I’m a traveller, whether I travel or not
In her book Elixir, Kapka Kassabova has a conversation with a man who works as a builder in a small village in the Rhodope mountains of southeastern Europe. He says, “I educated myself in the library.” He says books were “our only travel.”
That’s me, I thought when I read his words. Before I could travel, I read books about other places and other times. More recently, when circumstances forced me to stop travelling for a year or two, I did the same.
I started petsitting before I could travel, too. It was a thing I would do as a favour for friends. I discovered an odd pleasure in temporarily occupying another person’s home. Before the internet gave us housesitting or couchsurfing websites, I already had a fantasy—it seemed ridiculous at the time—of living without a fixed address and just travelling perpetually from house-sit to house-sit.
On its face, this Substack is about petsitting as a means of keeping costs down while travelling. In its fullness, it’s a space where I share my experiences and curiosities and wonderment, in a form that aspires to the thoughtful writing I love to read.
Subscription options
My goal with Itinerant Cat Lady is to put my writing into the world and to give my efforts and creativity some material value. If you’re curious about my goings-on or if you enjoy reading the stuff I write, I’ll be delighted if you opt into the monthly (CA$5/month) or annual (CA$50/year) paid subscription. With a paid subscription, you get full access to all my written content plus the opportunity to comment and ask questions. (I’m much more conscientious about responding to comments on my Substack than I am at responding to social media comments!)
If you don’t have the spare time or funds for the weekly read, you can still support my efforts with an unpaid subscription. Just knowing you’re in my corner is a big encouragement.
You can also support me by spreading the word among your friends.
