Shopping Avenger, that notorious lover of phallic puppies, fights for your right to lodge (at no extra cost) with your pets.

It is a well-known fact that the Shopping Avenger keeps a special place in his heart for the downtrodden and the outcast, including, but not limited to, the poor, the indigent, the day traders, and the blind. When the Shopping Avenger sees the forces of rampant capitalism manhandling an unfortunate soul, he will fly to the rescue straightaway, unless he's busy leading anarchists into battle on the streets of Seattle, or napping.

But there is one group whose persecution will instantaneously get the Shopping Avenger into superhero mode, and that is: wiener dogs.

The Shopping Avenger loves wiener dogs. The Shopping Avenger loves all animals, but he especially loves animals that have no discernible legs.

So {{Today In Slate#19756}} when Ms. Gale Hogsten of South Carolina wrote to complain that the Super 8 motel chain abused her wiener dog, along with the rest of her family, the Shopping Avenger donned his codpiece and cape and superhero tights--though not necessarily in that order--and launched himself into battle. Super 8 is a major motel chain--it is two better than Motel 6--but the Shopping Avenger showed no fear.

But first, the Shopping Avenger will let Gale Hogsten tell the story.

"As Hurricane Floyd was coming our way, I booked a room near Atlanta, so we could get the heck out of here," the aggrieved Ms. Hogsten writes. "What Super 8 did was to call Hurricane Floyd a 'special event,' hence they were able to charge any damn price they wanted to. Our family got the regular rate of $48 the first night, however others in the hotel started getting ripped off, being charged $75 the second night and up to $125 the third night. Nothing like the feeling of being homeless and being screwed in the process." The Shopping Avenger endorses the previous statement wholeheartedly.

"Like most people, I was traveling with a pet and when I read about this particular Super 8, it did say (still does) that small animals are allowed. We have a wiener dog, a corgi, and a cat. Somehow the idiot at the desk heard we had animals and decided to charge us an extra 10 bucks. What are you going to do, not pay?"

Not pay, indeed.

"Plus," Hogsten writes, "they never gave us any maid service for three days."

The Shopping Avenger made contact with Hogsten via e-mail and learned that her wiener dog, whose name is Rusty, was traumatized by these events, though not as much as Hogsten was traumatized by these events. "What pissed me off personally was charging 10 bucks for the wiener dog," she stated, emphatically.