Breaking Cat News Halloween Special Part Eight
on October 26, 2015
at 2:51 pm
Chapter: Holiday News
Characters: Elvis, Lupin, Puck, Sir Figaro Newton, Tabitha and Figaro's Woman, The Man, The Woman, Tillie, Winifred Quinn
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I wonder what Figaro is thinking everyone is saying since he only speaks Spanish!
Also, are the cats in the “years later” article the same ones from the special shelter cats strip?
Sure looks like it. Left to right, the old cat that misses his owner, the “good boy”, the one who got dropped off when his owner didn’t want to feed him, and the “never had a bath/home!” one.
And then the sweet little kitty in the woman’s arms!
The “what did I do wrong?” kitty, I think.
I’ve wondered that too about Figaro. Maybe he knows English but Spanish is his first language, so he uses that. Or maybe Tabitha has been teaching him English since the cats are now linked.
Good catch on the years later article! I see Joe’s Kitty, Good Boy, Black Cat, Rough Start, and Sweet Little Kitty. I’m guessing the Thomas who is in the shelter manager’s locket is our beloved Tommy as well.
I’m sure Burt fixed Figaro with a earpiece translator thingy. I think the microphone picks up the dialogue and sends it to Tabitha, tho translates them into Figaro’s ear so he knows what’s happening.
and everything is connected here in this strip! It’s like a DVD chock full of kitty/BCN easter eggs!
I recognize those shelter cats!
And Tommy gets a shout-out.
Is one of those kittens being fed in 1989 a certain 26-year-old barn cat?
Yes! The blanket for the little one being fed has the same pattern as Baba Mouse’s kerchief!
Good catch! I just knew Baaba Mouse knew Freddie! Great story!
Oops. – Baba Mouse. Typing on small keyboard . . .
Oh, I missed that! I noticed the color of the kitten but not the blanket and thought “…couldn’t be” since (these days) barn cats from shelters tend to have come to said shelter as adults. Kitten Mouse must have a great hunting instinct for a bottle baby to grow in to such a great mouser!
I love this story line, and I have an idea what the way to reunite them may be but I am not going to spoil it. This is the best BCN special yet.
I so agree! It’s a beautiful story.
Wow. Freddie led a wonderfully full life. Full of cats and never forgetting Tillie. Tillie also had a longer life than I thought, since she would have been nine or ten when the accident happened.
I love the reporters through the years, the adorable babycats Freddie’s seen feeding, and the wistful expression on Puck’s face as he looks at the pictures.
Is that hippie cat a *gasp* nudist?
Heehee!
Okay, now I’m crying. Thanks, Georgia!
*sniff* WAAAAAH!
More tears…
This is awesome. The shelter report and this storyline is a roller coaster. Happy and sad and happy and sad and happy all over again! And the multiformat storytelling here where each picture, clipping, article etc tells it own voluminous story covering the past 101 years to today. Well done. I keep recommending this strip to everyone! Rescue and shelter cats and any other cat are the best! I’ve always dreamed of chucking my day job and starting my own Quinn Shelter for any cat that needed a home and lovin’ Thanks!
Is there little Baba Mouse?
well now I’m going to cry! those news articles are so wonderful.
I just love this story!
Ok, I’m officially in tears now…what a wonderful story..can’t wait for the next part!!!!
August 2015 another baby elvis! So cute
All siameses being now referred to in my head as “elvises”
Oh, and maybe I missed something. Since Tabitha and Figaro speak Spanish I was expecting that their Woman will be Spanish-speaking too.
Maybe Sir Figaro’s woman adopted her from a shelter and his previous people spoke Spanish. Tabitha is multilingual so I’m sure she’ll keep him in the loop.
Sorry, I meant to type, adopted HIM from a shelter. (Pardon me, Sir Fig!)
“Love has no expiration.” So true. You’re still missed Mai Ling, Boo, Gloria, Smokey, Katie, Bette, Winston, Tiger, Barbie . . .
And Nancy, Peabodie, Lucie, John, Wat, Mookie, Jazz, and Dr. Bronner!
My darling moll moll, and scampy 1 & 2 xxxxxxxxxxx
Mittens, Bootsie, White Cat, Flash, Benny-Cat, E.B., Tippy, and Socks.
Currently loving Niko and Lily
And Henry, Sonya, Micah, Matagot, E.C., Ginger, Tari, Panda, Bartholomew, Katong, Lucy (and all ten of her kittens), Harley, Andrew, Simon Peter, and The Great Pumpkin.
Pretty and James…
Freebie, Ally, Socs, Cookie…
And Mandy (An honorary cat because she adopted my first kitty as a puppy substitute) and Thena and Gail.
