So now that I'm retired I have some free time on my hands, especially between the end of the Kelly Clarkson Show and the start of Judge Mathis. Recently I discovered these cute, short, videos on both Facebook and Instagram. I'm pretty sure YouTube and others have them too but these are the ones I see.
I was afraid to click on them at first because I wasn't sure if they were some kind of virus that would infect my computer but then I realized they were safe and so I gave it a try. I discovered that there are a staggering amount of people who are thrilled to post a video of themselves being stupid and ridiculous. Why anyone would want the whole world to know that you can't figure out how to open a package of Chicken of the Sea tuna fish is beyond me but whatever.
I also discovered that there are a lot of people who think they are way hotter than they actually are. That love filming themselves driving on the highway going nowhere with nothing happening. That think anyone actually cares to know how to make biscuits on a log in the woods. Or that we really give a hoot about you living in your van. Yet there are hundreds of videos a day on the above.
I tend to skip past those, unless there is a particularly attractive young lady in one and then I watch until she embarrasses herself and then I feel sorry for her and move on. What I have become addicted to are the videos of people saving pets or wild animals from some kind of distressful situation or animals showing unwavering loyalty to their owners.
I find it fascinating that a baby whale will get a boat to follow it to its mother who is caught in fishing lines or nets so they can get in the water and save her. I am then even more amazed when the mother makes an obvious move to thank the rescuers for helping her get free.
However the ones that always bring me to sobbing fits are the videos where someone rescues a pet. Whether it is a dog that has been in the wild for months with porcupine quills in its face and neck, or a cat that got stuck in a drain pipe for three days, or a puppy someone just dumped in the middle of nowhere to fend for itself, my floodgates of tears are opened and I am crying a river when they are saved.
After watching these videos for an hour or three I have to walk away from my computer and go pet my dog to let her know I love her even if she gives me side eye for waking her up from her forty-seventh nap of the day. The people who just stop their lives to help an animal in obvious need warms my heart. Conversely the thousands of people who just drive by an animal laying on the side of a road boils my blood and makes me hate people with a passion.
Honestly its not just pets that get to me its wild animals being helped too. A horse stuck in mud being helped, or a deer unable to stand up on a frozen lake being slid to safety, or a shark who beached itself being dragged back out to sea, all make me feel good and sad at the same time. Linda, who loves animals way more than I could ever hope for, tells me to stop watching them if they are going to upset me so much but I can't stop. They are my crack habit right now and once I click one on I know I'm done for a few hours.
I am also a sucker for the pet videos of a family pet following an ambulance twenty miles to a hospital where its owner was taken in an emergency, or a dog who jumped onto a gurney when paramedics were taking his owner to the hospital and refused to leave him, or the cat who stroked the head of his family dog that wasn't feeling well as a sign of compassion and love, and of course the reunion of a dog with its owner after being gone for days, weeks, months, or even years.
I will continue to watch these rescues because I know I can't stop myself, the same way that I keep watching two dad's on a pier telling dad jokes that kill me. As one of the videos tag line said, we don't deserve pets. In my opinion, no truer words have ever been said.
Comments