Are you ready for more Dobby stories? Prince Dobalob lives on in this fictitious kingdom inhabited by capybaras and assorted lesser rodents. He rides around on Segways, eats popcorn, knocks things over, falls in love, and solves a mystery. He also builds a zeppelin.

There’s not a word of truth, no politics, no moralizing, and there is not a hint of AI content. There are scads of sketchy illustrations but the cover by Muccegai is truly a work of art.

Let’s pretend we’re at a bookstore and flip through the book and look at the pictures. I’ll add a few captions for context.

Here is the story in pictures. The map above and the following B&W illustrations are by yours truly.

Prince Dobalob Builds a Zeppelin is available online at your favorite local bookstore. If you want to learn more about Dobby the capybara, you can also pick up his book I Can Explain Everything: Confessions of a Pet Capybara at the same place.

Note that the links open to my local favorite indie bookstore. Please feel free to Choose A Bookstore to order through your own bookstore. All books are Print On Demand and will be shipped directly to you from the publisher. You are unlikely to find it on a shelf at the book store but you can request that your library order a copy. (It’s also available through Amazon.)

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There are lots of kiddie capybara books out there. Suddenly there are also a few grown-up books about caring for capybaras. My guess is the authors scraped the internet for factoids and slapped together a booklet rife with misinformation, lacking any firsthand information. Prove me wrong. I don’t think you can find useful information in books about capybaras anywhere*. Online, there is the ROUS Foundation for Capybara Veterinary Medicine.

Here are some of my favorite animal books, including some about animal training. Check out the list below from my own extensive bookshelves.

Ackerman, Jennifer; The Genius of Birds; Penguin Books, 2016.

Grandin, Temple; Animals in Translation; Harcourt Inc, 2005. [training]

Lombardi, Linda; Animals Behaving Badly; A Perigee Book, 2011.

Lord, Rexford; Capybaras: A Natural History of the World’s Largest Rodent; The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.

Maxwell, Gavin; Ring of Bright Water; E.P.Dutton & C0, Inc, 1960. [otter]

Moreira, et al; Capybara: Biology, Use and Conservation of an Exceptional Neotropical Species; Springer, 2013. [scientific studies]

North, Sterling; Rascal; E.P.Dutton & C0, Inc, 1963. [raccoon]

O’Brien, Stacey; Wesley the Owl; Atria Books, 2009. [training]

Peet, Bill; Capyboppy; Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966. [capybara]

Quammen, David; The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions; Scribner, 1997. [evolution]

Ryden, Hope; Lily Pond: Four years with a Family of Beavers; William Morrow and Company Inc, 1989.

Stanger, Margaret; That Quail, Robert; J. B. Lippincott  Company, 1966.

Tarte, Bob; Enslaved by Ducks; Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2003.

Williams, J.H.; Bandoola; Doubleday & Company Inc, 1954. [elephant]

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Dobby the Capybara is brought to you by Stacy’s Funny Farm, a nonprofit small animal sanctuary. Please consider a donation so we can continue to care for our kitchen sink menagerie. We especially appreciate monthly giving- the PayPal portal offers that option. If you want to help but are short on cash, head over to Dobby’s YouTube channel.  We’re monetized and those ads pay out nicely, so please watch, share, and subscribe. There are hundreds of Dobby videos there.

Stacy’s Funny Farm is a §501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

EIN 47-1397412