Do the dogs of Rogers Park live in the “Age of Uncertainty?” Vegas, 6, explores an evicted man’s personal effects.

When asked about her experience with gentrification, Bailey Hackett turned to the left, lifted up her leg and urinated on a tree.

Hackett was just four years old last year when condominium conversion pushed her out of her rental apartment on Green Leaf Avenue. She also happens to be a Shepherd mix (she prefers not to be called a “mutt”).

While Hackett declined to comment on her experience, a well-timed bathroom break and some exasperated panting illustrated Hackett’s frustration all too well.

It’s a familiar story for the people of Rogers Park: according to a 2006 study by the Lakeside Community Development Corporation, condo conversions reduced the Rogers Park housing supply by more than 3,600 units between 2003 and 2006. At that rate, spokesperson Brian White said, Rogers Park would lose more than 8,000 rental units by 2010.

“To afford to live here, your income must be $55,000 a year – much higher than the median income in Rogers Park of $30,000,” White said. “We are finding that in Rogers Park there are two housing markets: one for upper and middle class white folks; and one for minority folks, black and Hispanic primarily.”

But what about the housing market for the furriest victims of gentrification: the pets of Rogers Bark? What about the Fido who had to downsize to a smaller doghouse? Or the mutts finding themselves pushed out of a more “uppity” dog track, simply because they wear – well, blue collars?

Is gentrification pet-friendly, or will hipster hound dogs and yuppie puppies send the diverse dogs of Rogers Park packing?

“Her dog had literally passed out”

Rogers Park is a notoriously pet-friendly community: there’s no hospital in town, but you can be sure there’s an animal hospital. On RogersPark.com, there are six site subsections; up there with “Community” and “Calendar” is “People & Paws,” where an entire page is devoted to pictures of dogs, posted by their owners.

Margot Hackett walks up to 15 dogs each day, charging $12 for a standard 30-minute walk.

Bailey’s owner is Margot Hackett, 45. She runs the Rogers Park Dog blog and her own business, Dog-Tired Dog Walking & Cycling.

“I used to be a regional manager in retail. I was working 16 hours a day, and I was feeling so guilty about leaving [my dogs] at home,” Hackett said. “I felt like every day off, I had to spend every second of my time making it up to them.”

She likes the flexibility of her hours, but warned that getting paid to play with dogs all day is work, and not all play.

“I like the flexibility of it, because at the end of the day I can choose how long and how hard I want to work, but the downside is it’s a very difficult job because it’s hard to plan financially,” Hackett said.

In 2006, Hackett and the rest of the tenants of her building on Green Leaf filed a class-action lawsuit against New City Builders, Inc., a corporation that purchased the building in October 2005.

Hackett says that ruptured sewage and gas lines, filthy hallways and exposed electrical wiring on back porches was just the beginning of the “unbelievable” conditions of her building.

“One day in March, I came in, [New City] had turned on the heat so high in my apartment that I had to turn the air conditioner on. It was snowing. Another woman has a dog and birds and a cat; she came in, her dog had literally passed out,” Hackett said. “She had a thermometer: it was over 100 degrees in that apartment.”

“I’m paying $350 more than I was at my last place”

Stories like this don’t mesh well with Rogers Park’s reputation as a pet mecca; but Curtis Oliver, a realtor with I Got Properties, said that condominium conversions might actually create more homes for pups than they destroy.

“Most [condos] in the neighborhood now are leaning toward taking pets, because pets are just the new thing to have now. Everyone’s at the beach, the doggy park, with their dog. So a lot of the buildings that wouldn’t have taken dogs are now considering it a great deal.”

Alderman Joe Moore speaks to protesters of condominium conversion on Feb. 22 at Morse and Greenview.

Along with Bailey, Margot Hackett has two other canine companions: Macy Gray, 5, a Doberman / German shepherd / Labrador mix; and Sydney, 3, an Australian Cattle dog.

“Being a renter with three dogs was, in the middle of a class-action lawsuit – that was terrifying for me,” she said. “I was lucky to find someone who knew me, knew my character, knew my dogs, and was willing to rent to me. But the end result is, I’m paying $350 more than I was paying at my last place.”

White said that trends like this are “devastating.”

“We find that renters have been one, two and three times in a three-year period. It’s unlike anything seen in my lifetime and likely that of anybody twice my age,” he said.