Bernie, Cassie, William, Millie, Mac & Jemima.
Love has no expiration. Georgia, you are GREAT!
all this wonderful conversation . . . but it looks like the news hasn’t yet been broken to Tillie! I can’t wait for the next edition!
I’m also snuffling about the sequence of pictures . . . the early pictures of Freddie and Tillie together are all happy joy; after Tillie goes missing Freddie has a long-term sadness from which she only slowly re-equilibrates.
ok once again you’ve made me cry Georgia! And I do have a locket w/my first cat I adopted on my own!!!
Yay! Thanks for the shout-out for libraries from one of your librarian readers!
No. Words.
::: blubber ::: ::: sniffle :::
Georgia, you are an amazing storyteller.
Lemon, I thought so, too. When their owner turned out to be a blonde, I thought perhaps they had come with her from Buenos Aires. Maybe they were brought to their owner by a Spanish-speaking family. There is still lots of mystery.
It may be revealed in time, I’m not sure myself. In real life their real owners are not Spanish. I wanted to add two Spanish speaking characters for a rival news broadcast, and modeled them after the neighbor kitties in our building. In the comic, it’s a multilingual apartment, with Figaro speaking Spanish, their people speaking English, and Tabitha speaking four languages, ha! Spanish, English, and…
My guesses for Tabitha’s other languages are French (New England) and Ancient Egyptian (because cat). It’ll be fun finding out which of our language predictions are right.
Maybe she speaks “dog” (I guess it could be foreign language for cats :D)
And french?
I also vote for French, since there’s so much Canadian French overlap in the New England area. Half my neighborhood had ties to either Quebec or New Brunswick, and I lived in a very rural area out in the middle of Nowhere Massachusetts.
So wonderfully bittersweet. And hooray for the shout-out to libraries! If I had a fortune, I would give it to shelters (animal and people) and libraries!
Aw, look at the Shelter Cats making a reappearance!
Tillie in her nightgown and nightcap with her happy kitty smile as she sleeps with Freddie is adorable.
And there’s Figaro popping up again!
I also loved the picture of Freddie with all of her cats over the years. Into the 40s and the 50s and beyond. And the kittens in the basket.
Everything is just so adorable…
Can’t wait to see the next chapter! Our happy ending is imminent!
Oh man, I did not expect a Halloween special to make me cry! Loving your stories.
I love this so much. What a great Halloween special this is! We are just about to adopt our third cat from a shelter. Had no intention of having a third cat, we were just there to bring donations. Candy reached through the bars of her cage for my hand. When I petted her, she gave me kitty kisses. Staff said she is usually a shy girl. Clearly she chose me, so we’ll make room for Cat Three. May be our own news team needed another reporter.
That is marvelous!!
I notice a shout out to Purrfect Pals there, too. Georgia, only you could make for happy tears on a ghastly Monday. It’s bittersweet, for sure, but you have such a wonderfully delicate touch. Thank you for showing the phenomenal good which can come from something bad, if people turn their hearts and minds that direction.
Wowzers! What a wonderful story line (so far). Georgia, you are a marvelous yarnster. I can’t wait for it all to be tied together. (I better stop now…)
secretly wishing one of Tabitha’s four languages is Klingon…
Thank you Fido!!
My Mom will be wishing that too, she is quite a Trekkie!
*cough* Romulan *cough*
What about Elvish? That would cool for a cat to know.
For another fan group, one of her languages might be Ailurin, a cat language that Diane Duane created for her Feline Wizardry series (a subset of the Young Wizards books, and to my mind, the best subset!).
I’m not crying.
It’s just raining on my face…
I love how you set this all up! Its so old fashion, One of my teachers love cats and art… I bet she’ll love Breaking Cat News! Thank you for creating it, it makes my day and makes me happy!
You’re welcome! Thank you for the kind words, I hope your teacher enjoys it!
That looks like Bella Freddie is feeding
Even if it’s not, in my mind it is..lol.. Georgia you are so wonderful!!!!♥️♥️♥️
Another wonderful installment. Georgia, the way you incorporate the story of the shelter cats in to this is just brilliant! All the pictures and news clippings telling Freddie and Tilly’s story give us so much information that I am still digesting it all. I recommend this website to everyone I can think of and eagerly await the next strip.
Thank you, Susie!! The pictures and articles were a lot of fun to create!
That’s Tommy’s Woman in the picture of the current shelter employees.
I love this but find myself hoping you publish the “missing” pages of the newspaper. You are truly a gem and so talented. This strip brightens my day 2x a week and I tell everyone about it!
