“Dogs are not about something else,” Malcolm Gladwell once wrote. “Dogs are about dogs.” And yet dogs can be about something else — but perhaps their greatest gift is the way in which they infuse with love and light even the most troublesome of something-elses.

In 2011, Robynne Raye, founder of design studio Modern Dog, got a startling note from a friend who had spotted at Target merchandise for a Disney movie featuring dog drawings strikingly similar to the artwork on the endpapers of Modern Dog’s monograph published in 2008 to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary. In disbelief, Raye and her team ordered some of the merchandise. As soon as it arrived, they instantly knew that 26 of their dog illustrations had been blatantly plagiarized for profit — a certainty induced not only by the intimacy with which every artist knows his or her work, but also by the fact that the illustrations in question depicted the company’s own beloved dogs.

A true David-and-Goliath copyright battle ensued as Modern Dog launched a lawsuit against Disney and Target, two behemoths so militantly lawyered up that they had never lost an intellectual property case. As round after round of legal bullying commenced, Modern Dog held out, with friends and supporters chipping in to help with the impossible legal fees. At one point during the proceedings, one of the defendant’s lawyers attempted to illustrate the defense case — premised largely on the rather ridiculous notion that the replica-like similarity between the drawings was the result of natural coincidence — with the following argument: “You know, there are only so many ways to draw a beagle.”

That outrageously absurd comment became the inspiration for 1,000 Dog Portraits From the People Who Love Them (public library) — an immeasurably delightful compendium envisioned by Raye, which begins with a chapter titled “1000 Ways to Draw a Beagle” and proceeds to depict just about every breed, with loving contributions from such celebrated artists and designers as Debbie Millman, Marian Bantjes, Stefan G. Bucher, and Jessie Hartland.

Though Modern Dog persevered and after years of trying battle got a well-deserved settlement from their unrelenting corporate Goliath, the book endures both as an homage to the universal love of our canine companions and as a testament to Modern Dog’s particular spirit of finding inspiration and cause for celebration in even the most trying of circumstances. Still, one of the most heartening touches is the tome’s dedication:

This book is dedicated to Attorney Thomas Cline and his Golden Retriever Jake Cline.

Tom fought with dignity and grace for our rights as creative people against some of the largest corporations in the world.

1,000 Dog Portraits From the People Who Love Them is an irresistible delight in its multiplicitous entirety. Complement it with Mary Oliver’s Dog Songs and The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs.

Images courtesy of Robynne Raye / Modern Dog