Pets

ENTERING LOCAL STORES and diners in America, one may see a sign that lets the potential customers know- no shirt, no shoes, no service! When here in Cagli, I’m starting to wonder if anyone (store owners) have thought about customers having allergies to animals.

Just the other day, myself and my roommates decided to get a bite to eat. We had been serviced and were finishing a conversation when a man walks in with a huge pitbull. In the U.S., this would never happen—unless, of course, the operator of the store owned a dog (a “store dog”) and customers were naturally aware the dog existed.

We were not only frightened-- we were a little confused. We began to look around with bizarre expressions and started asking each other questions, since we aren’t as good as we’d like to be in speaking the Italian language.

“Cultural mismatch!” was what I yelled, “You’d never see that in the United States!”.

One thing that I have noticed, however, about the pets are that they are just that and are well taken care of and loved. So someone with allergies should worry, but being frightened is totally unnecessary because most of the animals (dogs and cats) are just like the people here: warm, happy, slow-paced walkers, and familiar with this small town… Cagli.

-Chanel Grundy