I love this but find myself hoping you publish the “missing” pages of the newspaper. You are truly a gem and so talented. This strip brightens my day 2x a week and I tell everyone about it!
Thank you, Wendy!!
Thankyou! I agree with everyone else! Truly wonderful! X
I love so many things about this one! A. Forbes, Quinn Free Library, my father even performed funerals at the historical cemetary!
I love that cemetery! And I was counting on you catching A. Forbes!
How could I miss it!
Oooh. I got goosebumps reading this episode of the story. Not the goosebumps you get because something is scary, the kind you get when something (a musical performance, a dramatic performance, a book) is just awesome. I love how the items from the archives tie so many things together. Just a great episode.
Thank you, Margie! Goosebumps is a fine compliment!!
This is so sweet and I am sniffling and smiling both. Georgia, please publish a book of “Breaking Cat News” soon.
Thank you, Sally! And a book of the first strips is planned for this spring!! I should have more details around Christmas!
Yay!!!
*happy jig*
“Oh look who decided to come crawling back!” Thanks, Elvis! You made me laugh amid the tears!
The Man wants everyone to know this special has come the closest to capturing he and Elvis’ relationship in real life, haha!
And here it was Elvis who approved the Man back when. Don’t think we don’t read the About pages, boys!
Gotta love the variable moods of cats!
Hmmm, methinks their relationship is tenuous!
OMG the amount of work you put into this week’s strip is incredible! All the ‘old photos’, newspaper articles, the details of the shelter cats connection to the Shelter special, etc. And what a wonderful result — touching story. Love Elvis’ comment to the Man, too. You’ve taken comic strips to a whole new level, Georgia.
Thank you so much, Sally! I worked on the photos Thursday and Friday night, and wrote the articles Saturday afternoon. They were an absolute delight to create; it was a lot more work than usual, but it felt like a bit of a treat. I have to confess, I think I probably teared up 10-15 times total, ha!!
Will “The People “, “Ceiling Woman “, and Tommy’s “Woman ” all be meeting?
Perhaps one day in the comic!
Out of curiosity, what was Figaro doing that caused his woman to exclaim her name in panel 6?
Loving this story btw, it’s beautiful and I look forward to the conclusion!
…Exclaim *his* name…
Only that he happened to follow her into the next new space again, like before in the basement.
And thank you!!
Oh…….wow……
LOVE the wartime kitties, btw!
I was hoping folks would like them! Thank you!
All your comics have such wonderful little touches!
Thank you, Pixie!
I agree with everyone else, this is fantastic. I also have to do quick shout-out to the “oh, look who came crawling back” panel. Will Elvis never give The Man a break ? I love it.
Although I have read every BCN strip I have never commented. So let me say – Georgia, thank you so much for all the delight and pleasure you have given to so many of us. You are a true and perceptive artist/writer. As a retired librarian/archivist I must express how much I liked and appreciated your comments today about libraries. Thanks again. Mondays and Thursdays are so much better now thanks to you and the gang!
Thank you so much, Clare!!!
I actually just left a fabulous talk at our local library! Not enough good things can be said about them. 
You know, they’re shutting down libraries here in the UK one by one because they don’t generate any money . . . I think it’s the most horrible tragedy of all. I can’t imagine life without a public library.
This is amazing! The work and detail on the library finds is splendid! Can’t wait to see how things wrap up….though sad as this has been a great special edition! ( Ceiling lady’s “Fig!” admonishment is priceless…if only because it reminds us how often we catch our own Fig(ment) causing trouble!!!!
Note to self: too many !!!!!’s
Never fear, you should see my personal emails! I drop about 3-4 at a time, ha! I JUST GET VERY EXCITED!!!
Look who came crawling back, ahhhhh Elvis, I just love you. Thanks for the shout out for Libraries! All I need is a cat or 2 or 3, a library and Breaking Cat News!! Loved the war time kitties and Freddie & Freddie and Tillie the best, but all of the Library pictures were inspired. Cute peace sign& headband too. Have to stock up on tissues before Thurs.
Of All the comics I have ever read in my lifetime, this Is it!! It’s the best of the best!! Story line right now that’s been slowly coming together is the Cats Meow!! Pawsome!!
I think this is my first time commenting on the website?? I lovelovelove this so much. It’s even better than I imagined it that day you described it in the car (AND I STILL CRIED). Also I love that you called Freddie’s family Quinn, and all of the journalists’ names on the articles. (C. Greene was a really sweet touch, I need to show Preston when he gets home from work) You outdid yourself as always!! Can’t wait for the last installment.
