Some cities have always had an easy relationship with dogs. In St. John's, Newfoundland, I saw Irish wolfhounds snoozing in pubs; in Paris, I saw an unaccompanied terrier stop at the traffic intersection and trot across when the light changed.
St. Louis wasn't like that.
When I was a kid, dogs lived in backyards. We fed them kibble, threw sticks for them, cried when they died.
But then something shifted--maybe because of how hard we cried when they died. We realized they were family and let them live inside. We made sure they got an education and some manners. We paid attention--and we found out they had health problems remarkably like ours, and emotional acuity far greater. We found ourselves paying for joint replacements, lobbying for dog parks, setting up play dates, sneaking our best friends into work with us on weekends.
It took a while for St. Louis to catch up, but it did. Now dogs swim at public pools at the end of the season, go to a ball game at Busch Stadium at the start of the season, parade through Mardi Gras, and walk unaccosted into outdoor cafes in the Central West End. And earlier this month, Mayor Slay gave his blessing to the St. Louis PetLover Coalition, a pack of a dozen or more local animal-welfare groups that have come together for the first time.
It all started with invitations from Nestlé Purina, which wanted, for obvious reasons, to make our city one of the most pet-friendly places in the country. Now people who need a slobber fix can go to the coalition's new website to find volunteer opportunities, and member groups can share their resources, combining forces to encourage people to spay or neuter, adopt strays and senior dogs, and change inhumane conditions.
This isn't just a "community collaboration." It's a civilizing force.
Dogs have a way of making us more human.
--Jeannette Cooperman, staff writer
