Rodney Dale shows his cat-loving credentials right from the start--and why not? "Pussydom," as he puts it, is a marvelous thing, and artists have long been inspired by feline grace and danger (his first example being a stalking, elongated beast from the 8th-century Lindisfarne Gospels). Dale"s high-gloss survey packs in fine art from da Vinci and Dürer as well as some startling children"s book illustrations. It also extends to this century"s ailurophiles, from Dr. Seuss"s skinny troublemaker to Ronald Searle"s chubbies to B. Kliban"s none-too-slim smart alec. And the author manages to include a surprising amount of fact amid this quadruped fancy. Here he is, for example, on Cardinal Richelieu: "It is, perhaps, disappointing to learn that, as soon as his current set of kittens started to grow up and lose their playfulness, the careworn cardinal pensioned them off and sent for some new ones."