At the last count there were over 190 different breeds of dog in the world. Here we have 65 pedigree stories and only a handful have anything to do with dogs. Meg Pokrass's sixth collection of flash fictions however represents best in class of the short literary form; miniature stories that will jump into your lap and let you stroke them, fierce stories that will frighten you, snarl and bare their teeth, stories that will whimper until you've taken them for a walk, stories that will leave a mess on your carpet. For those who don't like dogs, there are love-struck cockroaches, six-foot spiders, blue-tongued skinks, Margaret Thatcher-like spouses, horny night bugs. Meg Pokrass's stories are about the necessary animals sitting next to all of us.