Finally some closure to the previous comic! Maybe I spend too much time around the cats & am a maladjusted person, but it’s a damn emotional rollercoaster for me when these cats are bummed out for whatever reason. Bologna always seems more betrayed than Noodle when I have to administer flea medication, so she sulks a little longer. All I can do is continue to be way too extreme about making sure the cats don’t run outside & risk getting fleas & hope the cats eventually understand the cause & effect of all this.
The titular comic for the latest Hey Cat comic book. Anytime I’m feeling like I’m scratching more than usual signals the beginning of a terrible cycle. Nobody is happy, except maybe the bugs IF they actually exist.
How far do I go to make sure the potential parasites are dead? Tune in next week for the conclusion!
What can I say? I’m a permissive cat guy. It goes against the nature of a cat to impose human bullshit on it. I like to feed the cats scraps! Not a ton, I don’t want them to get sick. But Baddie ever since Baddie spent time as a street cat, she’s been wild about trying to get our food when Jessica & I are eating.
Not too long ago we heard commotion in the kitchen & saw Baddie trotting into the room with a huge piece of steak in her mouth that we had left on the cutting board for a few minutes. She’s relentless. So sometimes when we’re eating & she’s not bugging us I’ll reward her good behavior with human food! I know, I’m part of the problem. But isn’t humans feeding domesticated cats part of their evolution? So there you go, I sound like part of the solution too.
I had to do a comic about this because it happens so regularly it feels like a real life recurring comic strip bit. The cats want to go outside, & I get it! Lot of cool stuff out there. So clearly I’m the bad guy in this scenario.
But because of my long list of cool human reasons to keep them inside, I have to be the enforcer. It’s not my favorite position to be in, I like to let the cats do their thing as long as they’re not treating each other like assholes or destroying something. There are too many variables outside my control once the cats get out though, it sucks to have to hunt them down a few minutes after we notice one of them slips out unnoticed. Plus I don’t want to crawl around underneath the porch.
Because of her famous cat curiosity, Bologna watches me scoop the litter boxes sometimes (Noodle does this now too, possibly a copycat move). Who knows what goes through a cat’s head when they see us sifting through their shit?
I may have mentioned it in an early Hey Cat comic, but my approach to the human-cat communication in this series is that I don’t really understand what the cats are saying. It’s basically me interpreting a meow. I’m pretty sure they understand some of what I say, but they choose not to give a damn about it. Like some of my human interactions!
I’m a cat guy from way back. I grew up around cats & have had cats for most of my adult life, so I’ve learned that cats respond well to positive reinforcement. So eventually they’ll usually start doing tricks for approval. They’ll also learn effective ways to get what they want. It’s manipulative for sure, but I have to admire their ability to communicate.
I’m relieved to be able to resume posting comics again. Happy new year, too. Like I mentioned in my recent Patreon blog post, Kickstarter fulfillment took up a lot of my time & attention since it was the thing I prioritized. Now that that’s wrapped up, I hope to build a little consistency into the comics this year by scheduling these comics to post in advance. I’m trying to systemize these things!
The next batch of comics are ones that are printed in Hey Cat Volume 3: Return of the Fleas. If you missed out on the Kickstarter, you can still get a copy in the Grackle Studio shop!
Also, I’m thinking of breaking the comics up into panels in the future since it looks like it works well with this site’s theme. Lemme know if this works better for you!
Fresh from the Photoshop cleanup process, it’s the latest installment of Hey, Cat! I’m not sure any “long term readers” of this comic exist, but if they did they’d notice this one is a little different. That’s right, this is the first multipage installment!
Yes, this happened a couple weeks ago. I made a comic in the first or second year of this series dealing with death, but this impacted me differently. I found myself unable to discipline my poor cat for her instinct to be nice to me & offer the gift of a lizard. Not sure if the lizard survived outside or if one of the outside cats finished the job, but that’s a story for another comic or animated movie!
As a cat owner, one of the first things you have to decide is if your cat is gonna be an indoor cat or a cat you allow to go outside. I’ve always been an indoor cat guy ever since my childhood when my cat got out & jumped the wall to the neighbor’s yard, where she was attacked by their rottweiler. She was lucky enough to survive but I’ve been jumpy about cats going outside ever since then. Plus outside cats attack birds & create havoc, it’s too much to deal with.
So you bet your ass these cats are indoor cats. I respect Noodle’s time as an outdoor cat, but I insist she leave those days behind. I used to let Bologna out into the backyard so she could run around, but one day she chased a squirrel beyond the fence & I got all stressed out about it.
There is hope for these cats, though. Once I’m able to find some cat harnesses that fit these two, I’m going to see if they’re up for some walks around the neighborhood. I don’t mind being the guy who walks his cats. Let the neighbors think I’m a nut. Who cares? What’s the big transgression, anyway?
