Valparaiso is the only city I have visited where dogs and cats thrive in equal measure. In a system of relationshiops running parallel to that of their human counterparts, the animals' patterns of territorial use and behavioral interaction map the city’s fine-grained inhabitability in terms of threshold, prospect, and refuge.
A street section in Valparaiso creates stacked tiers of accessible safety leaving dogs lying comfortably at the bottom, cats treading carefully in the middle, and pigeons perched mindlessly overhead. Although this simple hierarchy holds true in any city, it is rarely fleshed out in such furry extravagance. Moreover, the same steep slope and the domestic scale that sets Valparaiso’s particular patterns in motion also subverts them…such that a pigeon perched on a roof may sit within snatching reach of cats or dogs, depending on the severity of the situation. The inclined terrain’s sectional omnipresence juxtaposes modes and manners of inhabitabation as clearly with the animal kingdom as with civilized society.
The following is a matrix of provisional categories empirically established via recent wanders through Valparaiso’s various neighborhoods:
There are three types of dog. Dog-in-street is almost always nice but often skittish and sometimes stand-offish, Dog-on-stoop is almost always nice but sometimes stand-offish, Dog-in-yard is almost always mean but occasionally nice.
There are three kinds of cat. Cat-in-street is usually skittish but sometimes nice, Cat-on-sill is often nice sometimes skittish, and Cat-in-window is N/A; he doesn’t give a shit about you and you’re not getting to him so why bother attempting a detailed description.
Finally, to complete the tri-partite pyramid, there is the pigeon. Pigeon-in-street is audacious but elusive, Pigeon-on-perch is wary and skittish, and Pigeon-on-wire is contentedly aloof and a fecal hazard. Dogs chase pigeons, cats chase pigeons, but I restrain myself (occasional stutter-step feigned attack nontwithstanding).
The picture to the bottom right depicts an uneasy co-habitation. The dogs have placed themselves in front of their owner’s door and, comfortable with its semi-public condition, are friendly and receptive. The cat claims the same stoop where it has been reduced to a sill dimension. He has situated himself just next to the dogs but remains safely out of reach. The cat was so bold as to rub against the dogs while I was petting them but the moment I moved away he immediately (albeit nonchalantly) retreated to his defensive position. Note the fringe of fencing that protects him from the less-nimble neighbors.
