Cruella de Vil from school, though it is mentioned that they were not friends and that she frightened the young Mrs. Dearly. She was a menacing student with black and white plaits, and was expelled for drinking ink. However, she appears to be on friendlier terms with Mrs. Dearly when they encounter each other at the beginning of the novel, before Cruella steals Dearly's puppies. In all her incarnations, Cruella kidnaps 97 or 99 Dalmatian puppies for their fur. In the live-action version, it is revealed that the reason Cruella chooses to skin puppies is that when short-haired dogs grow older, their fur
Cruella de Vil demon). In the French translation of the Disney's animated movie, she is referred as "Cruella D'Enfer" (Literally, Cruella of Hell or from Hell). In Dutch, the name remains "De Vil", while by coincidence the Dutch verb for skinning is "Villen" and "Vil" is the conjugation of this verb for the first person singular. In Portuguese, Cruella is known as "Cruela Cruel", which straightforwardly stems from "cruel". The name "de Vil" is also a literary allusion to Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897). In the novel, the realty firm Mitchell, Sons & Candy write a letter, dated 1 October, to Lord Godalming, informing