During her BA program at the Beijing Institute of Technology she studied product design, but researching life with pets is clearly a 24/7 occupation: her cat Bai for eight years, and now her dog Ido. "We are better off in China now; we need, want and can afford pets these days," she says, but the designer still fears people may not understand their little charges well and the animals suffer as a result. Zhang sees her products existing to make that bond across the species easier, better and more fun.

The needs of animals and pet owners in China have attracted the best and brightest. Mary Peng had a successful career in advertising when it got turned around by a stray cat. A Columbia graduate in East Asian Studies, she went to work for Dentsu, Young and Rubicam from 1991 to 1998, covering Taiwan and China's major cities. When she moved to the capital in 1991 and adopted a Turkish angora cat, she was surprised to find there were no veterinary services at all at the time. An agreeable vet with small animal experience had to be tracked down at the Chinese Agricultural University to provide rabies shots and spaying. The cat went back to New York City with Peng in 1998 while she got her MBA from her alma mater. When she returned to China with McKinsey & Company in 2002, she now had a much older cat; still there were no vets.

Animals figure big in Peng's value system. Taiwan-born and New York raised (from the age of three), her parents were Chinese farmers from Henan. The family always had pets; at one time, two dogs, three cats, 29 hamsters and a mynah bird in their home in Queens. She left her job at McKinsey with a new mission: visiting animal hospitals all across the US, Asia and China whenever she was on a trip somewhere. Two friends of hers became her business partners and they formed the International Center for Veterinary Services (ICVS) in 2006. Their enterprise is the first, and still the only, wholly owned foreign enterprise (WOFE) animal hospital and pet care facility in China.

Today, Beijing's regulations are typical of China's big cities, allowing only one dog to be registered per household, and limiting size within a radius around the city core. The first municipal dog restriction made in 1995 allowed citizens to raise pet dogs legally after paying a license fee of RMB 5,000 the first year and RMB 2,000 in subsequent years. At the time, dogs were responsible for more than 95 percent of all rabies transmissions and the steep cost was meant to restrict explosive growth. Before this statute the dog world was in a legal limbo, and authorities turned a blind eye to the animals until they made trouble... say, like biting people. Despite the steep costs, dog and cat ownership continued to grow, but it took 14 years for a private health care and services sector to develop. Peng explains that dog lovers were a phenomenon waiting to happen, whether the business sector was ready or not: "Even at a price that was more than the annual salary of an ordinary Chinese worker, records show 140,000 dogs were registered in 2002 in Beijing, and in 2003-2004 when the cost was reduced to RMB 2,000 it jumped to 410,000."

China has yet to institute a national rabies vaccination program, Peng admits. ICVS is leading a grassroots movement to inform and work with the government on compulsory vaccinations to prevent the return of practices like culling to control diseases that threaten humans, as was done in 2003 and 2004 for rabies in the southern provinces. Peng and her veterinarians also work with the animal husbandry bureau of Beijing to educate owners on finding legally registered and officially designated animal vaccination hospitals, putting an end to fake vets peddling dubious vaccines. Unregulated breeding has compounded the disease control issues as inexperienced puppy mills use a few representatives of popular breeds they've imported to create stock for sale, but as there are only a few of each breed the mothers are overworked and weakened, the puppies inbred and defective. Disease often does its worst work when the animal has already been sold, causing a family tragedy.

Andie Zhang feels some Chinese pet owners, unaccustomed to their furry four-footed friends, are ill-prepared for the responsibility and just abandon them in another neighborhood one day. But Peng doesn't buy the criticism that Chinese pet owners are irresponsible and cites some interesting statistics to back herself up: "Licensing your dog in NYC is $8.50 and there is only 10 percent compliance; in Beijing it's the equivalent of $170.00 but compliance is at least 30 percent and may be as high as 50 percent." Unwanted pets flood city shelters during peak expat departure times as well – summer, Christmas and after Chinese New Year. The PRC's government kennels can give strays only a few weeks to be claimed. Beijing's shelters – most privately owned, unlicensed, and run by animal lovers – are all overwhelmed. Peng works with them on good shelter management practices, neutering, adoption preparation and placement. Then she follows them home if she can. Pets can play such a big part in children's lives that Peng runs a workshop to teach them how to approach, understand and behave around dogs.

From the day they opened, ICVS had an animal welfare program in place, and cats get equal treatment. Their trap-neuter-return program relies on local volunteers to capture strays with ICVS-loaned equipment, then the cats are returned to their colony safely neutered and with an "ear tipping" that indicates they can no longer reproduce. Expats who need to know how to adopt a pet from a shelter, register a dog with the authorities, get four-legged companions in or out of the country, or how to handle their pet's fireworks phobias, go to ICVS for their regular workshops. When the Chinese zodiac brings a new creature into the cultural spotlight every year, fresh workshops address their care and feeding. In the Year of the Rabbit, it's the Bunny Care Basics naturally.

In America Peng would be a lobbyist. The list of organizations ICVS is engaged with to improve animal welfare in China includes the international SPCAs, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Humane Society International and the Jane Goodall Institute. Government bodies she works closely with are the ministries of Agriculture, Health, and Education, the Entry and Exit Bureau, and the quarantine authorities. She uses her knowledge and skills to make a major and ongoing contribution to animal welfare and to her permanent adopted home, one little life at a time. "I love it here; I am a visitor to America now," Peng smiles.