Oh the titles these Ruralite writers came up with! A "burfer" would seem to have been some sort of street mutt, a common mongrel that went "burf" instead of "woof". Maybe the writer had one and it won a local dog show? I don't remember the first thing about it.

I do recall having a bit of fun with the drawing though. Each dog had to be distinctive, and I made just about the most of a contrast between dogs that were too big (and lazy) and too small (and yappy). Now that I think of it, that may have been the gist of the article, that "burfers" were just right. Whether or not that was the writer's intention, the yappies come in right in last place, in my opinion. In inspiration I took the strange little chihuahua that George McMannus always drew in his Maggie & Jiggs strips. It was only a flat silhouette, with curley-cue tail and all angles. I don't think George's had these teeth though!