Under the city’s food business regulation, only guide dogs and animals performing statutory duties had been permitted inside restaurants for more than three decades. That changed this month, when a new permit system took effect covering over 900 approved eateries in its first phase — part of a broader government push to build what officials describe as a pet-friendly society.

Worth noting for anyone keeping score: the permit is specifically for dogs. Cats were not included. Somewhere in Hong Kong, 400,000 pets are split into those celebrating and those filing a formal complaint.

The rules are precise. Participating restaurants must display their permit clearly at the entrance. Dogs are not allowed on dining tables or in contact with food and tableware. Preparing dog food on the premises is prohibited. And certain higher-risk formats — hotpot restaurants among them — were excluded from applying altogether.

The change is not happening in isolation. Hong Kong has already opened certain ferry routes and rural metro lines to pets, and public hospitals have begun allowing pet visits for palliative care patients. Government figures put the city’s pet population at roughly 400,000 cats and dogs across more than 240,000 households — a market officials are clearly paying attention to.

With permits capped at around 500 to 1,000 in this phase and allocated by lottery if demand runs over, the rollout is deliberately cautious. But for a city where dog owners have spent 32 years eating dinner without their dogs, it counts as a very good week.