Having exhausted possibilites amongst today's Beverly Hills canines (the last was Beethoven, who had to decline because of paternal duties), the troupe ventured into the world of cartoon canines. The results here were even less encouraging. Of their final candidates:

One was in psychiatric treatment for a nervous breakdown caused by a pugnacious nephew who continuously tried to scrap with villains disguised as monsters, combined with an addiction to Puppy-uppers (see Pounce, Overlord of Sirius) laced in dog cookies.

Another, a fifth-degree black belt, eloped with the switchboard operator at the local police station. The switchboard operator was later arrested in a nearby town on bestiality charges.

The most promising candidate, the legendary Underdog, had disappeared without so much as even a forwarding address.

Another, the house-pet and assistant of a cyboganic police detective, had been somehow transmogrified into a superintelligent laboratory rodent with delusions of grandeur, and summarily had to be passed over.

When all seemed lost, a lone resume was discovered in the bottom of Bungee's filing cabinet - that of a white dog who could make a grand-slam pizza and program a relational database at the same time...it seemed like a longshot, but the four dogged companions had found their successor.

Personal notes:
Why are these great heroes no longer defending the universe against evil? It is not an easy question to answer.

Laddie, the star of film and television dramas, valiantly guarded his human companions, even taking bullets and ingesting poison to protect them. But his stalwart companionship was taken for granted, and soon the constant taunting by calling him "girl" became to much to bear. His therapist claims he is cured now, but because of the stress of his ordeal he can no longer work.

Rat-Tat-Tat's story is equally sad. Brave police dog, he was finally put out to pasture in favor of a boxer named Haynes, who has later discovered to be reselling confiscated contraband to the highest bidder.

Bungee, the little fellow who brought so many 1970's B-movie villains to their knees, was implicated in a terrible scandal which involved Checkers the Dog and a bungled robbery in a Washington, D.C. hotel. The charges were since dropped, but the negative publicity ended his career soundly and finally.

Mikki, Sled Lupine of the Adirondacks, had a brilliant start to his career, which led to a brief stint as a film star in a Welt Dizzey movie. His luck has gone bad, and his great expoits are now as forgotten as his film. Steadily, his image became less desirable, until he was relegated to spots in beer commercials, where he was forced to disguise himself as a golden retriever (to look more "all-American") or a black-eyed bull terrier (to look more "radical, dude"). After being fired by the advertisers, he turned to the bottle for solace. But Mikki has since gotten "on the wagon" and for now, because of his great size and strength, protects the legendary Bone of Power from which all canine superheroes draw their strength.