FACING A scorcher of a day, Chan Kai-kei has brought his three-year-old to a new club in Yuen Long to beat the heat. Within minutes of arriving, Mui Mui is splashing happily in the club pool. 'I treat her as my daughter,' says Chan.
His 'daughter' is a golden retriever and the club is Pet World, one of many new facilities where doting owners can pamper their animals. The demand for such services has triggered a boom in pet hotels, pet cafes and pet resorts. They can be as luxurious as their human equivalents, with swimming pools, function rooms and specially designed grounds.
Some of the cafes organise events such as birthday parties for dogs or cats. Other centres offer a place where fashionable pooches or other pets can be dressed in the latest fashions, complete with accessories and a dab of the animal's favourite scent. There are also clinics that can treat them using traditional Chinese medicine.
The growth in services comes amid the second pet boom to hit Hong Kong. Operators say the first wave was in the early 1990s, when pet shops sprang up to offer a variety of fancy breeds. But as the novelty wore off and the economy slowed, business for pets and services slipped.
In recent years, Hong Kong's passion for pets has returned to levels on par with those in the US and Japan. But rather than being shown off as expensive toys, pets now occupy an elevated place in many owners' hearts, as companions and as substitute family, at a time when fewer people are having children in Hong Kong.
'Today, many owners treat their pets as their children, referring to themselves as the mummy and daddy,' says Guy Chan Chik-ai, the owner of Pet World.