You never know who you'll bump into at a diner at night.

It could be a rat with an anger-management problem. Or an overly sentimental pig. Or a zebra with a story or two to tell about a crocodile. Or even a goat who just wants to be left alone.

Welcome to Nighthogs, where the door is always open, the light is always on, and the coffee is as scorching as the humor.

In this third collection of the immensely popular Pearls Before Swine, Stephan Pastis again takes us into the world of Rat, Pig, Zebra, and Goat, and he shows once more just how outrageous-and how hilarious-the unpredictable can be. Always surprising (and only occasionally depraved), Pearls Before Swine is one of the sharpest comic strips in newspapers today.

So pull up a stool, have a cup of joe, and enjoy.

Stephan Pastis is an attorney-cum-cartoonist who maintained his interest in UCLA Law School by creating Rat stories in his class notebook margins. Stephan actually practiced law in the San Francisco Bay Area before succumbing to full-time cartooning. Pastis lives with his family in northern California.