Python here document without newlines at top and bottom

Question

What's the best way to have a here document, without newlines at the top and bottom? For example:

print ''' dog cat ''' 

will have newlines at the top and bottom, and to get rid of them I have to do this:

print '''dog cat''' 

which I find to be much less readable.

Answer 1

How about this?

print ''' dog cat '''[1:-1] 

Or so long as there's no indentation on the first line or trailing space on the last:

print ''' dog cat '''.strip() 

Or even, if you don't mind a bit more clutter before and after your string in exchange for being able to nicely indent it:

from textwrap import dedent  ...  print dedent('''     dog     cat     rabbit     fox ''').strip()