Guide helps owners settle into life in the city with their furry friends

Two cats named Lynx and Black Cat have lived on three continents. They were born in Los Angeles in 2002, then moved to Sydney and now the pair live in Hong Kong. As globe-trotting siblings, they have followed their owner, Pilar Morais, around the world.

'Pets are supremely important in my life. I've always grown up with pets,' Morais says. 'I was in university and, before [I got them], I would come home to nothing. To keep me company, I ended up fostering two cats that I never gave up.'

As the CEO of Chi Residences in Hong Kong, Morais realised that many of the guests at her company's serviced apartments wanted to relocate to the city with their pets. So, in September, she brought out a helpful 12-page Pet Guide (mainly about dogs and cats) for her company's short and long-term residents.

'It took a quite a while,' Morais explains. 'About two to three months of thinking and talking about it, then trudging around the area to find places and asking friends with pets about their experiences.'

Chi Residences has four serviced-apartment locations across Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, but 120 Connaught Road is the company's pet-friendly address with about 50 per cent of residents being pet owners. 'We found that we were getting a lot of business from relocation companies [that] were looking for a pet-friendly place,' she says. 'When people move overseas, they are in the habit of moving with their animals, they are not just a pet, but a member of the family.'

Compared with the United States, Morais says, Hong Kong is slowly becoming more pet friendly. 'In America, pets are everywhere. And 70 per cent of hotels are pet-friendly and restaurants have bowls outside for dogs to drink from. Pets are on people's minds,' says Morais, who now owns three cats and three dogs. 'If it's possible, people bring their pets. [Pet relocation] is a competitive industry, so it isn't an exorbitant cost to relocate them with you.'