Heartopia fills its town with animals, but only cats and dogs can move into your home as full pets. Everything else in the forest and fields is for befriending, not adopting. To bring a cat or dog onto your plot, you need to hit a specific progression milestone and unlock two late‑game hobbies that sit on top of the town’s core systems.
When pets unlock in Heartopia
Pet adoption becomes available when you reach D.G. Member Level 12 (Developer’s Guild / D.G. Member’s Guild). Hitting level 12 takes several real‑world days of normal play, because you need enough contribution medals and basic progression through the town.
As soon as you reach Level 12, Heartopia automatically adds a quest that points you to Mrs. Joan and her adoption centre in the town square. This is the only place where you can formally adopt pets.
Before that quest appears, you must already have all five base hobbies unlocked:
- Cooking
- Gardening
- Insect Catching
- Bird Watching
- Fishing
Those hobbies are prerequisites because pets themselves are treated as two additional hobbies: Cat Caring and Dog Caring. They are effectively the capstone activities on the D.G. Member progression track that focuses on everyday routines.
How to unlock Cat Caring and Dog Caring
Once the Level 12 quest sends you to town, Mrs. Joan is found in the Pet Supplies / Adoption Center building in the central square.
Step 1: Talk to Mrs. Joan after reaching D.G. Member Level 12. She introduces the idea of adopting pets and walks you through her rules for the adoption centre.
Step 2: When prompted, provide a Hobby Expansion Ticket. This ticket is what formally unlocks the pet‑related hobbies. Handing it over adds Cat Caring first, then Dog Caring shortly afterward.
At the current stage of the game, you have enough Hobby Expansion Tickets to unlock both Cat Caring and Dog Caring, and there is no competing “last choice” hobby you might want to save them for. However, unlocking a hobby does not force you to take a pet home immediately. You can leave the adoption centre and come back another day.
How adoption works in Mrs. Joan’s centre
Mrs. Joan runs the adoption centre with a rotating roster of animals. Every in‑game day, she offers:
- Three cats available for adoption
- Three dogs available for adoption
All six pets refresh daily. Breeds, colours, coat patterns, eye styles, and personalities change from one day to the next, so if nothing appeals to you, you can simply check back after the next reset.
There is no way to tame or adopt wild animals like alpacas, deer, capybaras, birds, or pandas. Those belong to Heartopia’s separate “animal care” and wildlife‑befriending systems. Only cats and dogs can become house pets through Mrs. Joan’s process.
How to adopt a cat in Heartopia
Cats always come first in the pet progression. The Level 12 quest and Mrs. Joan’s initial dialogue both focus on unlocking Cat Caring and guiding you through your first feline adoption.
Step 1: Speak to Mrs. Joan and choose the option that mentions cats. This starts the Cat Caring flow and points you toward the cat area inside the shop.
Step 2: Walk up to each of the three cats. When you get close, a bubble appears above that cat’s head; interact with it to open the pet’s ID card.
Each ID card shows three key details:
- Breed – such as Siamese, Black Cat, Calico, Tuxedo Cat, Raccoon Cat, Panda Cat, various tabbies, and others.
- Gender
- Personality traits – two traits that shape how the cat behaves day to day.
Personality traits do not lock you out of content, but they do change flavour and behaviour. Examples include:
- Chatterbox – more frequent meowing.
- Clingy – follows you closely at home and may damage furniture more often.
- Energetic – wants more playtime and stays active.
- Naughty – more prone to mischief.
- Quiet – rarely vocal.
- Sensitive – picky about food.
- Slow – hunger decreases slowly.
- Sluggish – energy runs out faster, less active.
- Sociable – craves more interaction.
- Unsociable – needs less attention.
Step 3: When you find a cat you like, select the Adopt button on its card. You must also pay a small exam fee (500g) as part of the shelter’s process, then choose a name. Cats can be renamed later if you change your mind.
Step 4: After confirmation, the cat is transported straight to your home plot. You can see where they are at any time by opening the Pet Tab / Pet Catalog on your in‑game smartwatch.
From this point on, every interaction with your cat—feeding, petting, bathing, playing, walking, and training—earns Cat Caring experience and pushes that hobby up its skill tree.
How to adopt a dog in Heartopia
Dogs are unlocked immediately after cats, but the conversation flow is slightly confusing the first time because Mrs. Joan insists on explaining cats before she will talk about puppies.
Step 1: Talk to Mrs. Joan and complete her initial cat‑focused dialogue at least once. This is required even if you ultimately want a dog first.
Step 2: Speak to her again, and now choose the option about dogs. This switches her explanation over to the Dog Caring hobby and opens up the dog side of the adoption centre.
