The latest
Pet adoptions, fostering boomed during coronavirus pandemic
Alice Brunner’s dog, Frankie, hops onto her lap as if the small canine holds the deed to the property.
Brunner doesn’t even attempt to feign disapproval. She loves the pup: “She’s certainly made my life happier and dispels a lot of gloom on gloomy days,” said the retired stockbroker, who lives by herself in Old Town and adopted the shelter pup from PAWS Chicago.
The need for cuddly, loving moments is helping to drive a boom in people seeking to foster or adopt a pet during the pandemic.
“A lot of single people working from home wanted a companion,” said Katie Sershon, a volunteer with PAWS. “It provides structure and purpose to take care of something else, you’ve got to get up and keep a routine.”
But demand outpaced supply at many shelters in the area. The stacked rows of cages that line the picture windows of the Anti-Cruelty Society’s Near North Side headquarters were nearly empty for the first time in a long time.
Cuteness alone doesn’t account for the increased interest. Foster applications skyrocketed in the spring when shelters sounded alarms over social media requesting help in freeing up kennel space to allow for an expected rush to care for pets whose owners were hospitalized or otherwise struggling because of the coronavirus.
People stepped up. Applications increased exponentially at many area shelters. The Anti-Cruelty Society placed 1,256 pets in foster care from March through November, a 35% increase from the 928 pets placed a year earlier.
Jonathan Corvin-Blackburn fostered a cat named Blep who jumps on his desk during video conference calls and licks his nose.
“Thankfully, my colleagues think she’s cute,” said Corvin-Blackburn, 29, a product designer at Grubhub who lives by himself in Uptown. He couldn’t bear to part with his Anti-Cruelty foster pet, so he adopted.
Read Mitch Dudek’s full story here.
News
7:26 a.m. With 2020 almost in our rearview mirrors, we asked Chicagoans: How will you describe this year in the future?
Some answers have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
“My husband and I grew closer in quarantine, even though we couldn’t do a lot of the things we wanted to. Having each other is more important than any missed activities.” — Betty Mantell
“It was the year I saw another side of some of the people in my life, and how they handled themselves during a crisis. Some did it with amazing grace, some did it with amazing stupidity.” — Denise Fricano
“A nightmare, but grateful for what I have and my health.” — Myrna Kar
“Exhausting, surreal and a bit like war — long stretches of boredom interrupted by a few moments of sheer terror.” — Christopher B. Alexandrov
“The year my wife and I were blessed with so much quality time with our now 2 and 4-year-old children.” — Ryan Elliott
“I am 72. Seen a lot, but this has been the strangest.” — John Green
Keep reading what Chicagoans said about 2020 here.
New cases
Analysis and commentary
7:17 a.m. Early numbers on Chicago’s vaccine rollout show extra effort is a must on South and West sides
On Dec. 15, health care workers across Chicago began receiving the city’s first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Quickly, a potentially troubling pattern emerged.
Within days, doctors and other health care workers from high-income, largely white communities near downtown and on the North Side showed up in large numbers to get shots at the hospitals where they work. By Dec. 26, the greatest number of vaccinations citywide were of doctors and other health care workers from the Near North Side and in Lake View, Lincoln Park, South Loop and Wicker Park, an analysis by the Sun-Times’ Brett Chase and Elvia Malagón found.
But for workers living in lower income and working class neighborhoods of color on the South and West sides, the picture looked much different. From Dec. 15 through 26, the fewest vaccinations in the city were of health care workers from the mostly Black Far South Side; and from West Lawn, Chicago Lawn and Belmont Cragin, neighborhoods with large Latino populations. Both areas have among the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the city.
The analysis is a stark reminder of the extra effort that will be needed to ensure high rates of vaccination for communities of color.
Chicago and Illinois cannot beat back COVID-19 and end the pandemic unless vaccination becomes the rule, not the exception, in every part of our city.
