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YLA KEEPS NO SECRETS.
Anyone with a computer can learn that she's a purebred Cavalier King Charles spaniel, 5 months old, weighing less than 10 pounds. In her pictures, black eyes gaze placidly from a sweet black-and-tan face. She poses in the nude.
Kyla's into lounging on the couch, chewing things and helping the twin human toddlers in her life finish whatever they're eating.
She's not crazy about her spaniel brother, Ely. But she gets along OK with Dora the greyhound and Emma the dachshund.
Kyla, a thoroughly modern puppy who lives in southern Stafford County, has her own space on the Web at the online site Dogster.com.
Lacking thumbs or a multisyllabic vocabulary, Kyla relies on her chief human, Renee Haynes, to upload her photos and verbalize her opinions.
Ely, Kyla's spaniel nemesis, has not only a profile but a blog on which he tells of his interactions with Dora and Emma, of his cozy bed and his unshared toys.
Kyla, Ely, Dora and Emma are among about 80 Fredericksburg-area dogs on the Dogster site--the canine equivalent of such human socializing sites as Myspace and Facebook.
Dogster launched in January 2004. A sister site, Catster, debuted later that year. So far there's no Hamster, though it could be only a matter of time.
In its two-plus years, Dogster has given about 165,000 dogs their own Web pages.
Most are United States dogs, but the site's statistics page lists users in Canada, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Germany, Mexico and Norway.
The site is free, but advertising is abundant--for food, treats, crate liners, training, pet insurance, movable steps to help elderly dogs get on the furniture, spiked collars and lavender-scented poop bags.
Breeders offer purebreds. Pounds and rescue groups post descriptions of lovable mutts for adoption.
Forums let owners of specific breeds expound on their dogs' wonders, or lament about common behavioral and health problems.
But the main draw is the dogs themselves.
Only a hard-hearted person (or a cat) could browse the site without going all to mush.
The Fredericksburg area alone lends Dogster dozens of catalog-perfect dogs of all descriptions--dogs who walk in beauty like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies. (Lord Byron was surely writing about a dog.)
There are the divine greyhounds Roxy, Sydney and Tempest; Nanushka the Siberian husky; Nikki the Viszla; Meggie the smooth fox terrier; Henry the pit bull mix; Henri Pierre the toy poodle; Pogo the corgi-dachshund; and Xena the German shepherd, among others.
There are intelligent dogs and not-too-bright ones, according to their owners' assessments. There are dogs who gobble and dogs who prefer to be fed kibble by hand, piece by piece. There are dogs who love to bark and dogs who never bark. Obedience dogs and naughty dogs, some photographed in the very acts of their badness, surrounded by shredded things.
And dogs who hate thunderstorms. They all hate thunderstorms.
Clearly, some people take their Dogster habit to extremes, blogging daily under the guise of various Lucys, Maxes, Lolas, Buddies and Baileys.
Others just drop by the site when they aren't out walking their flesh-and-blood dogs.
Haynes, the Stafford dog-lover and at-home mom who blogs for Kyla, Ely, Emma and Dora, said Dogster is a way to relax when others in the household, human or canine, are sleeping.
"The Dogster site is a break from the daily grind with the twins," she said. "It is a way to communicate with others who are dog-lovers."
And a way to communicate that truly, one's own dog is the best dog in the whole world.
To reach LAURA MOYER:
Email: lmoyer@freelancestar.com
