Dogtown

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal cruelty and death, ableism, and death.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the folks who visited Dogtown 2.0 went home with robot dogs. Oh the excuses they had!

They were clean freaks.

They were cat people.

They were allergic.

They didn’t like dogs who pooped.”

These lines set up the conflict between organic and robot dogs, as well as the frustration that organic dogs feel toward humans, laying the groundwork for further exploration of The Dangers of Inequality and What It Means to Be Alive. Chance speaks for all organic dogs with her irritation here, and the reasons she cites for humans wanting robot dogs reveal the priorities that humans have when adopting pets. The final excuse in particular hints that humans don’t want the responsibility of taking care of organic dogs and shows the appeal of robot dogs, who require less maintenance. These reasons hurt the organic dogs because they feel like excuses and because they have life-or-death consequences.

“Geraldine, a Saint Bernard, was really ticked off. (She got sent to Dogtown because—how do I put this delicately?—her piles were too large. I don’t understand humans. Doesn’t seem that difficult to figure out. Big dog. Big…)”

This excerpt introduces Geraldine, the hierarchy at Dogtown, and the struggles that organic dogs face with humans. It also supports the previous quotation by referencing the reason Geraldine was brought to Dogtown—her humans didn’t like how much she defecated. Throughout the book, Chance observes that she doesn’t understand humans, and this example shows the differences in how dogs and humans think. Chance thinks it is fairly obvious that larger dogs will produce more waste.