“Cats and Dogs” by P.S. Mueller is the perfect cartoon book for dog lovers who also happen to love cats.
One half of the book is called “Cats and Dogs,” the other half, “Dogs and Cats.” Or perhaps it’s two books in one binding. No, no, it actually is one book called “Cats and Dogs.” So, it’s clear right there which species Mueller favors.
Nonetheless, this charming book of line drawings and one-liners from Jones Books is a fun read – even in the cat half. But we’ll start with the dogs, of course, the back half of the book.
One cartoon – labeled The Darkness of the Prince – shows a dog standing over his bowl of food while thinking, “Sooner or later, the free ride will end.” In another, a dog is being interviewed on a talk show. “In this next clip, I bark like a dog,” he tells the show’s host.
Mueller goes on to suggest a substitute for those dog owners whose best canine friends are too big for “laptime.” A laptop computer with a dog photo as a screen saver may not be as cuddly, but it’s certainly less hairy.
In the cat half of the book, we see an older cat explaining to a kitten that “in the old days, we had to chase this stuff.” Next a man’s cat is sitting on the TV, so he uses his whiskers as an antenna. Sure to become a classic is the cartoon with the cat wearing two big pieces of cheese as slippers – you guessed it – right outside a mouse’s hole in the wall.