This is Fruitycake. 🐾

What you are about to read is only the abbreviated version of today’s blog, because the whole story—and today’s audio blog read by Girl Person and me—is only on Patreon. Right now, we urgently need the support of the persons who believe that what we create and what we are building for rescue dogs matters. For just $5 a month, you get the full weekday blogs, audio blogs and our exclusive content while helping us continue our work and build This Is…Me. Please don’t wait for another day to join us. We need you now more than ever, and $5 truly makes a difference.

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Now, let me tell you about my newest business venture: Fruitycake’s Escapades At Your Service. 

This is Fruitycake. 

I would like to announce that I have started a new service. No reservations are required, there are no business hours, and payment may be made in pizza. It is called Fruitycake’s Escapades At Your Service, and right now my two primary clients are my persons because, quite frankly, they need me.

There is a lot hanging in the air at this rustico place right now. We are waiting on papers. We are waiting to see what happens with offers. We are waiting for answers that could change where we live, what we do and what comes next. We do not know what is going to happen this week, and I can tell that my persons are sad in many ways. They are scared. They are hopeful. Sometimes they are all three of those things before breakfast, and there is only so much staring at phones, talking about paperwork and asking each other, “What do you think?” that two persons should be allowed to do in one day.

That is where my service comes in. Fruitycake’s Escapades At Your Service specializes in clearing the mind and filling the air with fruit. I will walk as many miles a day as necessary. Five miles? Fine. Seven? Get your shoes. Ten? Bring snacks. I will take my persons all over this Portofino mountain place until they temporarily forget that they are waiting for anything at all. There are trails to investigate, stairs to climb, smells to analyze and absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that I know where I am going. In fact, getting lost is one of the premium features of my service.

And yesterday, the premium package was apparently activated. Somewhere on top of this mountain, where you would expect perhaps an olive tree, an old stone wall or a person quietly contemplating life, we stumbled upon a one-man concrete operation. Yes. Concrete. One man. On top of a mountain. Naturally, I needed to inspect the workmanship personally, and naturally, my paws became involved. There are moments in life when you should stop and ask yourself whether you are making a good decision. I am a dog. I do not participate in those moments.

Then, just when my persons might have started thinking about the rustico again, Fruitycake’s Escapades At Your Service provided another complimentary distraction. A tiny car came along a tiny road on top of this very big mountain and almost hit us in a very big way. There is something extremely effective about jumping out of the way of a tiny Italian car on a mountain road when it comes to clearing your mind. Suddenly nobody was thinking about papers. Nobody was thinking about offers. Nobody was wondering where we would be next month or what decision we should make. We were simply very grateful to still be standing there together, although I did consider filing a complaint with management before remembering that I am management.

Maybe that is what I can do for my persons right now. I cannot tell them what is going to happen this week. I cannot make papers arrive faster or turn possibilities into certainties. I cannot tell them whether saying goodbye to this rustico place will be the right thing, or how it will feel if that goodbye actually comes. I cannot make them less sad about what we might leave behind, less scared about what we do not know or less hopeful about what might be waiting for us somewhere we cannot see yet. But I can get them outside. I can make them walk. I can make them laugh. I can get concrete on my paws, choose questionable trails, investigate every corner of this Portofino mountain place and remind them that even when you do not know where you are going, you can still have quite an adventure getting there.

And that brings me to today’s affirmation: Do Not Compare Yourself To Things That Are Not Real.

A perfect picture is one moment. A perfect life on social media is usually only the part someone decided to show you. And these days, some of what we see may not even have existed at all.

Meanwhile, real life is messy. It has worries and mistakes and dirty paws and days that do not photograph particularly well. But it also has real love, real memories and real dogs. So today, I am not comparing my real life to somebody else’s edited version of theirs. I am staying right here in mine.

Because happiness does not need to look perfect. It needs to be real.

So Fruitycake’s Escapades At Your Service will remain open indefinitely. I will go as many miles a day as necessary. I will clear minds. I will fill the air with fruit. I will probably get us lost again. And until we know what happens next, I will keep doing the one thing I know how to do better than anybody else. I will keep my persons moving.

Fruitycake

P.S. Keeping the persons moving unfortunately requires groceries, necessities and the occasional pizza, and even while we are waiting to find out what happens with this rustico place, our rescue work is not waiting. We are building our new This Is…Me project to help real rescue dogs be seen, believed and rescued in a world where AI and fake rescue posts are making it harder to know what is real. We want to verify real dogs, tell their real stories and eventually put their voices directly into the world through QR codes and spoken stories. If you believe in what we are building and want to help us keep going through this uncertain time, necessities are here: www.tinyurl.com/2tdnecessities, you can join our Patreon community for $5 a month at www.patreon.com/2travelingdogsrescue, or help through Venmo at travelingdogs2. Every bit right now helps my persons take care of our little family while continuing to build something we truly believe can help rescue dogs.