Editor's note: This is an edited transcript of our interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed.

The HSUS: To you, what does "flawed dogs" mean?

Berkeley Breathed: "Flawed dogs" means an unloved dog, and that was the punch line of the book—that when you get through it, you think I'm talking about the physical or mental flaws or whatever flaws we might be kidding about in the book. When actually none of the dogs are flawed, except for the fact that they don't have anyone to love them. So that's what a "flawed dog" was—a dog without love.... They're not without [love] completely because there are a lot of very dedicated shelter people working for them and taking care of them. But they still need their companions, and they're flawed until they find it really.

The HSUS: And do you have flawed dogs of your own?

B.B.: Oh, we have nothing but flawed dogs. Except, no, they're not flawed because they're completely loved. But, yes, they are shelter dogs. Maybe you could make the case that somebody thought that they were flawed when they brought them back to the shelters...but it's up to the rest of us to discover that they're not flawed at all and they're wonderful companions.

We almost always had four [dogs] ... attrition has taken its toll this year, and we're down to two. And children have been added to the family. We're up to two children, so we're not sure how fast we're going to replace the usual four-dog count. But usually we have an entire barking house full of shelter dogs everywhere.

The HSUS: The visuals in Flawed Dogs are humorous and interesting and a little out there. How do your visuals come about?

B.B.: The book started by drawing the dog on the cover who is missing a leg—with the putter replacing the missing limb. That was intended as a production painting for a movie, Flawed Dogs, which we're planning on building a treatment for and pitching. After I painted that and had such a great time with that, it occurred to me there are many other exaggerations of dogs that we have seen in dog shelters that we could concoct—as well as imaginary dogs that may have not suited their original owners' needs and/or prejudices....

So that's what it was: How can I take the issue and make it funny. And it's not a funny issue, so it's a bit of a challenge. How can I take shelter dogs and make an amusing, humorous book out of the issue without diminishing the importance and the essence of the whole story.

The HSUS: You've always used a lot of animals in your work. What do you find appealing about animals as characters?

B.B.: They're just far more interesting to draw. And if you're going to be more silly with a drawing, somehow people are always drawn to animals. I mean, Disney figured this out in the '30s, and never backed away from it. Even in animated films, which are an offshoot of what I do, they've discovered that an animated animal is always more compelling a character than an animated human. And when they forget that, it's at their risk. It's almost always costly to the project when you have too many drawn people and not enough animals. For some reason, we love to see animals talking. And kids, especially children, love to see animals talking, and love to see them treated funny and with an irreverent sense of humor.

The HSUS: A possible outcome of this book could be the promotion of shelters. Could you elaborate on that?

B.B.: Definitely. We hope that the children reading this will come away from it with a better sense, especially with the last image, that shelters aren't the dog pounds that they might have heard about growing up from their parents; that they're totally different things; that when they think about getting their dog...that instead of running down to the pet store that there is an alternative and it's far better.... They're going to probably come away with a better dog, almost assuredly. And if they've had fun with the dogs in the book and have empathized with any of them and wish that they owned any of these wild dogs, they can pull back from their imagination a bit and find dogs that are just as good and just as fun in their shelters.

So I really hope that there's a link between the book and the whole idea of shelters. And it's a fun link, and it's not one driven by guilt or a sense of shame, but just one of being illuminated about the whole issue. That's what humor does. It brings people in without them being resentful of being brought in.

The HSUS: We have a campaign, Pets for Life, which is essentially designed to keep people and their pets together. Do you think there are any messages in your book that will help people who already have pets?

B.B.: Well, they'll appreciate them better. The dogs in the book have been dropped off at the shelter, ostensibly because the people imagined them as having flaws that they couldn't live with, or at least some of the dogs are characterized that way. The whole point is that the flaw was in the person; it wasn't with the dog. These dogs are waiting for love, and if some of them look sillier than the purebred down the street, it is totally irrelevant to how this dog can bring some love into your life.

Actually, the entire book, if you want to see this in metaphor, is that everyone stop fussing about your looks, about your looks and your dog's looks, and start appreciating each other on the level that we should be. We certainly do it in our human world. We certainly do it to women, too. Unfortunately, it's strayed into how we see our pets. And the last thing we should be considering about a dog is how perfect he looks.

The HSUS: And for all the cat people out there, how come no flawed cats?

B.B.: You know, we've been talking about that, and actually it's a built-in structural flaw in cats that they're not as funny as dogs because they all look about the same. If you were to wet them all down, basically you'd have the same cat down there beneath all the fur. And imagine how many varieties and shapes and bone structures of dogs there are out there. It's just infinite. So I thought about a Flawed Cats, and the fact is cats aren't flawed. They're all the same. They're not perceived as having any flaws.

The HSUS: So for cats, it was a visual decision not a ...?

B.B.: Yeah. It was absolutely a decision by the cartoonist that I can't think of a way to draw cats 18 silly different ways. In my eyes, they're almost identical.... Their faces are all about the same so the raw putty isn't there to play with.

The HSUS: A lot of people in the book-buying public have never been in a shelter and don't know what it's like. What would you say to somebody who picks up your book and is looking to get a dog maybe down the road? What does a shelter have to offer for somebody who's never been in there and is maybe a little fearful of it?

B.B.: What I would say is from my own experience with shelters: The first shelter I was in was in Seattle at a place called PAWS, and it wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting a much different-looking place, and here was a place that was run by dedicated people who loved the animals, who cared for them deeply, and cared for finding them homes.... And the most valuable thing I found in getting a dog from a shelter was that I could meet the adult dogs.... I could get in the cage and sit down and let them get used to me and curl up in my lap and bond with them before I even left the place.

And I never failed to walk out of the shelter without a great, terrific animal that was everything that we had hoped for. I never found the broken dogs that I thought were at shelters. I was surprised at how whole these dogs were, and how healthy they were and how happy they were. And for whatever reasons, they were sacrificed. It was just a far better marketplace to pick up a companion than a pet store.

The HSUS: So you admire the work that shelters do?

B.B.: Oh, the shelters are absolutely essential. I mean, they're my heroes. These people are, almost without an exception, extremely dedicated folks that, if they weren't there, I don't know what would happen. It would all be run by bureaucrats, maybe, and they wouldn't be the ones to properly care for these dogs.