When Shanghai resident Sun Yongning, 42, talks about her "daughter" Alice, her voice softens with affection.

Alice, a 1-year-old poodle, recently "married" Max — a male dog belonging to a family friend who shares "a special connection" with our family, she said.

"The way they met was really dramatic. We ran into Max and his owners at a pet gathering, and the two dogs instantly clicked — they were so excited to see each other, and we owners also got along surprisingly well," said Sun.

It wasn't until later that they discovered an unusual coincidence. Sun said when they looked at the dogs' pedigree certificates they realized Max was the sibling of another one of her dogs. "It felt like a plot twist straight out of a novel," she said.