I love dogs and cats (I have one of each), so you’d assume that I’d love this book. But I don’t. This slim volume of dog and cat humour, written and illustrated by Ron Robinson, does have its high points, but unfortunately they’re not enough. Robinson is bang-on in his descriptions of the differences between dogs and cats, or, as he puts it, Saturnians versus Plutonians. The book starts off with a satirical comparison of dog versus cat, a sly wink and a nod to John Gray’s Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus series. Robinson begins with an historical (hysterical) background of Saturnians and Plutonians. Sections on communication, self-esteem, and philosophy are punchy, concise and full of mirth. At times the pace lags and the jokes don’t work but the delivery is rapid fire, so you don’t notice it too much.

Not, that is, until Robinson gets bogged down with cats and dogs in literature and then digs himself a deeper hole with long passages on Shakespeare. The MacBeth reference of “Out out damn Spot” is given as an example of a dog’s first pivotal role in a Shakespearean play. It’s an old joke that works, but Robinson wanders off track with ten pages of Shakespearean quotes (No, no, bad dog!) and the rhythm of the previous chapters are broken. The short witty observations are replaced by what I would describe as notes from an Advanced English Literature class (Robinson is, for the record, a former Professor of Journalism at a small Midwestern liberal arts college).

But let’s focus on what does work. (Good boy!) The chapter entitled "Recreation" is written as if it were a legal contract between a dog and its owner, for example:

“1. That THE DOG will submit to the leash and collar if allowed at least eight (8) times during THE WALK to stop and peruse a sapling or a random clump of grass for a period of no less then three (3) minutes each for signs of life that may be related or in some way of interest to THE DOG.”