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“But a surprise can’t fail. Nobody expects anything, because
it’s a surprise party.”
Barker thought for a moment, but couldn’t find anything else
to say. He got up and went out.
That evening the yard filled with guests. Everyone was

pleasantly surprised and delighted with the invitation. Daisy Like cat and dog
Butterfield told a joke about a cow and a fireman. Everybody had
heard it a hundred times before, but they still laughed. Connie
Quackstrom and Winky Pig did the Birdy Song dance. Everybody
had seen it a thousand times before, but they still laughed. Henny
recited a funny verse she had written. Everybody had heard it a
million times already, but still they clapped.

Barker was the only one who didn’t clap or laugh. He sat
in the garden swing and watched the guests, who praised the Who’s smarter: a cat or a dog? On that
food and admired the freshly painted garden furniture and the question, Purdy and Barker occasionally
smooth driveway. Then he fell asleep. He was obviously having a argued, although for the most part they lived
lovely dream because he looked very happy. As if he was having peaceably in their little house on a hill where
a whole lot of fun. the forest meets the sky.
Their arguments usually broke out all of a sudden, for no
particular reason. It might be Barker accidentally dropping his
mug of tea, which prompted a comment from Purdy. “Cats are

careful. Refined and elegant, and they never drop anything.”
Or Purdy would happen to mislay his book, which Barker could
find just by sniffing the air. “Dogs have an exceptional sense of
smell. They’re precise and practical and never lose a thing.”
Other times they would argue whether cats were more
flexible, cuter, furrier, more independent, and mysterious than

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