Anshi’s hungry, emaciated stomach gurgled. During the COVID lockdown, my anxiety for my pet lizard’s wellbeing skyrocketed when she caught gastroenteritis while I had no means to buy her food or seek assistance due to being trapped at home. I remember that feeling vividly: concern, agitation, and nervousness mingled as I watched her suffer helplessly, yet when I searched for “pet problems/help my pet” on social media, I was met with the utter confusion of only seeing people posting glossy photos to show off their pets. 

My pet Anshi is a lizard. Seeing people posting cute pictures of reptilians that strive in homes, I thought having one is easy. After adopting him, I found that supplies were unexpectedly scarce. Initially, I thought the lack of credible sources of information and supplies might only apply to reptiles, a “minority” in the pet community; to my surprise, I found that there is no such reliable platform even for dogs and cats. In China, where I live, pet-related content only exists in sub-channels on social media for humans, while no social media is actually pet-centered alone. Despite the massive fortune generated by the pet industry, what pets actually need is not paid enough attention, nor is the agency of pets valued. Therefore, one day, calling a neighbor who encountered the same problem of sourcing food and supplies with his corn snake, I decided to organize our community into action. Starting in my neighborhood, I tried to reach out to people who might have connections with a few people who could still leave the block during the lockdown and who might have connections with pet suppliers. We built a group chat and solved the pet supplying problem in my section of the neighborhood, which inspired me to build a platform for pet owners to connect with suppliers and more experienced culturists, oriented by the actual needs of pets, not for people to show off their pets. I started with a group chat in my neighborhood for about fifty families, in which we shared information about suppliers and methods of dealing with pet illnesses. One member’s lizard was going through molting, and others helped her by connecting her to a reptile breeder. In the group chat, others that haven’t connected to each other before offered a helping hand, successfully navigating her through this process. 

I see the necessity of human connection and collective power in solving problems. Therefore, I shared my worry that there is no platform for pet-only content, and people’s vanity to show off their pets overrides the actual need for pets in the sub-channel for pets. Several people resonated with me, and we scaled the group chat and built a platform for the hundreds of families in our neighborhood. It is a place for pets only, and I’m proud of it for being this way. Now, in our small community, there is a place for and to address the agency of pets.