Cooper in Chicago.

It's hard having a dog in the city, with no yard. Cooper came down to Chicago with me. My brother and his girlfriend live in a great apartment in Hyde Park...it's a wonderful, funky, diverse part of the city. They're 3 stories up, though...I had to be really dedicated and take Cooper out first thing in the morning before I'd had coffee. Oh, the horror! And then late at night, even after eating myself practically into a coma on Thanksgiving. Gah. We did have some lovely long walks though, through parks and along the lakeshore and around the city. And one must always, always carry plastic poop bags. I wonder how many hundreds of pounds of dog shit are produced in a large city on a daily basis? Thousands of pounds, perhaps. Yikes.
I know I wrote some time back about the Quaker parrot population in Chicago. That's not the only wildlife in the middle of the city - raccoons survive and thrive right near downtown, believe it or not! When I was pulling onto my brother's street on Wednesday night, one strolled right across the street in front of me. We were many blocks from the park and I'm not sure where they hide out. The writer of this article I found mentioned seeing one on 57th in Hyde Park, the one I saw was near 53rd. Wild.
Cooper also had a lovely time lying (and drooling) at Sara's feet while she was preparing Thanksgiving dinner. He got to eat the turkey giblets and lick all the plates clean.
Daphne didn't have nearly as interesting a time at home alone with her cat. But John the petsitting dude did a fine job, she gave him no problems at all and everything was nice and orderly when I got home. I left him with a stack of bully sticks (dehydrated bull penis dog chews, no kidding), a stuffed Kong and a large beef soup bone to give her. These kept her amused - and from eating couches. I didn't think it was fair to leave her crated so much and she did fine.