I have been collecting lost pet signs for about 3 years now, but I had a new experience today. I never really like to explain things that I do - generally it's more fun just to do them, so I won't both to explain why I do this - I've thought about it since I started, but when I started it was just one of those things that seemed like the right idea.

Today I was riding to work, headed east and over to the left as I went through an intersection I saw the unmistakable form of a letter-sized piece of paper with a picture in the middle and text around the borders. I was actually in the same place the bus is in this blip when I saw it, and from that perspective the sign is not too far behind where I was standing.

So I rolled up to the sign, got out my camera and took a picture - I had heard a guy on the porch of the house nearby talking, and as I finished taking, he asked if I had seen the dog. Yes, it was his dog - the first time I've ever met the maker of a poster I've shot. (I considered shooting the one I made when our shop cat went missing two years ago, but that wouldn't have counted anyway).

I told him I hadn't, but I would be looking. And I will, if I see any dogs that fit the description.

He didn't seem upset that I was doing it, or happy, or anything really. I don't know if he wondered why I was doing it, or thought I was a heartless fiend taking advantage of his loss, but I'm not. I've permanently lost several pets (the incident I mentioned above was temporary - the poster actually brought him back when a doctor at a rehab clinic a mile or so away found him, took him home, then saw the poster and brought him back to us), and I love the posters because they make me happy and sad at the same time, and for a lot of other reasons I couldn't explain.

I'm getting a decent collection of them, but I will rarely post them here (this is only the second - the first is one I only posted because it was the ceremonial "last shot" with my old camera - the same camera I used for this, incidentally). I rarely post them here because I don't think of this as "photography" - the compositions are intentionally bland and I'm doing it to record, not to interpret. But today, this was the picture I took, so here ya go.

ps big thanks to everyone for the nice words about my clouds yesterday :)