The Cats of Ulthar was a personal favorite of Lovecraft's, who was an ardent cat lover.[4] A number of contemporary critics, as well as Lovecraft himself,[8] consider the story to be the best of all his Dunsanian tales.[8][9] Other critics have noted that the story is one of Lovecraft's most famous tales that fits both the Dunsanian and the "weird fantasy" style.[10] Literary critic Darrell Schweitzer, however, comments that The Cats of Ulthar resembles Dunsany in "mood and execution" only and that "[it] has no obvious parallels in any Dunsany story".[11] Schweitzer refers to the prose as "restrained",[11] and notes that, unlike Lovecraft, Dunsany preferred dogs and would have been unlikely to have written such an enthusiastic tribute.[11] Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi disagrees, claiming that "[t]his tale owes more to Dunsany than many of his other 'Dunsanian' fantasies".[4]