The Pet Department Store

I haven't seen a PetsMart (Canadian Pet Store) here in China, but I will do my best to detail the Chinese equivalent. As seen to the left, pets of all sorts in China are rapidly gaining popularity!

My colleague brought me to this pet store when she was shopping to buy some treats for her darling Schnauzer. On the first floor, we first ran into a mini seaworld. This part of the department store was full of tanks full of fish of various shapes, sizes and colours. There were also more exotic creatures thrown into the mix - one could find baby ducks (seen below), frogs, strange fish and alien looking turtles in the various shops. This pet place felt more like a shopping mall as there were vendors who each had their own little shop full of whatever wares and creatures they have decided to sell.

Ascending up to the second floor, we left the land under the sea to the land of above-ground fuzzies. Everything in sight was fuzzy, from tiny siberian hamsters, to bunnies with extra long fur to the occasional dog or cat in a cage, there was an animal to meet your pet-craving needs. There were rows of stores especially for cats, dogs and multiple different kinds of rodents. There were both common and rare animals up there for perusal. The rarest ones I saw where snow white chinchillas as well as a snow white ferret. In some places, stores had a mascot cat or dog which sat in the doorway to attract customers. At one of the stands, about 8 puppies were running around on top of their cage and could be petted by passerbies. Surprisingly, they did not jump off of their cage and run away, maybe the two foot drop acted as a bit of a deterrence for them! The interaction concept was prevalent as quite a few places allowed you to pet and interact with the pets they had for sale. There was also a dog grooming salon set up in one of the small shop spaces. Here, a Schnauzer and a well groomed Bichon Frise sat on grooming tables advertising the grooming services. One could tel that these were some very pampered pets! Quite a few of these stores were well-kept and appeared to offer great services to customers. Of course, Chinese language skills are a must, thus I think I'll hold off on buying a pet in China for a loooong time.