Frumpy Middle-Aged Mom: It’s a dog’s life around our house, darn it

If you’re a regular reader, you know that we have two dogs, because my teenage daughter Curly Girl is a dog-maniac. She never met a dog she didn’t like. If she came across Cujo, Stephen King’s rabid dog from hell, she’d bring him home for dinner. And she’s already in love with Fluffy, the three-headed beast from Harry Potter.
Personally, I prefer cats. They groom themselves, aren’t particularly needy, hardly ever bark at the mail carrier, and they don’t