The Hundred and One Dalmatians, or the Great Dog Robbery is a 1956 novel by Dodie Smith. The plot revolves around a woman who steals 97 dalmatian puppies in order to make a fur coat out of them. The protagonists of the novel are three adult dalmatians (Pongo and his wife Missus, and a young mother named Perdita) who set out to rescue their own puppies and wind up rescuing the whole lot. (The hundred-and-first dalmatian is part of a subplot unrelated to the puppy-snatching, and plays only a small part in the story.)
The novel was made into a Disney animated film in 1961, under the title One Hundred and One Dalmatians. In this film, and its live-action remake 101 Dalmatians, the four adult dalmatians were compressed into two, with two more anonymous puppies added to make up the numbers.