its official some people have way too much time and money

[Varitek]

Woman’s Best Friend, or Accessory?

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By RUTH LA FERLA
Published: December 7, 2006

OH, the places Paige has been. Like all the top New Yorkers, she dines downtown at Mercer Kitchen, eyes the heart of palm at the deli E.A.T. on Madison Avenue and appraises the calfskin boots at Gucci. “We even drink together,” said Dina Lewis, a real estate agent and Paige’s constant companion.

At Plug Uglies on Third Avenue, “Paige sits on the bar stool and everything,” Ms. Lewis said. “It’s like having a very good-looking, very drunk friend with you all the time.”

Except that Paige is a doll-sized Chihuahua. She travels with her mistress everywhere, scoping out the world from the confines of a Balenciaga look-alike bag.

Paige is what is known as a sleeve dog, an emblem of status since antiquity. Once toted by fashionable women inside the folds of their gowns, diminutive pets have been the favorites of nobles from Marie Antoinette to Elizabeth II. The pseudo-royals of Hollywood also favor them, actresses and gossip-column fixtures like Tori Spelling and Mickey Rourke.

Now, thanks in part to their red carpet visibility, compact breeds are more popular than ever. “We’re seeing a nationwide trend toward smaller dogs,” said Niki Marshall Friedman, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club. For example, registration of the Brussels griffon has gone up 231 percent in the last 10 years; Norwich terrier registration has risen 91 percent.

Flaunted as fashion statements, pint-sized canines are, to some minds, the fur-bearing equivalent of a pair of Louboutin pumps or other accessory. “I think of them as a handbag with a heartbeat,” said Robin Bowden, a vice president of Prudential Douglas Elliman, a real estate company in Manhattan. Ms. Bowden’s office on West 17th Street is a kind of home-away-from-home to a clutch of lavishly outfitted lap dogs belonging to various employees. “They have little beds and they scamper up and down,” she said. “I’ve seen brokers showing expensive SoHo lofts, turning up with these tiny puppy dogs in their designer bags.”

it gets better... And the pictures are pretty ridiculous.

 

[mandy1973]

That is just ridiculous

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

It's really terrible!! The poor dogs.

 

[flybabe]

It`s just sick

 

[JanuaryStar]

Wow... Some people really don't know what to do with their money...

 

[Varitek]

Yeah they could have given me some of it to fly to Hawaii last weekend.

 

[JessicaAnn]

Ok ... I love my dog. Yes, she has sweaters and coats, too many toys, and is generally spolied (we even dress her up in costumes for Halloween). However, I do not take her everywhere I go like a security blanket. That is ridiculous.

 

[verte76]

That's just ridiculous.

 

[redhotswami]

My friend does something similar, but she has a bunny. It's soooooo funny though when she takes these flashy bags with her, and then she opens up the bag to feed the bunny a snackie in public, people are like