Poochie-Poo

A delightful story of two dogs and their decorative, French beret-wearing lady owners. Miss Loopy’s dog, Victor, is a well-behaved, tartan-adorned terrier, whilst Butch is a rather naughty dog of unknown breeding, whose owner we don’t meet until the last page. Butch comes to visit Victor, who would quite like to do the naughty things which come second nature to Butch, like biting furniture or stealing sausages. To Victor, Butch is ‘cool’. Being bad really isn’t Victor though, and when he tries to be bad by going into a shop where dogs are banned he ends up apologising to the shopkeeper much to Butch’s disgust.

This is a lovely book in which each character has its own appropriate font for its name. Victor in plain comic sans, Butch in a Western ‘Wanted Poster’ style font, and Miss Loopy in an extravagant and elegant handwriting script. Butch’s cool image is completely shattered at the end when his owner, the gloriously named Miss Froopy-Frou-Frou, comes in to collect Butch, referring to him as her Poochie-Poo and tickling his tummy. The final picture of a blushing Butch, covered in pink lipsticky kisses, as Victor calls out, ‘Bye, bye Poochie-poochie-poochie-poo!’ is priceless.

The witty illustrations and dramatic use of colour, both in the pictures and as backgrounds are great. I like the table cloth, cushion cover and wallpaper with bones on them and a framed picture of Victor with an outrageously large gilded frame which is appropriately ostentatious, as are the butterflies on Miss Loopy’s beret and shoes.