Invisible Friends

Aliens visit a human and want to use his basement as the center of their operations while they study mankind. The only problem is, Earth is pretty far out on the galactic arm and all the competent alien study teams get posted much closer to galactic center. The farther out you are, the farther out you will be. Are these aliens truly explorer scientists or were they sent to Earth simply to get them out of everyone's hair, or whatever else aliens cover themselves with. Additionally, there's monkeys, a number of cloned Elvi, a dog who drives, spies, and lots of insight on humanity.