Sweet dreams to all of you! And remember: your editors will be back in full force tomorrow after a well-earned holiday break. Thanks for another lovely weekend!

Image via Hemmy.net.

[Images via Cute Overload.]

Additional cute: Baby squirrels rescued from Hurricane Gustav.
Also: A clip about pets and the economy. (Starring my sister.)

When the mice are away, the cats will play... A UK company has unveiled these flatpack feline toys - including a fire engine, fighter plane and a TANK that your pet kitty can play in. The Cat Playhouse range is designed by London-based firm Suck UK. According to the company, "cats love to play in cardboard boxes and these are just about the most fun cardboard boxes you will find." The toys cost GBP £15 / $30 USD each.

— SplashNews.com

Ms. Horikoshi divorced her husband who had asked her to be stay-at-home mom; she wanted to pursue her career. "I don't want a family, I want to continue to work hard. I don't need help, I don't need a husband. I can do everything by myself," she says. "But sometimes I feel lonely, and now when I come back to my apartment, I can see two dogs." Dogs, not kids, okay?

Of course, there are downsides to the pet craze: The Japanese love everything tiny and kawaii (cute), so there are puppies born with horrible deformities due to overbreeding. Also, there are some all night pet stores in Tokyo's sleazy Roppongi district that are used for schemes: a "hostess" will ask a drunk businessdude to buy her a little dog; the next day, she will bring the dog back to the shop in exchange for cash. The shop keeps a cut.

But back to the cute: Since people are integrating pets fully into their lives, the market responds. Kimonos, yukatas, cookies, omu-rice dishes… for dogs. Pricey stuff, and pet owners are snapping it yup.

Let's be honest. A dog doesn't talk back. A cat never grows up to get hooked on heroin and resent you. A dog doesn't need college tuition or bat mitzvah money. I suspect that some people might see Toshiko Horikoshi pushing her puppies in a pram and snicker and think she's insane. Think she wishes she had babies. But she's a doctor who knows what she's doing. She doesn't want kids. She wants dogs. And that's okay. We're living in an overcrowded world where women are finally allowed to make choices. And if your choice is to baby a puppy or kitten instead of a human, who cares? There's a stigma of "crazy cat ladies" — maybe dating waaaay back to when women who were "too close" to animals were thought to be "communicating" with "familiars" in the animal world and therefore deemed witches?

Unlike spoiling a child — where the rest of the world has to deal with the bratty maladjusted results, isn't lavishing attention, affection, and yeah, cash on a dog or cat a victimless crime? So why do people feel the need to make pet-crazy women feel guilty?

(Related: I want that freaking pomeranian pictured up top. Kawaii!)

Preposterously Pampered Pooches [Tokyo Times]
In Dog We Trust [ABC News]

• Oliver Burkeman of The Guardian writes, " There are few more wonderfully enjoyable ways to spend a touristy weekend in Manhattan than on a Sex and the City vacation package, unless of course you count buying a souvenir New York penknife and then repeatedly stabbing yourself in the face." • Chicks are more open-minded about smaller cars than men are. • Women are underrepresented in research focusing on significant health issues unrelated to reproduction. • Jennifer Sharpe of Dearborn, MI sold 17,328 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this year, which is probably a new national record. Jennifer's mom says selling cookies has made her really confident. "When she first started selling, she was very shy and quiet and you had to push her out to talk to customers, but now she's right out there, first to the door."

• Al "I'm The Man Who Was Elected President, But Whatever I'm A Movie Star Now" Gore has "fallen out of love" with politics, he says. And thus will not be running for president... again. If this is true, what a drama queen! If this isn't true, what an even bigger drama queen! Simmer down, Al! (And if you need some help with that, we're sure your son has some pills that could help.) [CNN]
  
• We [heart] brave kittens. Especially when they're better swimmers than we'll ever be. [ABCNews]
  
• The list of that D.C. madam's hooker-hiring politicians goes public! God, this is going to be more entertaining to watch than an America's Next Top Model. [The Smoking Gun]
  
• Taking "til death do us part" to a whole other level, a Welsh couple commit joint suicide after finding out that the husband had only a few weeks to live. In their suicide notes, they said they knew they could not live without one another. Carmen Electra and Dave Navarro: You guys are jokes. [Daily Mail UK]

• Our mother always told us that swimming pools were scary places. And just now had we mustered up the strength to buy our first-ever bathing suit in attempt to get over our fears. Then we read this. Bathing suit: Now in a drawer forever. [ABCNews]
• MTV has ordered a 4th season of Laguna Beach. What's that sound? Oh yes, our souls shattering. [Star]
• Good news for Russia: You're all over the runways! Bad news for Russia: It's looking more and more like you poison your own kind. [NYT]
• DailyCandy-ites rejoice: Sex and the City: The Movie is going to happen, at last. [E!]
• 6 U.S. casualties identified. [DoD]

[Cute Overload!]