Walking With Dogs

Every day we walked through Chicago other people would be walking with us and around us. You would see people pushing strollers but more often than that you would see people walking their dogs. There was a dog around every corner you turned. I think the fact that people were walking dogs so often speaks to the community in Chicago. People get dogs to give themselves company and get them when they are comfortable with where they live. The dogs are a green flag for living here. When I see all the dogs I wonder how dogs are adjusted to living in a city, I also wonder what breeds are the best for cities. A strange theme I saw was that each dog was one of the cutest dogs I have ever seen in my life. There were mostly Golden Doodles, Golden retrievers, and Weiner Dogs. Each dog looked happy and content with where they were and what they were doing which leads me to assume that the owners were treating them well. Seeing the dogs made me feel safe and happy to be where I was. When we were walking through Goose Island not only did I not see any dogs but I did not see anyone else walking in general. The lack of walkers and dogs being walked made me not only feel not very safe but also gave the neighborhood a dystopian feel. There was a big juxtaposition of Goose Island and The Gold Coast. In the Gold Coast there were consistently people walking with their families and their dogs. Now it is no big surprise that this is the case, the Gold Coast is a wealthy residential neighborhood. Compared to Goose Island, which is a manmade island that has basically no residents and is a relatively run down industrial area. Seeing this made me think about a few things. The first being, if there is a disparity between classes and the owning of dogs and other pets. Secondly, what effect would that have on lower classes? Furthermore, I wonder if there is even fair access to pets for lower class families. Continuing down the path of wondering, I wonder what positive and negative effects owning a dog has on families. I would think that owning a pet brings a family together, throughout the time my dog was alive she brought my family closer. Just the amount of moments we had just hanging out petting her was enough to solve any family issue. Overall owning a dog brings people together; that is why I think seeing all the dogs out is a perfect metaphor for Chicago. The people of Chicago come together and it is one big community full of communities.