Fish is good 'brain food', when I'm eating ones bigger,
But instead of the brain, it enlarged my figure.
- Little Joe Otter

Not all 'fat furry' images need to be inspired by anthropomorphic characters seen in TV shows, movies, comic books, and video games. Sometimes, the best ones come from classic works of literature (e.g. 'Templeton' the rat from "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White). One of the lesser-known authors was Thornton Burgess, who usually tells tales of various forest fauna.

In this case, I chose one of his characters from "Thornton Burgess Animal Stories". There are already several chubby animals that he'd written about (such as 'Peter Rabbit', 'Bobby Coon', 'Paddy the Beaver', et al), but I'd decided to fatten up one of his leaner characters - 'Little Joe Otter' - with lots of fish, naturally.

As for the artwork, I'd attempted to render 'Little Joe Otter' in the style of his original illustrator, Harrison Cady, a longtime associate of Burgess. I hope some of you like it!

"Thornton Burgess Animal Stories" © The Platt & Munk, Co., Inc.
'Little Joe Otter' © Thornton Burgess
Artwork by RobCat (inspired by Harrison Cady)