Obvious jokes aside1), I can see robotic pets being very successful.
Among other reasons because you can turn them off.
Seriously, in a society where “xyz on demand” and “xyz as a service” is already very successful, robotic pets seem unavoidable.
1) Any convincing mechanical kitty would have to be equipped with two truely random random generators, though.
The first one to mix up the kitty’s behaviour.
The second one to deceide when the first one is active or not.
