This is Fruitycake. And apparently I am taking over this project. I wasn’t planning on adding another job to my schedule. I already supervise two persons, monitor all grocery bags entering the premises, conduct pizza quality control and remain responsible for making sure Girl Person doesn’t get any ideas involving exercise before breakfast. But then I started thinking about This Is…Me, and I started thinking about me. What if you had seen my picture for the first time and thought I wasn’t real? What if you saw my face, my ridiculous expressions, my adventures and all of the strange things that happen to us and said, That’s probably AI. What if you didn’t believe there was actually a Fruitycake behind the picture?
You wouldn’t know that I get scared. You wouldn’t know that I love pizza. You wouldn’t know the things I’ve sniffed, the places I’ve walked or the people I’ve made laugh. You wouldn’t know that I was a real rescue dog before I became part of this family, or that there is an actual heart beating behind every picture you see of me. You might just keep scrolling. And when I thought about that, this project became very personal to me, because somewhere today there is a real dog sitting behind a real kennel door whose picture might look too perfect, whose story might sound too dramatic or whose face might simply get mixed into an internet increasingly filled with animals that never existed at all. That dog cannot type a comment saying, Excuse me. I am actually sitting right here. So I will.
Our first dog is Archie, and Archie is real.
His face is real. His underbite is real. His crooked little tail is real. His story is real. He survived being hit by a car, and now he is waiting for the rest of his real life to begin.
Archie is with Animalluvr’s Dream Rescue in that Florida place. Their mission specifically focuses on dogs and cats who are critically ill or injured and getting them the medical care, socialization and training they need before finding permanent homes.
Today, he became the very first dog in VERIFIED REAL by 2 Traveling Dogs | THIS IS…ME. Tomorrow, I hope there will be another Archie. And then another. Because I have officially decided that This Is…Me is a Fruitycake project now. My persons can handle the complicated parts. I am going to handle the important part: making sure real dogs are seen, believed and rescued.
Because what if someone had doubted me? What if you had never stopped long enough to learn that there really is a Fruitycake behind these words? That’s what I can’t stop thinking about. I got my chance to be somebody’s dog. I got a family. I got a voice. Now I want to use that voice for the dogs who are still waiting for theirs.
Seen. Believed. Rescued.
And this dog is taking over.
Fruitycake
P. S. Taking over This Is…Me also means I have to ask you to help us keep doing it. My persons volunteer their time to this work, but we still have to keep ourselves going while we verify real animals, tell their stories, prepare to return to this America place and build the biggest chapter of our rescue work yet. We need help with groceries tomorrow, and we need support to keep This Is…Me growing. If you believe real rescue animals deserve to be seen, believed and rescued, please put a paw in with us today. Even $5 matters.
Support the THIS IS…ME project directly:
https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/ZE5EFF9ZTJD5U
Help with groceries and immediate necessities:
www.tinyurl.com/2tdnecessities
Patreon — $5/month keeps our work going:
www.patreon.com/2travelingdogsrescue
Venmo: travelingdogs2
Zelle: rachael@2travelingdogs.com
Don’t just believe I’m real. Help me prove that the next dog is real, too.
