Robert Walser's wonderful animal stories are as peculiar as they are unique. His cats and mice, sparrows and porcupines are sometimes seriously animalistic, sometimes surprisingly human. Walser shows himself fascinated by their serviceability gained through domestication as well as by their unreachable selfhood. In the otherness of the animal, we recognize, not least, the relationship of the individual to culture and society, for instance, when a writer makes a fool of himself or writes for the cats. This volume brings together Robert Walser's countless stories about animals for the first time into a small bestiary.