Sad news for dog owners everywhere: The ten-year-old site Urbanhound.com went out of business yesterday, despite glowing profiles in nearly every media outlet, tens of thousands of e-mail subscribers, two books, and possibly the world's most ringing celebrity endorsement by Jazzy and Juicy's mommy, Cindy Adams. It seems almost impossible that a site with all those devoted users could fail, but the Times explains:

"Ms. Munk, a business journalist and contributing editor at Vanity Fair, said that Urbanhound, seeking a partner who could bolster the site’s national expansion, had attracted and lost three potential buyers shortly before the economic crisis began last fall."

This should give even die-hard cat people an economic-indicating shudder. Nobody, not even puppies (and the sites that cater to their spend-happy owners), is safe in this economy. [City Room/NYT]