IT'S ABOUT ALL THREE THIS WEEK: >>>

Thing: Webcams

Place: Hound Hangout

Person: Kylie Markin

On their live: Webcams

The dogs are: Being dogs

They might be: Sniffing butts

Or: Drinking water

Or: Humping

Or: Scooting their butts on the ground

But most likely they're: Just playing

With: Kylie "Magnifico" Markin

A few months ago I found an iPhone webcam app called "Spy Cam."  I immediately became enthralled with the real-time action of various cities from all over the world.  (And no, pervs, they're not porn webcams.)

The Spy Cam app watches places such as a college computer labs and pet adoption agencies in America, ski lifts in Norway, ice skating rinks in Japan and busy intersections in Brazil. It really is quite addictive.

Tacoma's even made its small mark on the Spy Cams iPhone app.  Onlookers can stalk the main quad of the University of Washington in Tacoma, but that's about it. 

Well, that was about it ... until I found the live webcams at Hound Hangout.

The Hound Hangout cameras aren't on the aforementioned Spy Cams iPhone app, but instead located directly on their website at www.thehoundhangout.com

I had to know more about these dogs I had been watching and who in the heck these people were that were so happily playing with the dogs, so I contacted Kylie Markin at Hound Hangout.

Know as a "pack leader" or "dog wrangler" Hound Hangout employees like Markin out of sheer love for animals. A typical day consists of playing "chuck it" with a tennis ball, scratching furry bellies and making sure they don't "get too humpy," as Markin puts it.

As a loyal dog wrangler, Markin admits to never getting used to the smell of poop and to having two sets of clothes, which she says, "One set that I work in and one set that I have to change into right when I get home from work because of the smell."

Everybody loves watching dogs. You know you do. Markin even tells me that it's very common for people to stop along their St. Helen's location and peek through the garage to watch the dogs. 

"The dogs just go nuts when people stop and look through the garage," Markin tells me, but with the live webcams, "The owners can watch what their dogs are doing all day while they're gone."

Yes, the owners can watch all day long, but so can Steph DeRosa: A confessed webcam stalker. 

[Hound Hangout, 414 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.383.4264]