A Dog's First Rabbit
This book is narrated by a family dog. Bunnicula is the first rabbit he has seen. He uses imagery to describe him. "He sort of looks like Chester, only he’s got longer ears and a shorter tail. And a motor in his nose." This imagery compares the rabbit to the family cat with the suggested alterations of extending the ears and reducing the tail. The motorized nose refers to the manner in which rabbits can rapidly move their noses back and forth. The imagery is effective because it conveys the sense in which a dog would view a rabbit through comparison with limited exposure to other species.
A Cat's View of Parrots
Chester the cat is presented as an obsessive reader with an elevated literary vocabulary. He exhibits this aspect of his personality in using imagery to describe a parrot as a bird "that has a stout curved hooked bill, is often crested, brightly variegated, and an excellent mimic. In other words, Harold, a parrot is a little bird with a big mouth.” This descriptive imagery takes advantage of Chester's advanced language skills while also showcasing his dry sense of humor.
Sourballs
The master of the house enjoys sourballs and while questioning why the family dog has a taste for shoes. One day, a sourball falls to the floor and rolls over to the dog and he gets his first taste of the treat. "As the tears started running out of my eyes, I thought, What’s wrong with my mouth?! It’s turning inside out!...I wanted to cry, but all that came out was an `ooooo' sound. I 1ooooo'-ed for days." The use of imagery is effective because it projects a fairly likely version of this event in which a dog has his first encounter with sourness. From the physical reaction of watering eyes to the confusion and inability to behave normally, it is easy to imagine Harold the dog/narrator undergoing this unpleasant experience.
Cats
Much of the humor of the book derives from the description of the behavior of other animals by the dog narrator. "I don’t know if you’ve ever watched a cat try to decide where to sit, but it involves a lot of circling around, sitting, getting up again, circling some more, thinking about it, lying down, standing up, bathing a paw or tail and . . . circling!" The imagery here is instantly familiar to anyone who has ever observed a cat. The humor is dependent upon reader familiarity combined with the exasperation of a dog who compares his own species' behavior in a far more favorable way to the fussiness of felines.
