Frisky, my inspiration for Dog Humiliation, Humiliated Dog, was a former boyfriend’s childhood pet. When he was in junior high and high school, the boyfriend— Mike Marer, drummer for the punk band Bad Posture—enjoyed taking photographs and had assembled several albums’ worth featuring his dog. There was something endearing, mundane and fascinating about the number of pictures of Frisky he had taken—maybe because it was such a stark contrast to his onstage punk persona.

For most of th e year I’m more than happy with my decision not to have kids. But then the holidays come around and I want to send out cards and realize I can’t because somehow this has turned into a thing that only parents are allowed to do. It didn’t used to be this way. It used to be that people just sent regular cards and if they wanted to stick in a snapshot or some school portraits of their kids that was a perfectly fine option. But it wasn’t standard. It wasn’t de rigueur.