We decided we would go on a shopping excursion yesterday. To pet supply places, to see which of them had a small-size dog carrier that would suit our purposes. These puppies, like our brilliantly-lovable Button and lovably-brilliant Riley before them, will become accustomed, over time, to being carried about with us when we're in places that will permit them entry, but only if they're being carried.

Although Button's and Riley's bags are still serviceable, they're quite worn with years of use, and their design could certainly be improved upon. We meant to look for bags that would be comfortable for them to rest in, and comfortable for us to carry them in. A plus would be that they'd be washable and also well ventilated, since the old bags got pretty stuffy in warm weather.

Hey! Wanna play in the playpen?

We decided to take Jack and Jill with us, that we would take the risk of imagining that our terrible infants would behave well on this outing. We hand-carried them, and went first to Petsmart, since they have proven to be the most reasonably-priced supplier for people with pets, and also have what may be the widest choice of a variety of products.

We discovered that Martha Stewart-branded products are given quite the display room. They're pricier, needless to say, than other, less celebrity-distinguished brands. We looked at their carrier bags and found them not only more expensive than others by far, but poorly designed; the carry-handles too short, and not adjustable, the frames too stiff and wide and the effort to try them out with our little handfuls trying indeed.

All right, all right, we'll settle down to sleep, but we'd rather not!

It wasn't because Jack and Jill were misbehaving. To their credit, and amazingly so, they were quiet and not the least bit fussy, placid and behaved to the extent we could be forgiven for thinking we had picked up the wrong pair of canine urchins in error. The bag simply wasn't suitable. Too poorly imagined. Not that we found other brands any better; from the cheapest to the more expensive, they all suffered from lack of good design.

You can lead a puppy to water but you can't make him drink...

But then we happened to see one by Petmate, and it had all the characteristics in design that we were looking for, and more. Not cheap by any means, about the same price as the MS brand, but far superior, so they went into our shopping cart. There was also a 50% off sale on doggy coats, and we looked at many, finally discovering one that fit our need. We only needed one; we had another at home that fit the bill, so now we had the requisite two.

Hey, Dad, gonna have a shower?

We looked around at their small-breed puppy food, because we wanted to replace the Canin brand that the breeder was using, eventually changing over to one that we felt had better ingredients (we don't think corn as a filler in dog food represents a good ingredient, for one thing) and a higher protein content. We were using Alberta-sourced Acana kibble for Riley and thought we'd stick with it. It is our idea of a premium food, containing ingredients that should grace any self-respecting nutrient-dense choice for a human's table, so why not for dogs?

For that, we left the huge store teeming with people and their dogs, to drive over to the place that sells Acana, closer to our neighbourhood, a Globo pet store outlet. And that marked the completion of our shopping excursion.

Oh, and we discovered on returning home that we had the 'right' puppies in our care, after all. Their meek demeanour demonstrated while we were out and about dissolved instantly on entering the house as their wildly antic comic act re-commenced.