“We just thought, ‘Oh my God we have to go meet this dog he looks absolutely gorgeous.’ So we went to visit him and that was it. It sounds like such a cliché but we knew that was our dog.”

Catherine Lumsden started the adoption agency in 2015 and has since found homes for around 1,100 rescued dogs. Lumsden said they currently have just under 70 adult dogs at the shelter in Sai Kung and around seven puppies being fostered.

Lumsden said they adhere to the “adopt, don’t shop” mentality which places the onus on finding dogs “forever homes”, something Grey said she witnessed first-hand.

“She actually told us to go home and sleep on the decision, which I thought was really important. Because you can get swept up in the moment when you come to the shelter and see all the dogs and end up making an emotional decision.”

However the booming pet economy has brought its own issues, mostly owners who don’t know how to adequately care for the pet and either abandon them or put them up for adoption. The World Health Organisation estimates there is around 200 million stray dogs worldwide, a figure that has been on the rise as the “no kill movement” swept through many nations in the past few years.

Hong Kong woman jailed for seven weeks for abusing dogs in breeding farm

Nadia Cuvelier, who works in sponsorship & corporate partnerships for the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, said she has fostered multiple puppies along with her husband Jonny Rees. Cuvelier, who plays for Valley RFC, and Rees, a former national team member who plays for HKFC, have two permanent additions to their family: Derek, who they adopted when he was six months old three years ago, and a German Shepherd Matilda, who they just adopted last week.

Cuvelier said Derek, who is a mongrel, is a “superstar” when it comes to his personality. His name was already chosen when they fostered him, but Cuvelier said he’s lived up to his moniker as he has a “mean Blue Steel” like male model Derek Zoolander, who was played by Ben Stiller in the movie Zoolander.

“He has been a breeze as a pet,” she said. “We have been incredibly lucky with him as he was almost fully potty trained when we were fostering him, and he is incredibly sociable and good with young children, and barely barks.”

Both Cuvelier and Grey said they were unsure about adopting a dog at the start, but have found Hong Kong mostly welcoming to four-legged friends. Both said most taxi drivers are willing to accommodate, and restaurants are usually dog-friendly from their experiences in the city.

“We also had some reservations about having a dog in Hong Kong, but it’s actually a lot easier than you think,” Cuvelier said. “Having lived in London and seen how dog-friendly it is with dogs allowed on public transport, Hong Kong was a bit of a shock, but we’re lucky to have relatively cheap taxis that you can take with your dog ... You just have to remember: although we don’t all live in a big house with a garden, your apartment is better than being in a cage or kennel where they are fighting for space.”

Grey said this is what sold them on making the switch to dog owners – a feeling of responsibility in helping instead of remaining inactive. “When I saw the picture of Loki, he had been dumped in a bin with his siblings, and they were really little puppies – between four and six weeks. And we just kind of thought, ‘this is our opportunity to give this puppy a better life’.”