Step 3: Approach each of the three dogs and interact with the bubble that appears above their head to open their ID cards. As with cats, you see:
- Breed
- Gender
- Two personality traits
Step 4: When you find a dog that fits your preferences, hit Adopt, confirm your choice, and name your new pet. The dog moves directly to your home plot and appears in the smartwatch’s Pet tab.
Dog interactions work similarly to cat interactions, but there are a few extras. You can train dogs to perform actions with explicit feedback prompts and take them out for formal walks. Dogs can also ride vehicles like your bike in specific situations, while cats are more likely to perch on you at home—clingy cats can literally jump on your head.
Daily pet care: how to raise Cat Caring and Dog Caring
Cats and dogs are more than decorations. Each pet is a source of ongoing progression through the Cat Caring and Dog Caring hobbies. To level them, you need to fold pet care into your daily loop.
Core interactions for both species include:
- Petting – at least once per day to get your basic bond and hobby XP.
- Feeding – either with pet food from Mrs. Joan or with appropriate items from your own stores. Cats strongly favour fish; dogs lean toward crops and other foods tied to gardening.
- Bathing – occasional grooming sessions that also contribute to your hobby progression.
- Playing – especially important for energetic or sociable animals, and for teaching cats poses and tricks.
When training a cat with toys like a teaser, you wait for the cat’s reaction and then press the button that matches the prompt shown above their head. Successful inputs raise that cat’s training level and unlock new poses. The “Kitty Time” collection tracks the poses and tricks your cat has learned. Taking photos of these poses adds stars to the collection and unlocks additional rewards.
Dogs have their own training loops where giving the right feedback—praising the correct behaviour, responding when they perform actions—accelerates how quickly they learn. Formal walks are another important lever for Dog Caring experience, provided you keep the dog nearby. If you sprint off on foot or scooter and leave them lagging behind, the walk ends, and the dog returns home.
Both cats and dogs occasionally show a gift bubble above their head. Collecting these gifts records shared memories and often ties into bond‑level rewards.
One important downside of closer bonds is that pets can damage furniture. Cats with Naughty or Clingy traits are more likely to scratch and break things; you need to repair these items when you notice the damage.
Cat Caring levels and what they unlock
The Cat Caring hobby uses a ten‑level progression curve. You earn Cat Caring points every time you feed, pet, bathe, play with, or walk your cats, and when you run training sessions or capture collection photos.
The rewards are a mix of growth buffs, cosmetic capacity, automation, and additional cat slots. Highlights across the tree include:
- Repeated Cat Moment upgrades that raise the chance of high‑star moments in your Kitty Time collection.
- Multiple tiers of More Accessories that expand the number of costume slots in the Cat Store, up to six slots at Level 10.
- Stacking Cat’s Best Friend perks that make cats grow faster, up to a 25 percent growth speed boost at higher levels.
- Cattery VIP tiers that increase how many cats you can keep at home:
- Second cat at Cat Caring Level 3
- Third cat at Level 5
- Fourth cat at Level 7
- Fifth cat at Level 9
- Auto‑Feed unlocks that let you buy automatic feeders from the Pet Supplies shop, eventually covering more pets so they stay fed even when you are busy elsewhere.
At full investment, you can keep up to five cats on your home plot. Any additional cats must be boarded for a fee or left unadopted in the shelter rotation.
Dog Caring levels and extra pet slots
The Dog Caring hobby mirrors Cat Caring, but with its own progression curve and thresholds for additional dogs. Core care—feeding, petting, bathing, playing, training, and walking—feeds into Dog Caring XP in the same way, and the hobby tree unlocks more features as you level.
Key dog capacity breakpoints are:
- Second dog at Dog Caring Level 4
- Third dog at Dog Caring Level 8
Combined with Cat Caring’s maximum, that means a fully invested home can eventually host up to five cats and three dogs at once.
Choosing the right pet and managing long‑term
Because you cannot freely swap pets, the best long‑term approach is to treat adoption like character creation. Take time to read ID cards carefully, consider traits alongside breed and pattern, and check the daily lineup over multiple resets rather than grabbing the first cute option you see.
Traits like Clingy, Naughty, or Sensitive can make care slightly more demanding, but they do not lock you out of progression or cosmetic rewards. Every cat can learn all poses, and every dog can reach the same training milestones. The main difference is how much daily interaction and attention they expect.
Boarding for 20,000g gives you a safety valve if your home feels overcrowded or you want to experiment with new pets later in your Heartopia playthrough. Until rehoming becomes available much deeper into D.G. Member levels, though, every adoption is effectively a long‑term commitment.
Once you understand that structure—Level 12 D.G. unlock, Hobby Expansion Ticket for Cat and Dog Caring, daily rotations of three cats and three dogs, and hobby trees that gate extra slots—you can plan your town schedule around when to add pets and how many you want to manage at once.
