The New Dog's Life.

The cake is homemade, decorated with HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOPHIE in gloppy red icing. We gather around the 4-year-old and sing the birthday song, but the camera isn't ready, so we sing again. Cake comes with assorted flavors of ice cream. Sophie's friend Duncan grabs from another little guest's plate, and the adults make them share. When it's finally time to open gifts, Sophie's too pooped to care.

Sophie's not a party animal. But she is a dog, as are Duncan and half the guests at the fete arranged by Doggie Heaven, a Seattle bakery and boutique for canines. I'm visiting my hometown after several years of living in Hong Kong, and I'm stunned by the contrast, at least so far as it involves pups. In parts of Asia, many people still prefer to cook a dog than pet it. But in America, man's best friend has never had it so good.

Dogs have moved from the doghouse into the master bedroom. In fact, these days they do everything we two-legged Americans do: wear tuxes to weddings, go to day care run by people with M.A.s in educational psychology, loiter at bookstores, swallow Chinese medicine and omega-3 vitamin supplements. Friends of mine take allergy pills so their Labrador can sleep in their bed. He accompanied them to a Halloween party dressed as a dragon, and on his 2d birthday he got $100 worth of toys, cake and flank steak.

Such canine coddling seems to have attained new heights since I last visited Seattle. Here, I discover, it's no longer P.C. to be a dog's "owner," let alone "master." Dogs are now "family." This weird transmogrification from beast to near human undoubtedly owes something to the fact that more Americans are deciding to stay single these days, or else not to have children. A tail-thumping golden retriever is a terrific stand-in for kiddies (cute, slobbers, needs potty training, pitter-patters behind you) or a spouse (will lick your face, cuddle and go on long walks with you when you're feeling blue). And as Americans live more impersonal lives, working at home and communicating over the Internet, dogs are a natural go-between. "So many people just look at dogs and smile," says Eileen, a married lawyer I know who cooks turkey soup, broccoli and hamburger for her dogs and is learning doggie CPR.

Only half her friends think she's nuts. The rest, like her, don't bat an eye at New Age pet-food catalogs that read like Gourmet: ...