Dog phenomenon in resource-rich countries (and the case for cats)

One of the first things I observed when I started traveling internationally was the dog phenomenon. Here are some examples

1. Dogs living IN the house. Not in the home but INSIDE the house. In Africa, dogs are for guarding houses otherwise they do not eat. Thieves break into your house and destroy or take anything? The dog goes. no second chances.
2. Very tiny dogs. more than 20 years in and no one has answered that question satisfactorily enough for me. This year was the first time I saw one of them barking. they are in almost every house in Puerto Rico and man do they yap-yap at people walking by their owners' homes. If think I am lying see this small dogs catalogue
3. Dog clothes and I mean the entire shebang: coats, jackets, dresses, undies, jewelry, shoes. I had forgotten about that until 2012 when we moved to San Francisco temporarily I panicked for a moment when I entered a store looking for clothes for our son who then was 1.5 years old and all I could see were these teeny-tiny clothes. two thoughts ran through my mind: 1. This city must have a high incidence of premature deliveries 2. Where on earth are we going to get clothes big enough for our young man? I later discovered that children's clothes are generally not on the first floor.
4. Dog strollers/prams
5. Dogs in bags. Like literally there are handbags for dogs and the dogs sit in their docile "not saying a single word." I recall after a more than two-hour new student orientation session at the University of California San Francisco, the person doing the orientation introduced us to his dog who all this time had been sitting still inside a bag placed on a stool as tall and narrow as a lab stool.
6. Real dog boarding houses and hotels. The problem with dogs (which is one of the many reasons I like but do not love dogs) is that you cannot go away on a vacation or whatever and leave them by themselves. Cats are not like that. Anyway in many of these countries, there are hotels and boarding houses that room your dog for you when you have to be away from home. Services range from keeping your dog in a shared space with many others to a single room with smart TV and the entire bells-and-whistles situation.
7. Dog parents. Like people literally calling themselves Moms and Dads of their dogs and the dogs being called siblings of the children of the family. I think if it was okay to do that for cats I would be a cat Mommy. Meanwhile, all our pets (3 dogs and 3 cats) and every pet we have ever had have been given Tommy's surname as a last name so I guess this dog parent thing is not too far from us either,
8. Dog walking. out dogs in Uganda walk themselves. In the countries I have been to outside Africa, people actually either have to make time to walk their dogs while others have full-time and part-time jobs walking dogs for people too busy or not available to walk their own dogs. PS: Cats d not need walking. Another vote for cats as the best pets. (Do not bring pet fish into this equation)
9. Dogs licking their owner's face. okay, I first saw that on TV but all the same,
10. Having to pick up dog poop as you walk them. enough said.

If you need to adopt a cat or a dog in Uganda visit the Uganda Society for the Protection & Care of Animals (USPCA) in Mbuya. The cats and dogs are vaccinated and dewormed and the older ones are already spayed/neutered.

Here is our Mommy cat Cinnamon (adopted from the USPCA) and her kittens

Grey, Calico, Ginger, and Bagheera.