If 60 is the new 40 and orange is the new black, are dogs the new children?

Forbes recently put Austin, Texas, atop its list of America’s Next Boom Towns: “The nation’s superlative economy over the past decade.” That means young professionals have flocked to the city, often putting careers over parenthood but still wanting a little one to love—and that often means a dog.

One of the city’s new high-end pet stores, Phydeaux & Friends, attracts young, single professionals with money to spend. Taylor Polk, store marketing director, said her clients “are waiting longer to get married and have kids, so their dogs become their whole world.” Karry Stevens said she takes her 8-year-old cavachon, Marley, everywhere—even sometimes discreetly slipping in and out of coffee shops. The two appear inseparable: When not in her arms, the petite fluffy bundle does not leave Stevens’ side. “He is definitely my child,” Stevens said.

Trendy food trucks now cater to Austin humans, and Bow Wow Bones does the same for dogs. Its converted ice cream truck has specialty foods, treats, and yes, ice cream, all available for “Yappy Hour” catering. Sherri and Dominic Pengjad hire the Bow Wow Bones truck every few months to draw people to social events they coordinate at their apartment complex. The couple serves with “CARES Teams” organized by Apartment Life, a faith-based nonprofit designed to create a sense of community among neighbors living in apartments. Sherri said the dogs connect young professionals with retirees.

The liquor store a few doors down from her own gift shop is hospitable to Lani Steingraph and to Gracie, her blue heeler mix: It keeps dog treats under the counter for the pets who bring customers with them. Training the timid, formerly abused Gracie to overcome “fear issues,” Steingraph keeps the dog with her at her shop and introduces her to new people and environments all around Austin.

The magazine Dog Fancy in 2014 called Austin the most dog-friendly city in the United States. It is also the No. 1 no-kill city in the nation three years running, saving 90 percent of all shelter animals, according to the city of Austin.

Victoria Queen and Bonnie Pritchett are graduates of the World Journalism Institute mid-career course

Commingling of canines

A chilly evening was not enough to keep customers from streaming into Yard Bar, one of Austin’s newest outdoor venues. Customers mingled under strands of clear incandescent lights strung between trees in the bark mulch yard: After a cooped-up day, they were happy to relax and blow off steam.

But Yard Bar is a bar—and employee Carlos Huante acknowledged that some customers act aggressively as a demonstration of superiority or dominance. “The really persistent ones we will squirt with a squirt bottle, and they tend to get the idea.” That’s what it takes to discourage bad behavior among dogs.

Sean Barry, who brought his beagle Buster to Yard Bar, liked a place where “we can do happy hour with our dogs.” Yard Bar’s human patrons, dubbed “Pet Parents” by employees, sipped adult beverages and intermittently glanced up from the conversations or laptops to make sure their little ones weren’t getting into too much trouble. “Bark Rangers” keep the more rambunctious customers in check. —V.Q. & B.P.

Dogs, yes. People, maybe.

Do dogs sometimes get better treatment than children? Austin’s dog-saving practices are good, but the City Council needs a no-kill policy for humans: It has long supported abortion.

“The Austin City Council has just voted 9 to 2 in support of PP! Thank you for standing with us and confirming that Austin is PP country!” That’s what Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas Inc. (yes, that’s its name, as if Texas by itself isn’t great enough) tweeted last October when the City Council directed Austin’s lobbyist in Washington, D.C. (yes, cities lobby heavily in Washington), to “support any legislation that would maintain or expand funding for Planned Parenthood” and “oppose any legislation that would reduce funding for Planned Parenthood.”

Austin politicians in other ways also show they are friendlier to dogs than to little humans. Since 1972 the city of Austin has rented to Planned Parenthood for $1 a year a 3,270-square-foot building in East Austin. The lease for the building across the street from Huston-Tillotson University, a historically black institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ, extends to 2020.

The Lilith Fund and the Texas Equal Access Fund are among the groups that pay for abortions for the poor, and at times the city of Austin and Travis County have used taxpayer funds for abortions as well. —by Marvin Olasky