Search and Rescue Kitties! Stick Cat: Two Cats to the Rescue by Tom Watson

Former City Kitties Stick Cat and Edith are happily living with their human friends, Tiffany and Goose, who rescued them from their hard-knock city lives and moved the cat into their house near the woods. But they especially love their toddler daughter Millie.

On day Tiffany heads out for some grocery shopping, calling to Goose, busy doing the breakfast dishes, to watch Millie while she's gone. Goose, however is running the disposal and can't hear her, and assumes that she's taking Millie along for the ride.

And when Millie toddles outside, Stick Cat realizes that the humans don't know that her little bare feet are taking her out of sight of the house, joyfully following a yellow butterfly.

Instantly, Stick goes into rescue mode, followed by his co-cat, Edith. Millie trails behind the butterfly into a little meadow, where there is a large puddle with a log beside it, where the butterfly has stopped to rest.

"It's amazing, just amazing!" said Edith.

Stick looks around, confused! It's kinda pretty... but.... UMMMM?

"It's the OCEAN, silly," said Edith. "I'm sure we'll see a dolphin or a whale any minute now!"

Stick is very fond of Edith and her long eyelashes are lovable, as she points out frequently, but Edith is not the brightest candle in the candelabra. Stick decides to distract Edith and get back on the job of getting Millie back into the house before her parents miss her.  Edith offers to solve the butterfly problem by squashing it.

What? This is not an attractive side of Edith, Stick muses.

Stick suggests that Edith try to lead Millie back home, but before Edith can come up with her best purr, the butterfly gets tired of the log and flutters away across the puddle. Millie climbs out onto the log, which slides into the puddle and floats after the butterfly, who is flitting away into the woods.

Now Stick has to figure out how to get Millie and the log out of the middle of the puddle. Millie, on the other hand, is now absorbed with splashing her feet in the very middle of the big puddle.

Cats hate and fear water, but Stick summons his powers and with a daring feline leap rescues Millie from the, er, ocean, only to watch her toddle deeper into the woods after the butterfly. Stick and Edith track her down just as she starts to fuss, but they are out of ideas to get her safely back home.

But it's Stick Dog and his canine pals, Mutt, Karen, and Stripes, just in time, in Tom Watson's Stick Cat: Two Cats to the Rescue (Harper, 2019). In comic book style, Watson's stories of Stick Cat is a hilarious spin-off of his Stick Dog tales. Stick Cat, like Stick Dog, is the brains of the operation, while their dopey noodle-head buddies provide most of the giggles in this latest in Watson's graphic novels series, just right for fans of Big Nate: From the Top (Volume 1) and its bazillions of sequels, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1) and sequels. Great for reluctant readers, and for anyone who likes comic stories with the benefit of insight into behavior and doing the right thing.