Is Perm Pet-Friendly? My Dog Got Lost Here Once (And It Was Weirdly Glorious)
i showed up in perm with a dachshund named gizmo, two suitcases, and zero idea what the local vets thought of ‘performance-based pet parenting.’ gizmo’s never met a squirrel he didn’t try to adopt. perm? it doesn’t care. neither do the locals.
the weather today is the kind of gray that smells like wet coats and forgotten pierogis. it’s not freezing, not warm-just perm. like the sky sighed and gave up. 12km away, chusovoy’s got pine forests that look like they were painted by someone still half-asleep. 30km the other way, kungur’s ice caves are where your dog goes to get spiritually purged. nobody talks about it. you just find out when your pup starts licking the air like it’s holy.
here’s the deal: perm has weirdly good dog parks.
- *park lenina-yes, the one with the Lenin statue that’s kind of slumped over now like he too got fed up with the bureaucracy. gizmo here sprinted 3 laps without a leash and didn’t get fined. local rumor: the guy who runs the ice cream stall there feeds strays beef jerky. sounds sketchy. maybe true. tripadvisor link
- park avtozavodskaya*-this one’s junkyard chic. 75% of the benches are broken. 100% of the dogs are wilder than you. there’s a sign that says ‘no geese’ in russian and doodles of a dog in a hat. i have no idea what it means but gizmo bowed to it. i did too. reddit local thread
vet-wise? let me tell you what a drunk grocery clerk whispered at 2am after i panicked because gizmo licked a streetlamp: "go to veterinarika on uskova, they’ll fix your dog, then charge you for tea and a deep emotional conversation." so i did. $28 for a checkup, $8 for the emotional tea. they had a parrot singing "st. petersburg" in a gym sock. it was real. they don’t have waitlists. they just nod and write your name on a piece of cardboard. yelp-style review from local forum
by the numbers, because someone said "data":
| Category | Perm (2024) |
|---|---|
| Avg rent (1br) | $410/month |
| Vet visit avg | $25-45 |
| Dog park count | 19 officially listed |
| Cost to crate a dog at airport | $11 (yes, really) |
| % of residents who own a pet | 37% (per permstat.ru) |
most importantly: everyone here owns a dog. or has known one. or will poke you with a stick and ask if yours like beet soup.
the dramatics? oh, they’re real. a local artist in the bus station made a mural of a husky holding a sobol (fur) pelt and tagged it "perm breed." i didn’t ask questions.
one guy at a café told me: "in perm, your dog knows more people than you do. and they trust it more." i started nodding. gizmo ate half a pie left on a windowsill and got a pat. people in perm take pets on trains like it’s nothing. no papers. no questions. just a tired hello and a shove in the waistcoat pocket.
don’t come here expecting Instagram-ready dog cafes with oat milk lattes. come for the truth: you’ll find a stray, feed it, and someone will show up in an old Lada with a blanket and say, "i’ve been watching him. he likes sardines. so do i. we’re a team now."
yeah. it’s weird. it’s cold. it’s low key chaotic. and somehow, pet-wise, it’s the least broken place i’ve ever been.
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