What is this usage of 何人いても?

Question

「コタロウが可愛すぎてワンコは何人いてもいいなって思うよ」

「そうなんだ？　お迎えしたい？」

The character are talking about a dog. The owner says コタロウが可愛すぎて Kotaru is so cute...

But I'm slightly confused about the rest of the sentence.

"ワンコは何人いてもいい" the dog is fine no matter how many people are there? And what does お迎えしたい here mean? From google it seems to be used to go to animal shelters?

"何人" from context seem to be "many dogs" but I don't see why he'd use 人

Answer 1

While 匹 is the standard counter for dogs, there are cases where a dog is anthropomorphized and 人 is used instead:

• When the dog is treated like a valued family member (匹 is not not really a friendly counter)
• When the dog is like a human in some way, such as speaking or wearing human clothes

お迎えする means "to welcome someone (into an organization/family)". This verb also has a respectful and gentle tone, and implies she's treating the dog as a future family member.