Hairy Maclary, a small black dog, has his tail nipped by a caged cockatoo and, leaping up, precipitates a lighthearted pet riot in the veterinarian's waiting room. Lively watercolor and ink illustrations are carefully coordinated with a brief, rhymed text. Realistic yet simplified paintings completely fill each left-hand page and face a right-hand page devoted exclusively to text. The animated feeling of these paintings is derived more from expressive animal faces than from a sense of motion. The animals are well observed and neatly individualized. The use of language is delightful, being musical, playful, and colorful. The print is large and appropriate for beginning readers, but the vocabulary may prove intimidating to those same readers. This reads aloud well; however, previous books about Hairy Maclary are stronger as this story is a bit muddled. The vet enters to restore peace to her waiting room, but it is never clear that she succeeds before the punchline, which indicates that the rumpus is about to start anew.