Back in the days before dogs were kept as pets, they were conscribed to staying out of doors, beaten and starved and were saddled with lots of ugly terminology to illustrate the worst sort of treatment humans had to endure.

Dog tired, dog eat dog, going to the dogs, or to die like a dog meant almost certain nastiness or trouble.

Today when you hear someone say "It's a dog's life," I think most people would agree that it describes a luxurious state of affairs, and this is certainly the case with two new businesses here in the land of the unsynchronized traffic lights we call Federal Way.

Remember the last time you tried to get Farfel the Wonderdog to hold still in your bathtub so you could rinse the soap out of his eyes?

He shook all over the place and the whole house smelled like wet dog for a week, didn't it?

Splish Splash Doggy Bath is a self-serve dog wash store located in Dash Point Village (next to Metropolitan Market), and if this sounds weird to you, you owe it to Bongo and yourself to come check it out.

The place is designed to minimize the hassle of dog washing with every detail worked out.

You bring Sugarlumps in and walk her up the steps and into a custom designed tub enclosure just above waist height (no more bending around like a pretzel)and after you put on your waterproof apron, you begin rinsing Snugglebug with perfectly lukewarm water from a flexible spray nozzle.

The owner, Kim Blake, will furnish high quality, low sudsing shampoos, (even the kind that won't sting eyes) along with conditioner to work out those annoying rats in the fur, and when your done, she will supply towels, a professional dryer, brushes and combs.

If you want the complete pampering, you can arrange for toothbrushing and nail trimming.

This, you see, is Club Med for dogs.

And just when Snookums thought he was in dog heaven, you learn that you can just drop him off and (for a minor fee) let the Kim and the staff of Splish Splash do all of the above for you while you go shopping at the place next door.

What place is that? Oh...it's only the neatest premium pet supply store in the area and it just opened for you.

Simply Paws, LLC is the brainstorm of Jon and Marnie Moore after they got tired of having to drive all over the place to find the sort of quality dog products they wanted for their purebred Burmese Mountain dog, Sims.

As independent business people, they decided to sell the things that they like and not what some corporate office thinks should be sold.

They have very high quality, all natural dog foods. And in an age when so many commercially prepared pet foods are found to have toxins and other unacceptable ingredients, it's never been more important to stay away from the cheap brands.

Simply Paws also sells hemp collars and leashes, dog life vests and packs, and other neat accoutrements for your best friend.

Now don't you think your adorable little BlingBling deserves a dog day afternoon?