Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas

Petey is a striped cat. He is a reformed villain, although he is still housed in Cat Jail for previous crimes. He cloned himself to achieve further criminal greatness; this process created Li’l Petey, who is inherently loving and kind rather than criminal. Through Li’l Petey’s goodness, Pilkey suggests that Petey is not inherently bad but that he has been shaped through unfortunate circumstances.

Petey is a dynamic character who evolves throughout the series more broadly, as well as evolving within Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas. Through Petey, Dav Pilkey explores The Power of Love, as Petey learns from Li’l Petey that, although kindness and forgiveness are difficult, they ultimately lead to more fulfillment than anger, hatred, and criminality. Petey’s redemption in the series more broadly is echoed in a smaller way in this work; Petey is irritable and angry with Li’l Petey’s frustrating, childlike antics in the opening chapters. He refuses to let Li’l Petey call him “Papa,” reminding Li’l Petey that they’re clones rather than father and son. At the novel’s conclusion, though, illustrations depict Petey holding Li’l Petey gently and lovingly while reassuring him with “Papa’s here” (206).

Furthermore, Petey remembers Li’l Petey’s belief in him that he can change, and therefore decides not to join Piggy as a team of supervillains, instead doing the right thing and returning to Cat Jail. Through Petey’s story, Pilkey presents a hopeful message that familial cycles of hatred and crime (as it is established in earlier works that Grampa, Petey’s father, is a villain) can be disrupted through unconditional love and acceptance.

Li’l Petey is a small striped cat. He is a clone of Petey, whom he considers to be his Papa. Li’l Petey is a curious and good-natured child. He is silly and playful, with a particular penchant for toilet humor, as is illustrated through his knock-knock jokes, which invariably end with a punchline of something or someone “pooping on” someone’s head.

Li’l Petey is extremely creative, as is illustrated in his designing the Dogmobile and in his vanquishing of The Fleas through painting and drawing on the Robo-Brontosaurus. Through Li’l Petey, Pilkey suggests that creativity is a vitally important and life-enhancing skill; Li’l Petey epitomizes the pivotal theme The Importance of Creativity.

Li’l Petey is an inherently righteous character who teaches Petey about The Importance of Love; his belief in Petey’s ability to change and to be a good person inspired Petey to refuse Piggy’s offer of joining him as an arch-villain. Furthermore, Li’l Petey accepts his pseudo-family’s quirks and individualities; he creates a situation where Dog Man’s impulsivity can help, rather than hinder, the capture of the criminals by creatively transforming the Robo-Brontosaurus into a squirrel. He lovingly accepts 80-HD’s nonverbal communication, designing him flip-o-rama eyebrows so that he can express himself as the serious Lightning Dude or as the more cheerful 80-HD. These choices illustrate Li’l Petey’s loving nature as well as his inherent creativity.

Dog Man is a member of the police force who has the head of a dog and the body of a man; after a police dog and policeman were injured in an explosion, the dog’s head was sewn onto the body of the man. This creates a comic doglike man who ostensibly operates as a human police officer but is often drawn into mischievous doglike acts, such as chasing squirrels on his way to work and jumping affectionately all over Chief, knocking him to the ground and leading to the villains Piggy, Crunky, and Bub escaping.

Despite the occasional faux pas caused by his canine tendencies, Dog Man is a kind-hearted character who is motivated to do good in the community; he bravely, albeit haphazardly, assists in the fight against The Fleas, the villains, and antagonists of the story. Li’l Petey helps Dog Man use his impulsiveness for good by painting and drawing on the Robo-Brontosaurus to make it look like a squirrel.

Dog Man is a static character who is constant in terms of his integrity and his silly and ridiculous antics. His kindness is lauded by the book, as is his bravery. Furthermore, he introduces an element of hilarity through his doglike actions. Pilkey presents Silliness as Joyful and Important as a recurring theme throughout the work and utilizes the characterization of Dog Man to show that heroes can be imperfect. Furthermore, he uses Dog Man, who has different tendencies and impulses from most other people due to the duality of his human and dog nature, to celebrate and normalize neurodiversity.