I call my family with genuine questions about their lives. Within two minutes I ask to see the pet. They turn the camera. The pet looks uninterested. I make several embarrassing sounds. For a moment the distance between countries becomes a small rectangle containing an animal who has already adjusted to my absence. It is funny, but it is also the safest kind of homesickness. I can say I miss the pet without making my parents worry that I regret leaving. Everybody understands the joke and nobody has to solve anything.