TL; DR version: Depicts major violations of boundaries and consent, and a sense of powerlessness to change it. Zero respect for personal space, or even for the one time a need for space was clearly stated. Zero emotional processing or apologies or clear communication about needs. Completely unrealistic ending that overrides the natural need for a nervous system reset after such a stressful day. Generally depicts manipulation and terrible boundaries. Terrible message for young children!More explicit review:Starts out with a good premise, very relatable — annoyingly playful, loud Dog wants to play with Cat, who just wants some quiet, calm, clean space to herself.Cat does NOT tell dog she wants space, but tries to sneak away by playing hide and seek to get some space while hiding, but dog keeps finding her. She then runs away outside **STILL without directly telling dog that she needs space**, and runs into various messy, noisy situations outside as well. (Which maybe shows indirectly that it’s a bad idea to run outside without telling anyone, because things might be worse out there, but it still fails to show how to ask for space indoors, and unnecessarily prolongs the story.)Finally dog comes to find Cat hiding up a tree, where she’s “never been so miserable”, and he loudly barks at the other dogs who have chased her there, so they run away. (Some reviews say they love how dog “protected” her, completely ignoring the fact that if dog had allowed her some quiet space to herself indoors in the first place, she never would have been in that bad situation!!)Photos show the last two pages of the book, where cat comes down from the tree, FINALLY saying “hi, dog, I need space”.Dog NEVER acknowledges that he heard her request for space. He never gives her any space, except what she took by running away. He just begs her to come inside again. He doesn’t leave her alone or stop pestering her. She never actually gets peaceful space to herself.But suddenly, for ZERO obvious reason, Cat decides to go inside and play happily with Dog, completely forgetting (or overriding, or giving up on) her need for space! She just goes right in to play, and somehow decides it’s actually time to share space, even though her need NEVER got met.This is one of the most unrealistic, absurd picture book endings I’ve ever read.As a cat-kinda person myself, if I went through all the shenanigans Cat did (playing a game despite not wanting to, running away, getting dirty and chased by dogs, feeling scared and miserable), my need for space would be even MORE urgent after all of that! There is NO way I would suddenly be ready to play without finally getting my space to myself!This seems like some crazy BS book maybe for parents who want to manipulate their kids into getting along and playing together in a small space, completely overriding their needs for personal space. Sure, the beginning mentions how luxurious it would feel to Cat to get to have that space, but she never gets it in the story. And her eventual one sentence articulation of her need for space is completely ignored.This is a terrible lesson to teach young kids — especially with the gender roles of a female cat and a male dog, when SO MANY men think it’s ok to continually make demands of women’s personal space, and so many women have trouble clearly stating their boundaries. And then even when they do, those boundaries are often ignored, just like Dog fails to acknowledge what Cat says at the end. But it’s portrayed as if Cat just *saying* that one sentence magically solves her actual need for space, EVEN THOUGH Dog ignores it and Cat never gets what she asked for and clearly needed all along.Nope, rather than finally getting some space to herself, and THEN feeling rejuvenated and ready to engage again (which is generally what is necessary in real life, and what I was hoping this book would portray), instead, Cat eventually gives up on her needs (as many women do), and decides to just go along with what the ever-persistent Dog wants.And they apparently live happily ever after, with Dog’s needs being met at the expense of Cat’s, and no discussion about how to resolve that imbalanced relationship dynamic more fairly, with clear learning about how to state and respect healthy boundaries on both sides, as was desperately needed.This old paradigm of poor boundaries needs to change, and there is no way I’m letting this book stay in my house!We received it as a gift, along with some of the others in this series, and they are all being sent back.I very seldom write reviews, especially bad ones, but this was too egregious to let slide, especially since the other reviews are mostly good, and the description says the book is supposed to be about having a voice for your need for space. But having that voice be so completely ignored is an even worse message than never even stating your need at all, IMHO. Like, what’s the point of saying anything, if it’s just going to be ignored and you give up and go do what the other persistent party was wanting all along?! Terrible message.We stock our home with many books about emotional intelligence, consent, boundaries, and healthy relationships, but this is NOT one of them. I read it aloud to my kids first without pre-reading, and we then had a long discussion about how both Dog and Cat could have worked out this issue much more healthily — but that’s not part of the book itself!