First there was Koko the gorilla and her cat All Ball (Koko named him herself, digging the fact that "all" and "ball" rhymed).
Koko's story, no doubt, influenced Anthony Browne's children's book Little Beauty in which a gorilla befriends a kitten. My dad gave the book to me and my wife last month as a gift for our son-to-be (soon, people, soon). Little Beauty is a good book, but also kind of weird. And by weird, I mean not what you'd expect in a kids' book. It isn't one you can read to a kid (at least not to a kid who can talk) without that kid asking, "Why did the gorilla get so angry?" Anger, of course, isn't a bad thing in kids books (there are many written on that subject alone), it's just that the only answer I have for this particular question about this particular book is "I don't know." The gorilla in the book has a scary and violent freakout that comes out of nowhere. Granted, he doesn't hurt his kitty friend, but he does destroy a TV with his fists.
Then again, kids are pretty expert when it comes to random freakouts. So maybe they all totally get it. Also, according to the Guardian UK, "Browne's greatest strength [as a children's illustrator] is his willingness to let the darkness in."
Speaking of dark and random, have you ever seen a monkey kissing a cat on the mouth? Well, now you can, thanks to Videogum. Let me just say, that's one patient cat. Also, don't keep monkeys as pets even if the monkey is your cat's boyfriend.
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