I stay as far aways I can from horror books but I am glad he does like animals. IO do like the mysteries with animals in them. The Joe Gray series I really like Shirley Murphy-Rousseau
http://www.joegrey.com/- thee cats (Joe Gray, Duclie and the Kit solve mysteries - it's wonderful) and of course I like the cozy mystery series by Lilian Jackson Braun with the Siamese KoKo and Yum Yum but only because of them. I doubt I;d read her sans Siamese. There is also hmmm... a book called Stray that I did not care for. Hard to explain, if you like Koonz, you might like it tho it is more psych adventure/ mystery than horror. Then there is Temple and Black Louie and I forget the author - kind of different as is Rita Mae Brown and her one dog and two cats who help solve mysteries. The best writer of the lot is Rousseau Murphy though I suspect Braun is the best known.
As for dogs, I loved the Shaggy Dog (the book, not the movie tho laughed like a fool thru the new movie). And of course The Incredible Journey will tug at your heart every time.
I am considering writing a novel where a cat/person has the ability to tun someone into a cat but it is against whatever rules of the coven or whatever name I come up with.
However, a nasty neighbour is a is nasty to a dog and cat makes her momentarily forget and she turns said neighbour into a cat who looks like a kitty in need of a hair cut and much help and this is picked up by the pound with the usual problems. The character has to get her out of the pound but it would have a happy ending, even for the neighbour, lol I would be more of a kid's novel. If I ever write chapter one, I'll post of for editorial input, lol I have an agent for the medical texts I write but not sure she could sell any cat mysteries, lol
I WILL look up Mr. Kootz tho - I did get one of his in a Double day book of the month club and have maybe 40 in .lit format (to read on a blackberry or laptop or Pocket PC) but I just never read them. As I said, the Exorcist did it to me for horror. I do not even like Mr. King's books. (well, Delores Claiborne was not bad)