended this local pet friendly event. First, let me put "hot sun" into perspective. It was in the high eighties. For several days. My sincere apologies to people who live in regions where the sun is truly scorching but for us Cascadians, this weekend was hot. So on Friday and Saturday we attended the West Seattle Summer Fest in the evening when it was cooler. Even Amelia enjoyed a cool evening stroller ride through the street fair. Yesterday we finally got out early enough to attend the West Seattle Summer Fest in the daylight. Even though Sunday was a little cooler, Wilhelm, Brychwyn and Huxley still spent a lot of time at the "Pet Junction." There were three kiddie pools for dogs to cool off in. We, of course, tried all three! (Did I mention there were people giving away copious amounts of dog treats to the canines in and around the pools?)
There is only one way for people to be distracted from the loveliness of the Cascadian Nomads canines, psittacine and feline and that is a puppy. Fortunately the most adorable puppy at the whole summer fest was with our neighbor and former obedience instructor. So instead of competing for attention, we created more of crowd stir by having Aussie meet Aussie*. This was an excellent photo and socialization opportunity for all involved! However, the socialization part went so well- the Blue Healer puppy tried really hard to get Leo to play with her- that the only decent photo I got was a mischievous stare down. Besides making for an uneventful blog post, I am glad we had a relatively mischief free weekend. That "hot sun" was the only worry we had and it is way less of a burning star to fret about than most of the rest of the country had, I am sure. I could certainly wish for every weekend to be so full of conversation, music, pools and puppies... and I bet the Cascadian Nomads menagerie would all agree! (Sorry Jason.) *Leo was hatched in Florida and his species is native to New Guinea but it was more fun to say he and the Blue Healer (born in Cascadia) were from the same place! Cascadian Nomads was not asked to or paid to promote any businesses or organizations mentioned and linked in this post. We're just sharing information or stuff we like! Share this post: |
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