Elvis Puffs Out is the fourth book in the series of Breaking Cat News comic strip reprints. Given that Alice and Natasha appear to have stolen Elvis' mug on the cover, Elvis has reason to puff out.

This book starts out with a blizzard. A six-toed female kitten is lost outside the Big Pink House. The man brings the kitten in. Tommy and his woman, who works the Quinn Cat Shelter and veterinary clinic, come over to check the kitten out. Elvis, Puck, and Lupin's humans agree to foster the kitten for a few weeks. It's sweet to see Elvis reading by the little cat bed the stray is sleeping in. Puck has even tucked his beloved Buzzy Mouse cat toy in that bed.

When the kitten becomes alert again, the boy points out that she looks like the kitten on the cover of Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter. The kitten gets named 'Beatrix'. (She would have preferred 'Scout,' just as Puck feels about 'Racer," Lupin about 'Shadowfax', and Elvis about 'Ares, Cat of War'. See pp. 15-16) Puck's explanation of the inspiration for 'Beatrix' is wrong, but funny. So is Puck's attempt to give the kitten hunting lessons.

It's a good idea to check the backgrounds carefully. The Robber Mice Gang might be up to their usual tricks there.

Some more fun is the climbing contest in the laundry room. Three-legged Puck is the best climber, but he doesn't compete. How will intrepid Beatrix fare, especially when she meets the alpha female of the 'Ceiling Cats,' Tabitha? After all, Tabitha intimidated Elvis when they met in book two, Lupin Leaps In.

Beatrix even gets to help out at the Breaking Cat News station. She proves to be extremely efficient. She made an innocent mistake with Lupin's coffee, but Elvis clues her in. Can the little go-getter drag the BCN cats into the 21st century?

A new supporting cast member is introduced on p.36. He's Trevor, the local bookstore border collie. (The BCN cats' information on dogs is as inaccurate as their information on doughnuts.)

Trevor's woman brings the BCN woman her book order and a plant cutting. She and Beatrix like each other from the start.
Has Beatrix found her forever home? (The BCN family can't keep the kitten. The Big Pink House allows only two cats per apartment. They had to get special permission to add Lupin. It seems a strange rule for a trust founded by a woman who loved cats, but there it is. See p. 61.)

In yet another story, the baby girl has her first birthday. She's wearing a puffy little dress in green. (Yes, it is the 21st century, but as long as baby girls look so adorable in fluffy dresses, they'll probably stay in style.)

Tommy goes to the old chicken coup on Quinn Farms to interview Baba Mouse, the 26-year-old Russian blue cat who lives there. He asks her advice about kittens. Her advice is wise.

There's a bookstore customer on p.72 who looks like the woman's sister ('the intruder' to the BCN cats), but who knows?

Do enjoy the woman's solution to Elvis feeling needier than he usually does, as well as the cats' reaction when their humans give them each an identical toy. Other news includes the toddler becoming an ally at dinner time and the quality of the new bath mat. Sopie gives us an art lesson that her woman does not appreciate. Sopie gets letters about her art that bring her down, but one makes it all worthwhile.

Our cats expect their breakfast promptly at 5 a.m., so it did not surprise me when the BCN cats staged a protest over their humans trying to sleep in after 8 a.m. (The man should feel grateful. My younger cat has a more forceful way to wake me up.)

Hurrah! It's another installment of that great cat soap opera, 'Our IX Lives'. Unscrupulous tycoon Snowball Taggert is in the hospital. Unethical Dr. Mittens is playing along with Snowball's pretense of dying from acute disappointment. His unmarried daughter, Angora, is falling for it, even though her older sister, Princess assures her he's faking.

Snowball's equally unscrupulous partner, Brad the cad, comes to visit. He's got an eye on Angora. Dr. Mittens hits on Princess because she's thought to be a widow. We see her husband, Captain Nimble, and their three sons, alive and well in one panel.

Angora's boyfriend, stray cat Kit Chase, thinks that even though he's a master of disguise and an amateur mandolin player, he can't compete with Brad. We look in on the cats and two of the robber mice watching lets us know that grumpy old Elvis sneers at the show the others find so absorbing.

Alas, we have left the TV adventures of Viejo Gato, California for the toddler's adventure of being potty trained. He has a cool looking training potty.

Of the other cats' recommendations for the kind of books that are best to snooze on, I liked Sir Figaro Newton's choice most.

Starting on p. 106, we get the backstory of Baba Mouse and her first love, an owl named Wicket. It's as wild as the soap opera. Baba Mouse, originally just 'Mouse,' was born at the Quinn Cat Shelter and was a favorite of founder Winifred 'Freddie' Quinn, whom we learned about in book three, Take It Away, Tommy. (Baba Mouse is telling her story to Beatrix, who prefers the story of 'Puss in Boots' to 'The Owl and the Pussycat, according to p. 111.) The romance did not end well. Baba Mouse is not pleased that Wicket has returned and is trying to cozy up to her. On p. 113, we learn who was the true love of Mouse's life. Interesting.

Wicket is nicknamed 'Wicked' among the robber mice, with good reason. We learn about his encounter with the Golden Mouse 25 years ago. It leads to a daring adventure and rescue. (There's a two-page break in which the ghost of Tillie changes the calendar from 'June' to 'July'. Fans know what that means and newcomers will find out.) I found the ending very sweet.

The 'More to Explore' section in this book covers pp. 153-169. There's a section on how to make your own cat reporters with wooden spoons, followed by how to report the news in one's house, then on to the tips for paper dolls. I cannot recommend enough that copying the paper dolls instead of cutting them out of the book would be best. Our paper dolls with their outfits for this book are Beatrix, Sophie, Baba Mouse, and Trevor. There's a page with the robber mice and the July Bug, but they don't have outfits. Tommy's Christmas tree shares the page with those five small characters.

As usual, I recommend this book for cat lovers. I hope I've given enough of an idea of the contents to help fans figure out if a favorite storyline is included. ( )

Another fun addition. This collection had more one-off strips, which are my favorite strips, such as Puck reporting confusedly on the corned beef on the table. There are a few longer storylines, such as Beatrix's introduction, but they're told in an episodic fashion so that they are still akin to the shorter one-off strips. ( )

My review of this book can be found on my Youtube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/2r4k9e55wj0

Enjoy! ( )

I don’t even pretend to be objective about Georgia Dunn’s brilliant Breaking Cat News comic; I am unabashedly in love with Puck, Elvis and Lupin, not to mention their friends and frenemies. This is the fourth collection of the comic strip (although oddly the blurb on the back cover cites it as the *third* even as the inside cover lists “Breaking Cat News,” “Lupin Leaps In,” and “Take It Away, Tommy!” as also in this series). Here, our intrepid reporters give us their take on the sudden Void outside (snow), The Man’s heroic venture out into the Void to rescue a freezing kitten with far too many toes (hello, Beatrix!) and the epic story of barn cat Baba Mouse and her early love, the not-to-be-trusted owl Wicket, among many other tales. As with the other books, this one closes with creative tips, this time on making your own wooden spoon dolls, how to report events in your own household and much, much more. Marketed to middle-grade readers, these comic strips are glorious to read and view at any age. Get ‘em all, and you too will fall in love with Georgia’s family, both of cats and people; super-highly recommended! ( )