I love animals just about more than anything else on this planet. I currently work as a pet sitter and dog walker, which right now is the best job I have ever had. I mean, people pay me to hang out with their animals?! It’s a dream come true. Well other than the fact that there’s no stability and it doesn’t pay particularly well but hey. Still love it.

So I thought I’d share some of my favorite animal related things and as a warning, some will be really sad (or at least I cried a lot) but others will be super happy and cute.

Denali from FELT SOUL MEDIA on Vimeo.

The first is a tribute video from a Portland photographer to his dog who passed away from cancer. Lizzy Duffy wrote about Ben Moon, his dog Denali, and the video for Oregon Public Broadcasting. I will say I cried for a ridiculous amount of time because of the video and ended up hugging my own dog while I cried. But I’m also extremely emotional about animals so…

In a similar vein, Thomas Neil Rodriguez and his fiancée took their dog Poh on one last grand adventure around the US when they found out that the 15 y/o dog had cancer. They made an instagram account for the trip and posted photos of Poh at many major US landmarks and other photos as well. There are photos of Poh at the Space Needle, in Las Vegas, at the Hollywood sign, at the Golden Gate Bridge and so many more.

On a happier note… There was a pink flamingo in Brazil that lost one of his legs because a bad infection ended up in an amputation. So instead of leaving him with one leg, the zoo ended up working out a prosthetic leg and it went really well! The flamingo readjusted fairly quickly too and is apparently recovering nicely.

Also I have an entire tag on my tumblr for animal related posts and there’s even a photo of a seagull photobombing someone trying to taking a photo of their ice cream. (I promise I only laughed for like 5 minutes at that post.) OH and there’s a video of a baby sloth in that same tag on my tumblr and it’s cute oh my goodness.

To finish this up, I also wanted to share how amazing animals can be in both a therapy and service orientated way. NPR has an article about how positive pet therapy can be and how animals and humans can heal each other. That article also references several studies that have shown some potentially positive impacts of animals. And there are programs like Animals as Natural Therapy not too far from my hometown that in their own words, have “healing programs based on the knowledge that animals can teach humans important life skills: respect for self and others, trust-building, and clear communication”.

I just have so many feelings about animals, particularly dogs. If I could continue working with animals and make an actual living out of it, I’m pretty sure I’d die from happiness. But for now, I’ll stick with walking and hanging out with animals and reading the cute stories of others online.