My wife’s father read this book with her when she was little, so it must have been published before 1964. Here is what she could recall when I asked her for more details:
“The book title was MAX. But anyways there are no photos of the book covers here so hard to say. This book is an over sized hard cover book (like the I Spy kids books). I remember the cover being yellow and turquoise – the illustrations are hand drawn (the cat is black line drawn) – he is a chubby cat. In one sequence he grabs the hair dryer and is looking at it inquisitively – it turns on accidentally and it blows his hair every which way as he tries to figure out how to turn it off.”
I know exactly the book you are talking about (I was born in 1960)! My brother has a copy that he won’t want to part with, but I can try and get you the rest of the details about the book.
I think you might want Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm. I can’t find the hair drier picture, but there definitely is an overweight cat named Max who gets into things.
The details of the book MAX: by Pericle Luigi Giovannetti, published in the mid 1950’s, in the US by Penguin.
If you google ‘vintage book Max giovannetti’, you can probably tell from the images if this is the one you are looking for. Thanks for reminding me of this book. I just ordered a copy for myself.