Yes, dog walkers are political activists too
The cat Rover job that I just wasn't comfortable with taking
I’ve never quite understood the need to hang flags outside. At my old condo rental, my Thai landlord did so, but she’d go back and forth to Thailand all the time to take care of her mother. Her own home was a few blocks away, and I don’t recall an American flag hanging outside there. Yet, she and the rest of the condo board apparently really wanted this flag. The owners were diverse. From what I could see of other owners in our six-unit building, there was one white senior guy and an older black couple. The rest of us were tenants: a Kappa, two nightmare tenants — one white guy from California, one black woman around my age — who moved away (eventually), and me.
So if I looked at the makeup of the building, it defied my original belief that any building with a flag above it is conservative and Republican. The Californian was startlingly racist, but the rest of us were pretty chill. (I never knew much about the Kappa other than his love of hats that could rival Ne-Yo’s collection and that he refused to leave the hallway when he thought I was in danger while having a disagreement with the Californian. He should have made his frat proud.)
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But when I got the Rover request for a drop-in with two cats (who were named after two very prominent and historical black women), I looked up the address. The first thing I saw on Google Maps was an American flag hanging from a single-family home, and I rolled my eyes. In the wake of this election, I immediately regretted not putting some kind of “anti-hate, pro-diversity” message on my profile page beforehand. I have no desire to be anywhere near a Trump supporter’s home. Still, I kept thinking of the condo rental I lived in for three years and how assuming everyone with a flag is a conservative Republican is clearly inaccurate. I’m proof of that.
However, the profile had no photos of the cats nor the owners, which also raised alarms because sometimes scammers love to take advantage of Wag! and Rover.
I asked for a photograph of the person I was meeting, and I immediately received a selfie of a pleasant-looking older white lady. I shrugged and said I might as well give it a shot. This would be a month-long, recurring job, and I could certainly use the money. At our agreed-upon time, I walked over to her home but was still trying to figure out how to learn her stance on Donald Trump.
I had an idea! The flag seemed like a perfect way to bring it up. When she opened the door, I smiled and pointed at it, asking do homeowners lower theirs at half-staff for former President Jimmy Carter too or if that’s just governmental buildings. She said they don’t have to and switched to talking about the importance of having a light on it at night. I couldn’t figure out how to gracefully get her off the topic of light bulbs.
As I walked through the home, gazing at a curious amount of Egyptian art, I wondered what was up with this family and black people. First, both cats have black lady names — one black woman who is royal and the other black woman was extremely vocal about supporting the presidency of Vice President Kamala Harris. Then, there was all this art.
The cat owner kept guiding me to the back of the house and onto a porch without telling me why I was going to this porch. I was starting to feel like Daniel Kaluuya in “Get Out.” While she mentioned an upcoming trip to Florida (yet another red flag), I finally broke the silence and asked, “Are we going toward the cats? Why are we going in the backyard?”
And she nodded. I heard some rumbling from someone walking around upstairs and looked up, realizing the two of us weren’t alone. And before the cat owner could open the door, I looked up at a red clock above the doorway. Printed on the red clock were the words “National Rifle Association.” I looked from her to the clock and said, “NRA, huh? No thanks.”
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I didn’t even wait for a response. I swiftly walked from the back door and retraced my steps through the hallway and past the Egyptian art and out the door. I was speed-walking for two blocks just to get out of her sight if she came to the front porch.