THE MOUSE BUTCHER

Another clever, archly playful animal story from the very British author of If Pigs Could Fly (p. 419, J-87). This one takes place on a small island which the humans have evacuated. The cats left behind have inherited their owners' titles, homes, and social position. Thus Giglamps, the doctor's cat, is slumming a bit by pal-ing up with our hero Tom, the butchers' cat; but Tom is a superior provider—a talent which wins him a cushy arrangement with the stand-offish Bampton-Bush, the colonel's Persian cat. For the run of the estate and the surplus game thereon, Tom will provide the colonel-cat's starving family with pheasant, partridge, hares, and fish from their own estate—and, as a bonus for him, he'll romp with Bampton-Bush's daughter, the lovely "little huntress" Diana. (The story is full of these allusions.) With church cat Ecclesiastes' large family filling out the hunting party, and with the outlaw monster cat Great Mog for lurking danger and final confrontation, it's nimble and less forced than the pig story—more like an elegant English trifle, for those with a taste for writing as per-formance.