On Thursday, a friend and fellow animal lover dropped by the DH with a Christmas present for me that has had much of the newsroom laughing hysterically ever since.

It’s a book called “Awkward Family Pet Photos,” by Mike Bender and Doug Chernack. They are also, the cover says, authors of the New York Times bestseller “Awkward Family Photos.”

“Pet Photos” is pretty much what you would imagine it would be and comes complete with comical headlines and captions. Great stuff; either buy yourself a copy or swing by the newsroom and I’ll find you an empty chair in which to sit down and look at it.

The book also reminded me of a photo taken almost exactly  four years by my daughter Pam, the first picture she took with the camera on the MacBook she had just gotten for Christmas:

The disconcerted-looking animal is Deuce, then 4 years old (Pam was 17). Deuce is a great cat, very affectionate in his own way, but he’s never liked to be picked up, and he enjoys being carried even less.

When Pam showed us all the photo, raucous laughter ensued. Pretty much the consensus was that it looked like a hostage picture: We’ve got your cat. If you want him back alive, you’ll do what we say.

I’m happy to report that Deuce was released unharmed, and to this day he continues a happy life of sleeping on the furniture, leaving dead rodents on the welcome mat in the garage, hiding under a bed when it’s time to be put out, and peeing on a kitchen counter when awake and unsupervised in the house for any length of time (that’s a situation to be avoided, for sure).

Anyway, from Deuce and the rest of our family, which includes a collection of other animals as well, Merry Christmas Eve.