Cheering grumpy animal cards

I've come to that stage in my life when my default choice of greeting card seems to be Cat: "Happy birthday Mum! Here's a card with a cute cat on it" or "Happy birthday friend! Here's a card with a cute kitten on it" or "Happy new home! Here's a card with a picture of a cute cat in its new cat basket on it". Not that this is bad mind, it just doesn't give me much hope for the future of my stationery choices over the next 30 years.

So before I go completely down the line of misty-eyed kittens and sentimental verses, I'd like to retain some of my youthful grumpiness. Here's some great animal cards which have a little bit of sourness to go alongside the sweet. After all, nothing is more likely to cheer you up than a (cute) cat or dog in a huff.

This Damn Cat card says roughly the above in a much more succinct manner - and with an image of a card on it. It's by Catherine Hiley and is available at LMNOP for £2.50.

Jamie Mitchell's Rejected card shows that it can be dog eat dog when dog meets dog. This puffed-up poodle and plucky pug design is available from Ohh Deer for £1.80.

Gemma Correll's cards are never anything less than brilliant. As a member of team cat, I'm especially a fan of this bumbling idiot card. It's £2.50 from Soma Gallery (who stock many more of her designs for chuckling over). It's animal magic.