Buenos Aires, Argentina ? In this city, you have to watch your step.

That’s because the residents of Buenos Aires, Argentina, love their dogs, and the city’s sidewalks are full of them. Veterinarians work out of street-front stores that often are sandwiched between businesses such as coffee shops and clothing boutiques.

Professional dog-walkers – called paseaperros here – regularly parade through the traffic on crowded sidewalks with as many as 15 dogs at one time, all of them leashed together.

Julieta Kesel, 7, has grown up watching sights like these occur every day on the sidewalks outside the condominium building where she lives. She has learned to recognize all different breeds of dogs – Labradors, golden retrievers, poodles and dalmatians. And every day she asks her mother for a dog of her own. (Julieta’s parents think she probably needs to be a little older to have a dog of her own. Plus, their house is small. But neither of those reasons keeps Julieta from asking!)

For now, she owns only the stuffed kind. Her bedroom is home to more than 25 toy dogs. “On vacation once, we found a dog that was lost, and I took care of it,” Julieta said. “We found the family, though, so we had to give the dog back. Its name was Spot. Now the name of the black-and-white stuffed dog that I sleep with is Spot.”

In addition to her 25 stuffed dogs, Julieta lives with her mom, dad and 4-year-old brother, Santiago. Julieta’s mom makes crafts and games for kids and her dad is a furniture designer.

When schoolchildren in the United States are getting ready for summer vacation, Julieta is getting ready for class. South of the equator, the seasons are reversed, so winter comes in the chilly months of June, July and August. And summer doesn’t heat up until December, January and February, when the temperature usually hovers around 90. Julieta began second grade two months ago, in March.

Julieta gets up at about 7:30 most mornings to get ready for school. Like most students in Argentina, she wears a school uniform. Her mother or father drives her the 15 minutes to school, where she takes her seat alongside the 25 other students in her class. She studies Spanish, math, art and technology, which teaches her how things are built.

“Last week we made a seesaw, and today we made a toboggan,” she said after school one day last month. After lunch, Julieta’s classes include music, theater and English.

She doesn’t speak much English yet – Spanish is the national language of Argentina – but she hopes to continue to learn it. Because Julieta attends a Jewish school, she also has classes in religion and Hebrew. About 4:30 p.m., the school day ends and Julieta goes home with her mother.

Before she goes to bed, she usually plays with her brother. And before the lights go out for the evening, she almost never forgets to do one more thing: She asks her mom for a dog, again.