Cat and Dog Videos Offer Pet Parades Without Fleas

The cross-generational appeal of videos consisting of close-ups of babies’ and toddlers’ faces has inspired canine and feline versions.

Most entertaining are “The Cat’s Meow” and “Those Doggone Dogs and Puppies,” available in one- or two-video sets. The videos show dogs and cats running, playing and snoozing with one another and with their human friends, inside and outdoors. From a basketful of adorable kittens and a real cat in a hat to frolicking hounds and a mutt paying solo soccer, the lively scenes, set to listenable classical, pop and jazz music, are pleasurable, relaxing viewing.

* “Those Doggone Dogs and Puppies,” single, $7.99; two-tape set, $12.99; “The Cat’s Meow,” single, $7.99; two-tape set, $12.99. 30 minutes each. Brentwood Home Video: (800) 522-5223.

“Doggy Faces” and “Kitty Faces” are less successful. “Doggy Faces” is repetitious and static in its close-ups of gaping gullets and lolling tongues and dogs sitting obediently at attention. The best effort is in shots of dogs being dogs.

* “Doggy Faces,” “Kitty Faces,” 28 minutes each; $9.98 each. MVP Home Entertainment: (800) 637-3555.

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If your young animal enthusiast would rather take a walk on the wild side, don’t miss the fascinating preschool home video series “See How They Grow.” Each video, based on Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc.’s children’s books, follows creatures from birth to young adulthood, giving each a voice to tell its own story.

In “See How They Grow: Jungle Animals,” a formidable mama scorpion carries her babies; also on it are furry tiger cubs, a grinning alligator and a surprisingly attractive land snail.

The series includes “Desert Animals”--a baby tarantula, a gerbil, a tortoise and a gecko; “Sea Animals”--a ray, a pipe fish, cuttlefish and a hermit crab; and “Tree Animals”--a chameleon, a stick insect, a buzzard and a fruit bat.

* “See How They Grow,” Sony Wonder, 30 minutes each, $12.98 each. Petsmart Stores.