Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

"Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," by Philip K Dick, is a strange book. The focus of Rick's life seems to be getting himself a real animal. I don't understand the importance of having a real one, rather than his electric sheep. If status is what he wants, then he already has that. No one but his neighbor knows about his electric sheep. Everyone else in his building believes it to be a real sheep. Therefore, his obsessive and constant desire to have a real animal is unnecessary. Also, I found it really cool that in the end of chapter four, Rachel Rosen was his first test subject. The fact he got to test people to see if they were human or androids was pretty neat, but he was blown away that she was his first test subject. I feel as if this is foreshadowing something to come, whether that be good or bad, I do not know.