“So hang me. I killed the bird. For pity’s sake, I’m a cat. It’s practically my job to go creeping around the garden after sweet little eensy-weensy birdy-pies. . . . ” Tuffy, the cat of the title, enjoys the funeral his owner Ellie and her parents hold for the bird the next day. This doesn’t stop him from bringing a dead mouse to them the following day. Then he goes much too far, or so his family thinks, when he drags in Thumper the rabbit from next door. Ellie and the family spiff up the corpse and put it back in the cage only to find Thumper had died of natural causes, rather than at the claws of Tuffy. Published in Britain in 1994, Fine’s take on the urban legend dubbed “The Hare Dryer” is made all the more fun by giving the telling of the tale to the supposed perpetrator. Cox’s cartoon illustrations, complete with talk balloons, add to the wicked humor. Readers will hope for an American release of the sequel, Return of the Killer Cat. (Fiction. 7-10)
