Published anonymously, although the printed dedication "by the writer to her brother" is to William Basil Jones. The author is clearly Dorothea Jones of Gwynfryn (1828-1885), sister of William Basil Tickell Jones, bishop of St Davids. Either anonymously or as 'Gwynfryn', Dorothea Jones was also the author of Friends in fur and feathers (1869) and Sick and in prison (1873), two other books of animal short stories in a similar vein. These will sometimes be found misattributed in library catalogues to the American nature writer, Olive Thorne Miller (1831-1918), or to Margaret Roberts (1833-1919). Also by print-on-demand merchants. In the case of Miller, her similarly titled Little folks in feathers and fur : and others in neither [1880?] seems to be the cause of the confusion.