PEOPLE Pets | Sit. Stay. Play!

Move over, Zhu Zhu Pets. Nice knowing you, Webkinz. There are some new animal toys in town! Introducing Mix Pups, a line of plastic mix-and-match dogs with detachable legs, heads, hairpieces and clothing that make dressing pups a little less … furry.

Okay, so no, they're not toys for dogs. But Roxy the Chihuahua, Annie the bulldog and Lucy the Dalmatian could be great starter pets for kiddos who don't have a real live furry friend just yet. Or just another tool to let imaginations grow.

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Poop sucks. There, I said it. If I had a dime for every time my dog Baxter sniffed another dog and then tangled up his leash while I patiently gripped a plastic baggie full of his feces, I might have enough to shell out for the solution: The PoopPac ($29.95).

The self-proclaimed "First Portable Carrier for Dog Waste" enables dog walkers to conceal pet excrement until a proper receptacle presents itself. Seemingly created for multi-taskers, the PoopPac is a compact purse-like contraption that can transform into a belt accessory, a wristlet or stroller accoutrement.

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Back-to-school time is creeping up on us — which means a shopping trip to get new supplies (fun!), along with everybody else and their mother (sigh).

Thank goodness for Poketo — they've made just the line of accessories that will make you stand out from the rest of the breakfast club. In collaboration with Target, the design studio helmed by Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung have put together cute and affordable bags, totes, wallets and other items for the animal-loving, design-conscious student.

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Maybe it's because I can't bear to be anything like my mother, who still gets on her hands and knees every morning to sweep and scrub the floors of her house, but I can promise you that in my house, dust is collecting faster than it is being wiped away.

There they sit, my broom, my dust pan and my vacuum cleaner, in the corner there behind my refrigerator, not dancing together like in the commercials, but waiting forlornly for me to use them — which I do, I swear, just not as frequently as I would like. If only I could train my dog to do the cleaning for me ...

So when a nifty cleaning robot called the Mint floor cleaner rolled into my office, I figured I had to give it a try.

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Have you ever imagined what a Chihuahua would look like as Michael Jackson? Maybe your cat as Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's? Well designer Takkoda has done the work for you, creating journals, note cards, bookmarks and calendars with dog and cat faces in the hair and clothing of Jackson, Hepburn, Mr. T and even Star Trek's Spock, Leonard Nimoy.

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They can put a man on the moon -- so why can’t they give this vacuum cleaner a retractable cord?

That was my first thought when I received the Eureka Pet Expert vacuum cleaner to test. This upright machine is basically an industrial strength vacuum cleaner for home use. It’s somewhat clunky and cumbersome, which I find is par for the course for upright machines. But when it comes to cleaning, this thing is remarkable.

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Being the face of a brand means having to make personal appearances to greet fans, and it's no exception for Marcel, the face of Nars Cosmetics. He might be a dog, but he still has to earn his keep!

The French bulldog, a very stylish beauty expert, has been doing so phenomenally in his latest role as brand ambassador for his owner's company that Nars has asked Marcel to meet the clamoring demand of his admirers and greet them in a virtual personal appearance.

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