WUCAT

Weird, unique, confusing, awesome. These are the words that have been popping into my head almost daily, ever since I moved to Buenos Aires. I'll be walking down the street, or sitting (read: sweating) on the Subte, or having lunch with a friend, and all of a sudden I'll see something that just makes me go, "Hmm." Or if I were Canadian, “Eh?” Or, alternatively, “Sweet!” These things happen with such frequency that I figured I should start writing them down as a kind of tribute/memoriam to the oddities of Buenos Aires life. And thus we have WUCAT. I used my extreme creativity and extraordinary brainpower to come up with the sophisticated acronym WUCAT (Weird Unique Confusing Awesome Things), which I will document here on my blog. I know. How cool am I? Just go with it people!

Anyway, our first WUCAT is something I saw today but that reminded me how much I used to see it back in August, when it was colder: clothing on dogs. Now, I know Paris Hilton dresses her little dog in tutus and whatnot, and some “It” New Yorkers might deck their pooches in Pucci, but in Buenos Aires dressing your dog is almost the norm. Back in winter I used to see it all the time: little white poodles (the ubiquitous pet of choice for porteños, seriously they are EVERYWHERE) trotting around in miniature coats, scarves, and kerchiefs. Once I saw one wearing booties. Booties! Understandable on a sled dog in the deep Alaskan winter, but on a fluffy poodle in an Argentine winter? It was a little much, I have to say. But my favorite is seeing dogs wearing human clothes. I’ve seen plenty of larger dogs wandering around the city sporting T-shirts (front legs through the sleeves) of various styles. My all-time favorite was a gorgeous Irish setter wearing a Led Zeppelin shirt! A beautiful animal with good taste in music? Wish his owner had been around…

Next installment of Riding the Colectivo coming soon!