The puppy's real name was Prince Amir of Kinjan,"" but judging from what everybody says when they lay eyes on the ""shapeless bundle of muddy fur,"" he thinks it's ""What-a-mess."" ""You're no puppy of mine,"" sighs his beautiful Afghan mother when she views his tangled coat, but What-a-mess comes (literally) crashing to earth when he tries out being, in turn, a bee, a fur hat, and a fish (all, like himself, short and fat). Then his sympathetic mother murmurs that "". . . really, deep down you're a dear""--and so the puppy goes to sleep, happy in the knowledge that he is a deer. As pictured, What-a-mess is properly shapeless and shaggy, but he comes through his slapstick fails like a lead balloon, and Muir's ending is the worst flop of all.