Books starring your dog, your cat, your anybody

One good photo is all we need: the whole animal or its face plainly visible, in focus, and well-lit. Daylight beats lamplight, eye-level beats top-down, and close beats far away. The photo you'd make your phone background is usually the right one.

If we can't use the photo, we tell you the moment you upload it — before you pay for anything — and a person looks again before it prints. Photo reviewed the same or next business day — before printing.

Dogs and cats give the most reliable likenesses, and they are most of the pets we paint. But the stories were written for any animal somebody keeps: rabbits, birds, guinea pigs, horses, lizards, even a fish can star in the gentler titles.

The bedtime story asks nothing of its hero but a good night's sleep, which makes it the natural home for small and unusual pets; the adventure suits any animal you can picture crossing a stream. Each book's own page says who it is written for, and the comparison table on the full list of stories puts the ages, lengths and occasions side by side.