Victorian Doggy Mansion

Kassis added a white picket fence to surround her three dogs’ Victorian-style home, but Coco Puff easily slips underneath. Kassis contacted Alan Mowrer’s La Petite Maison, a builder of deluxe custom doghouses, to construct the mini-estate. La Petite Maison’s mansions start at $6,000, and that price does not include landscaping, furnishings or shipping. Kassis guesstimates that she has invested nearly $20,000 on construction, transport and equipment if she includes the painting, landscaping, screened doors and windows, miniblinds and ceiling fans, as well as a backyard with artificial turf.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

An address plate hangs off Victorian-style doghouse installed by Tammy Kassis in her backyard for her three dogs in Winchester.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Darla and Coco Puff look out of their doggie door.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Coco Puff sits in his wrought-iron bed located in the Victorian turret. Screened casement windows are hung with drapery, valances with faux-jewel trim and vinyl miniblinds. Later in the year, the Kassises plan to add awnings.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Coco Puff likes to share Darla’s leopard lounge. The mini-Victorian doghouse is equipped with air-conditioning.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Darla slips into Chelsea’s canopy bed when the Yorkshire Terrier isn’t around. A trompe l’oeil wallpaper window hangs above a frieze of shopping bag-motif wallpaper, just above the chair rail molding.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Tammy Kassis dresses her Pomeranian, Darla, in a pink-and-black polka dot outfit. “I only dress them up on special occasions,” she says.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Two of Darla’s outfits hang on the wall just above Chelsea’s bed.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Tiny Chelsea descends into an enclosed yard that protects the dogs from owls, coyotes and other predators.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Hoping to steal their food, 85-pound Doberman Pinscher Rio sneaks into the toy dogs’ Victorian house. “He’s not allowed in unless I’m here to supervise,” owner Tammy Kassis explains. “They all get along, but if he gets excited he could step on them.”  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Kassis holds her three “kids” in front of their Victorian doghouse. To call her an animal lover is an understatement. “I’m beyond that,” Kassis says. “My dogs are my life.”  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Coco Puff, left, a male Yorkie, and Pomeranian Darla, walk out of the front yard of their Victorian-style home in Winchester.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)