Is it okay to write about "just" dogs when the world is on fire?

Or is everything I write about nonsense? How much does any of this matter? How can we ever know?

This subheading isn’t a joke. It’s meant to be a bit lighthearted, sure—I promise I’m not actually trying to take anyone down a nihilistic crisis path—but it’s something I’ve been wondering in all seriousness.

I have spent the majority of the last five years of my life thinking, talking, and writing about dogs.

At first it was just on Instagram (and in person, of course, when I was around friends who I knew wouldn’t get too fatigued of hearing the same topic). Then I started this website with Sean’s help a year later. Another year or so after that I literally left my full-time marketing agency job so that I could devote myself to Paws and Reflect. (And on the side, to make an income since this blog doesn’t cover everything yet and likely never will (which is totally okay!), to be a freelance writer covering… you guessed it, dogs.)

And I love thinking, talking, and writing about dogs.

It’s brought me a lot of personal joy.

I’ve met many incredible people. Several of whom are now real-life, more-than-just-pet-related-stuff friends.

I’m not sure there’s any better feeling than someone struggling with their beloved companion coming to me and saying “I read what you wrote” and “it helped” and “thank you”.

But sometimes, despite the personal joy and the incredible connections and the meaningful praise, I feel like I’m going in circles. Like I’ve talked about so many specific topics—leashing our pets, advocating for them, making individual decisions—enough times that it’s just a soup of slight variations. Have I already said it all?

And more than that: Have I even said it well? The pet space is utterly overflowing with voices. Many of them make me cringe, sure, but many of them are eloquent and thoughtful and effectively saying what I’m saying too. Am I just adding to a bunch of white noise? Is it hurting more than it’s helping? How many times have I fallen prey to writing a half-hearted piece because I feel it’s something I should talk about and not because I’m actually bursting with thoughts to share?

And more than that: Does talking about dogs like this really make a difference? You will never convince me that animals don’t matter or that our relationships with them aren’t important. Absolutely unwilling to budge there. But there’s a lot to be said about how we allocate our resources. So. Much. Is going on in our world right now. Is it okay to sit behind a computer screen in our cozy van, parked in a safe spot, awash with all sorts of resources and privilege, and talk about the nuances of dog training and enrichment while so many other creatures, human and non-human animals, are suffering beyond my comprehension?

Is that leaning into my own valid joy, productively working for small incremental change, understanding that we can care about multiple things at once…

Or is it tone deaf?

Sean and I had a long conversation about this today. I cried for the children in Gaza, for my Jewish friends, for my own feelings of helplessness and ignorance and confusion. For not educating myself better sooner. For not knowing what to do but then realizing somehow that’s fine for me—my life isn’t even materially affected if I don’t know—and reckoning with the shame inherent in that injustice.

One of my longtime refrains when talking about complex dog stuff has been “I don’t have perfect answers and don’t think I ever will”. That’s what I want to say here, to all of these questions I’m asking myself and my partner and whatever void I currently feel like shouting into. Because it’s true, and I mean it.

And yet also it is so far from enough.

I intend to keep thinking and talking and writing about dogs, of course. For one thing: I don’t think I know how not to. For another: When I am in a more logical frame of mind I do feel confident about this work, both as a personal pursuit and a vehicle for connection. For growth. Maybe even change.

But I want to make sure I’m doing it intentionally. And I want to make sure I am not doing it at the expense of other things that might be better for everyone.

So I am putting this journal entry out there, along with all of the other writing that may or may not be mostly nonsense, both because there is satisfaction in the sharing (there always is, to deny this part of myself would feel fundamentally dishonest) and to hold myself accountable. Accountable to thinking, talking, and writing about dogs in a thoughtful way. An aligned-with-my-core-values way. An interconnected way.