A better question might be “Why would humans help animals voice themselves on twitter?” I mean, don’t the animals have better things to do? And maybe the humans should get a life. What’s up with this whole pet tweeting thing?
A short personal story: A cat named Peter joined me when I was about 21 and going through some tough times. 18 years later Peter moved on into the spirit world and his body was buried in the back yard. His spirit never ceased caring for me. And if I imagine him, or see a picture of him, I can still feel my love for him. More so than pictures of dead human relatives. Something about Peter has stayed in my heart. As pure love, pet love, unattached love, what ever you want to call it.
About a seven months ago I found Sockington on twitter and subscribed to his tweets. Something about his attitude (or cattitude) always tickled me. It wasn’t about Peter at that point at all.
And then… I have no idea why, I decided to voice Peter’s encouragements via twitter as ghostofpeter. And after one or two posts I was done with that idea. I mean, “why?”
But socksamillion kept poping up in my tweetstream. And every now and then I would get a real laugh or a unique perspective that brought some new awarenss to my human life.
And then during Christmas a dinner with a close group of friends the Pettweets idea was voiced for the first time. At that time I knew there were other pet tweeters. But Sockinton was the only one I had really listened to. My friend, Amy Mills, is the Executive Director for a non-profit called EmanciPET. And they keep animals out of pet shelters and out of the gas chambers of same shelters, by offering spaying and neutering services for cheap.
So that fewer unwanted pets are born and thus fewer unwanted pets are put to sleep. It’s a huge deal.
And Pettweets.org seemed like a simple way I could contribute to their awareness campaign. Who knew what I would find.
Pets are tweeting in all languages from all over the earth. And while cats are the dominate voice, there are lots and lots of animal tweeters. And some are funny, some are serious, some are irreverant and some are gross. But they are all driven from some human passion and love of the animals that are “voiced.”
So if you’ve ever sounded out your dog’s voice as he says “Thank you thank you thank you…” after you give him a table scrap, you will understand what pettweeting is all about.
And who knows, perhaps you pet’s voices will want to come on line as well.
Either way, listen to the animals. They are speaking in profound ways, both on twitter and in all of our lives. We have much to learn.
Namasté,
@jmacofearth
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