Health care and medical services in Chapala and Ajijic cost about 1/3 of the cost or even less than in the United States. A person could have a plastic surgery procedure or a facelift here for about 1/3 of the cost in the US or Canada. 
You can definitely bring your dog or cat to Portugal. I have a client who spent 6 months in Antigua and 6 months of the year here. She always traveled with her dogs and it’s actually fine. Portugal doesn’t have quarantine as long as your dog is up to date with all vaccinations and passports. 
When moving or retiring abroad, every day is an adventure! 
In the United States when you buy a house, you get a clear title to the house. There is also title insurance, and you know that you own that house. In Panama, we have escritura. It’s a title that indicates you own the house, or if you have a mortgage, that the bank is the owner of that house until the time you pay the mortgage in full.Living in Jocotepec, on the Shores of Lake Chapala: Beauty, Free Enterprise, and Some Cupcakes
If you’re like me, with typical middle-class US suburban experiences and sensibilities, when you first arrive at Jocotepec, you are confronted with several things that just don’t seem right. For starters (and this is not unusual for Mexico), what was to be our home for the next 10 days did not have any internal hallways. All the rooms were placed at the far rear of the property, closest to the mountains, so that the back wall of each room was...
While the wheels/tires are 21st century (oh, OK, 20th century), the technology behind this freight mover is thousands of years old. I found it interesting and amusing that the local hauler still uses oxen to pull heavy loads.