Photo Doggies for Me

My sister C's (admittedly beautiful) dog Murphy

I don’t know how in the world it happened, but suddenly one day on Facebook I started getting posts from something called “Photo Doggies for Anthony.” It is pretty much just what it says—photos of dogs, for a guy named Anthony. Specifically, Anthony is a teenager who it seems is very ill, and indicated that puppy pix would cheer him up. What started out small, has grown into the St. Bernard of FB pages…every day I am treated to literally dozens of pictures and captions: dogs snoozing under a tree, dogs dressed up with scarves and hats, happy dogs, sad dogs, etc. etc.

Which would all be fine, except for one thing: I am not a huge dog fan, and am sure I was added to this list by accident.  So why don’t I opt out? I think it’s my combo of laziness and curiosity…what does a dog lover post? Everyone talks about their “fur babies” and their “forever homes.” I get it; some people are batty about their pooches—and that’s great. But sometimes someone will post a simple request like “How can I get myself off this list?” You would think they had expressed a desire to commit murder! The responses often sound like: “Why don’t you delete yourself? What’s the matter with you?? You are a despicable person and on top of that, you’re full of negative energy!! Long live Photo Doggies!!!”

Seriously? No one is allowed to disagree with you without being raked over the comment coals? I wonder what poor Anthony thinks about the venom dripping from some of these folks. If I started a page called “Photo Babies for Elise,” I would NEVER blame anyone for unsubscribing to it—not everyone thinks miniature humans are all that cute. And I certainly wouldn’t insult and berate them if they decided against an endless parade of toddlers in their news feed. So yeah, I should remove myself from Anthony’s A List, and I will…one of these days.

Then there’s my incredibly clogged email inbox. I save it all, and I do mean all. I do not exaggerate when I say my Yahoo account has 145,284 saved messages, dating back 13 years. I am glad for endless storage most of the time, because I often go back to my old emails to find things I need to refer to again, and people with whom I should reconnect. But that doesn’t mean I have to save my daily LOFT 40% off sale notices, does it? Knowing LOFT, the next 40% off sale is mere hours away (why don’t they just go ahead and price all their clothes 40% lower and be done with it?) No internet correspondence is too unimportant to hold onto, is my motto! One of these days I will get it together and streamline everything. But not today.

Now if you will excuse me, my exciting life online beckons. 10 new emails from Travelocity! Pictures of shelties with sunglasses on! There’s so much to see and save!!!