White also warned that repeated displacement “disrupts patterns in social networks and family networks.”

Forty-ninth Ward Alderman Joe Moore said that since becoming alderman, he has been committed to providing more affordable housing.

“Whether you are working in a factory or you’re waiting tables or you’re cleaning up hotel rooms, you should have a place to stay right here in Rogers Park,” Moore said. “Buildings will continue to remain affordable places for people to live.”

Affordable places for people, perhaps.

“The dog feels better when it’s clean”

More threatening than financial costs to the less-than-purebred canines of Rogers Park may be the social costs of a neighborhood that’s movin’ on up.

The main argument for gentrification usually prioritizes a more affluent, cleaned-up community above one that’s known for its diversity.

“[Gentrification] brings more people to the neighborhood – people who are employed and contributing to the whole tax base,” Oliver said. “Yes, this influx of condominiums that have come into the neighborhood kind of changed the landscape a bit. But that’s a good thing because it’s a little more safe.”

So what does a dog have to do to keep up with an upwardly-moving – and increasingly uppity – neighborhood?

Kate Ward, 23, is an assistant groomer at the Rogers Bark Pet Salon. She’s lived in Rogers Park for two years now, believes that pets sometimes look like their owners and is committed to a “pampering” experience for pets.

“We do bathing and grooming, nail trim, ear cleaning, release of the anal glands,” she said. “It’s definitely a pampering. The dog feels better when it’s clean, and when it doesn’t have mats in its hair and everything like that. And then we sell a lot of naturalistic products for dogs and cats.”

A bijan frise poodle, Snoopy’s fur is so white that it blends in with the snow.

Pet odor candles in such scents as “Orange Blossom” and “Mulberry and Spice” line the shelves of Rogers Bark. A calendar displays a pup in a bumblebee costume.

“In the winter time, when the skin is really dry,” Ward continued (yes, she’s still talking about dogs), “sometimes they need a medicated shampoo.”

Specialty baths for dogs include a Whitening Bio-Groom shampoo which promises to “whiten whites and brighten colors.”

“The dog is a lot happier after they leave,” Ward said.

One such dog is Snoopy, a two-year-old bijan frise poodle. While Snoopy declined to comment (all dogs in this story, strangely enough, declined to comment), his owner, Veronica Urquiza, said that she enjoys taking her pup to Rogers Park and spoiling him a bit.

“Snoopy has his own little bed in my condo,” Urquiza said. “Most people in Rogers Park are very focused on taking care of their dogs.”

Release of anal glands and all.

“Life’s tough out there for ugly dogs”

But what about those pushed-out mutts who won’t be in for a fur-whitening shampoo anytime soon? The results could be dire, warned one self-proclaimed cuteness expert.

Patrick St. Michel, 20, runs, operates and reports for the “Cute Animal Blog” on Northbynorthwestern.com. “I’m an authority on cuteness,” he said.

“I’ve been doing extensive research on the topic and my findings indicate that when a dog or a puppy – especially puppies – are displaced from their homes, they become upwards to 30 percent less cute than they originally were,” St. Michel said. “And, I mean, life’s tough out there for ugly dogs.”

The signs that a dog is rapidly losing “cuteness potion,” as St. Michel called it, are easily detected – but sometimes after it’s too late.

“You’d see less tongue-waving, less head-bobbing. When they chase their tails, they just don’t have the energy. Sit, roll over – no more. They may roll over dead.”

“Grin and bark it”

It’s hard to reconcile the images of Bailey, relieving herself on a tree mid-interview; and Snoopy, bleached to poodle perfection. But according to St. Michel, there’s hope.

“There have been great strides in the history of ugly puppy, cute puppy relations, you know, it’s not nearly as segregated as it once was,” he was.

From the top-down approach, White proposed a two-part plan to combat what he called a “housing crisis” and to halt gentrification in Rogers Park.

“We’re pushing for an ordinance that would require developers that are seeking permits for replacement housing to file an affidavit to let people know what their intentions are,” White said.

Lakeside CDC is also supporting a comprehensive and citywide condominium conversion ordinance.

“The crisis we are seeing here is not just a Rogers Park problem, but the solutions can come from Rogers Park leadership,” White said.

St. Michel offered similar condolences and hope, leaving this for the displaced dogs of Rogers Park:

“A lot of it is just perseverance, that old canine soul they’ve displayed so well over the years. Just grin and bark it.”