Hi There!

Hey, guys! This is my first post (although it’s not like you don’t already know that). Anyway, me and my family travel around in a camper. We’ve hit all the continental states, hoping someday to see Alaska and Hawaii.

I love animals. There’s just something about them. There’s something about looking an iguana in the eye in the FL keys, holding a lizard, studying a squirrel at the same time it studies you.

If I had a lot of money, I’d definitely be donating to animal rescues and stuff, but unfortunately, I’m not rich. (Unfortunately?! Why would I be unfortunate if money didn’t magically rain down on me?) You’re probably reading this, thinking, “Well, I’m not either, so there.” (Don’t you hate when people say, “You’re thinking…” blah blah blah? Especially when you really weren’t? It’s annoying. So, my apologies. “And yet”, you’re thinking, “he’s not going to edit it out.”) You don’t have to be rich to help animals (although it would make it considerably easier 😁). If you look for an opportunity, you’ll probably find one.

For example, I was taking a walk with my family in Florida not too long ago, and I found a tiny frog on a palmetto. The sun was shining down on it pretty hard, and the frog looked kinda… burnt? I don’t know. Too hot, maybe. And I know that sounds dumb, but it really did look kind of… short on water.

Anyway, by the side of the trail, me and my dad dug a bit and made a little section of moist soil to move the frog to. I carefully got it to climb up into my hand (relieved that it was alive), and I coaxed it off my hand into the wettish soil. It settled down, and me and my dad happily left it alone and continued down the trail. When we came by that part again, it was gone. That’s how animals are.

You can find a half frozen rabbit, bring it inside, warm it up, and let it go, and it’ll never come back. (Although in the books they always do.) It’ll just keep on living its life from where you got it. They probably don’t realize you’re helping them, and if they do, I guess there’s not much they can do to thank you.

Except, of course, sometimes, with the exceptionally smart ones, like orcas, dolphins, and dogs. (And they still pretty much never do.) (Obviously.)

Another hard thing is helping animals when they think you’re this terrifying… I don’t know. But it really does hurt. (When I’m holding terrified frogs or lizards, I always wish so bad it knew I loved it.)

For example, I once found a small treefrog in our site at a campground we were at. A terrible place for it to be, noticing that campers were in sites beside us, and the road was right there. So I caught it, and took it down near the river. On the way there, it jumped out of my hand and onto the road. Which, I’m assuming, hurt pretty bad. I caught it again, and continued, determined to find it a safer home. I made it, and successfully completed my mission by letting it climb off my hand and onto a tree.

I want to stop right here and make sure the reader knows that I believe people are more important than animals. Without a doubt. I would far rather an animal suffer than you suffer, an animal die instead of you. I believe God meant for animals to be loved, but really just to bring us joy.

But they do have feelings. Dogs do feel happy when they wag their tail–it does hurt fish to be hooked. I’m not saying it’s bad to fish, just… it does… it has to… hurt. More on that in another post.

I hope your life is full of (non-annoying 😜) animals that know you love them. (I guess I should say, “I hope your life is full of animals you love.” But if you do love them, you’ll want them to know that.)

Have a nice day. 😏