Today we debut “Wags and Snarls,” a recurring and soon to be extremely popular feature of this blog that will heap praise on those who do good by dogs and other pets, and dump on those who, through their deeds, attitudes or neglect, do not.

Your nominations are gladly accepted; just click on the comments bar to make one, or email us at mutts@baltimoresun.com.

The idea is, when circumstances merit, to give a thankful wag of the tail to the compassionate souls who help make life better for animals, and acknowledge those who make it worse with a menacing growl.

To start off on a positive note, we’ll award our first “Waggie” today (and wait until tomorrow to debut the dreaded “Snarlie.”)

Our first WAG goes to the Maryland SPCA, which is a far cheerier place in July — for staff, visitors and dogs — thanks to a kennel decoration program that, this time around, has the pooches wiling away their days in exotic vacation locations.

There’s a dog in the Grand Canyon, another in Egypt. Hawaii, Mexico, Ocean City and Japan are among the other vacation spots depicted, all brightly decorated by shelter staff working under a $2 per kennel budget. It’s so cheery, in fact, that it makes you wonder, why not do it year-round?

As my story this week in the Today section of the Sun points out, it’s because kennels require near-constant cleaning — and the decorations make that a lot harder to do.

Still, one month of playful fantasy is to be commended, and chances are a little bit of that attitude seeps into the other, practical, 11 months of the year, helping to bring a little warmth and individuality to what by definition is an institutional kind of place.

To see a slideshow, of cages decorated for the SPCA’s “Dog Days of Summer,” click here.

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… In other business, we invite you to click the first cat in the shaded rail along the right side of this page — the one with the bad haircut — to see our newest member of Adoption Alley.

Adoption Alley is our video gallery of adoptable pets. Our newest member is Muffin, a cat who needs a friend to bring him out of his funk. He’s available now at the Maryland SPCA.

Our earlier featured animals, two mixed breed dogs named Pooh and Granger, have both been adopted, according to Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter.