Don't worry, its a cat spa

The Littlest Hobo

Just like any other city, you’ll find lots of people with pets here in Hong Kong. In a city as cramped, dirty, hot and impersonal as this, it’s nice to come home to a friendly face. However, those are the same reasons why you shouldn’t get a pet in Hong Kong. I think that it’s just so hot, apartments are so small, and there’s no place for them to go. I’m always amazed to see huge Rottweilers ambling down the streets of Hong Kong on dusty, greasy sidewalks filled with exhaust. The other day, I saw a huge St. Bernard in a garage, covered in filthy grease and panting in the 32 degree weather.

However, that’s not to say the people don’t love their pets. There are busy pet spas and pet stores throughout the city. The cages in the pet stores are awfully small and the methods at the pet groomers might seem a little unorthodox by our standards but the owners mean well.

One of our sales staff recently got a kitten and she was proudly showing pictures of him to the rest of the office. I showed her www.kittenwar.com so that I wouldn’t have to keep listening to her stories but then all hell broke loose. She became so mesmorized by the website that she immediately put her cat on the site (Meme) and has been following his win / lose percentage compulsively for weeks now. Another member of our staff volunteers at the SPCA whenever time permits.

The discussion around pets seemed to spark something in the office and my mom, the operations manager and the office manager all brought out photos of kids that they sponsored. My mom sponsored a boy whom they all agreed looked like a criminal. The office manager sponsored a boy whom they felt was so dark he may as well have been from Africa. The operations manager however, sponsored a girl who was chubby so they all felt that he was probably giving away too much money. Treating kids like pets? At least that explains why I use to get hit with rolled up newspapers.