Yayyyyy!!! I think this *is* the first time you’ve commented! (And I’m so glad you caught that
) Thank you, thank you!!! I wanted to text all day to see if you’d seen it, because I was really hoping you’d like the historical photos!
(This is my sister, everyone!)
Welcome Grace! You’re the luckiest woman having such an awesome, creative sister like Georgia!
Hello, it’s the ‘sit on cats lady’
This is SOO good… but you’re killing me here! It’s gotten so dusty in this room and my eyes are watering….
I was so moved by this strip… it’s amazing. You have created something precious here. Thank you.
Um, I hate to sound like I’m picking nits, but if Freddie was born in 1904, then the article published in 2015 should say that the Quinn Cat Shelter staff placed a candle in the window to mark Freddie’s 111th birthday….
I LOVE the strip, Georgia, and I think I am completely in love with The Intruder.
Ooooooooooooh, you are right!!! Thank you. How, oh how did I do that? Fixing now!
I have to compliment you on the scope and detail of today’s strip. The history you’ve created for this story obviously took a lot of work and planning, and it surely makes this story even more poignant. The last couple of strips have made me tear up a bit, but I know there will be happy ending.
Thank you so much for your delightful characters.
Thank you, Marisella! <3
Oh! This is just so very beautiful Georgia . . what a beautiful way to both solve a Halloween mystery and make yet another point about how important it is to care for shelter cats.
I’m sure I shouldn’t have read this at work with my masacara getting all runny. On the humourous side, I adore Elvis’ masculine rivalry with the Man, “Look who decided to come crawling back–” Haha! He’ll never let the Man live it down.
I don’t do Twitter, but I do follow yours. I noticed the coffee ring you were ‘doodling’ with made it to the library archives….nice touch, as usual Georgia
Thank you, Debbe!!
Oops…should have read your Twitter first
Loving the pics of Freddie in the intermediate years with various groups of cats, and always something connecting them to media: the camera and the old-style microphone.
I love the detail that the two war-time cats are then shown older, with a young female who in turn is older with the hippy era cats.
Am I the only one who reads these more than once? I just adore them so much and want to see every nuance that you’ve put in, Georgia! Thank you so much for sharing your family and everyone with us!
Thank you, Shellie!
Re-reading the Shelter Special Report, I see that the shelter workers had their lockets. As others have said, it’s amazing how you intertwine things.
Thank you, Cat!!
Wow! I am just blown away with all the creativity and heart! But I want to know when is/are the book/books coming out so those of us, who only recently found this wonderful strip, can catch up on all the doings from the beginning??? Also I get from some of the comments that this is all based on real people and places? This is driving me crazy! I want to know all!
Hello!! Thank you! A book of the early strips will be out this spring!!
Many of the characters are based on real cats and people, too. Some of them have “about” pages on this site… And ah, some of them NEED “about” pages on this site. (I have a bit of catching up to do, ha!)
This is a lovely, bittersweet (with extra sweet) story!
Public service announcement: Reading these last few strips while hormonal and emotional in the early stages of pregnancy *will* result in you crying like a baby.
Please excuse me, I need to fetch a tissue.
Baby Baba Mouse! Love it
Such a great strip
oh my god, I’m sobbing!
This is reminding me more and more of Alfred Mainzer’s cat postcards XD
Beautiful work as always Georgia. I love the vintage clothing of Tillie and Winifred.
I have noticed that the boys are so involved in the story that they are not complaining about all the “Puck” decorations around the house. I am sure the woman had decorated for Halloween.
Good one, speaking of which, did you see it at the start?
Good catch. I forgot about it. With the story being so good it’s easy to do.
Some of Quinn’s cats look like the boys! Any connection?
You just never know….
I might know what you mean…
Georgia, you always manage to find the emotions deep down inside me and bring them to the surface in the most gentle and beautiful way. You have much to be proud of, and I thank you for sharing yourself, and your creativity, with us.
Thank you, Deb!
Love the library shout-out! Thanks, Georgia!
“look who decided to come crawling back”..I love you Elvis…
This is so good, Georgia. Totally enjoying it!
Georgia, what time do you usually put up the strips? Because i try to check around 9 to 10.
It’s all over the place, I’m sorry.
In real life, I’m home with the real Toddler and the Baby and I write the comic during their nap times or after they go to bed at night. If anyone is teething or has a nightmare, or not feeling well, etc the comic can get postponed only because I then don’t have time to work on it. If all goes well, I try to post it just after breakfast here, during their nap time in the afternoon, or when the Man comes home from work in the evening. I’m sorry, I wish I had a more precise time frame! I try to be (super) honest about how and when the strip is created, so that folks hopefully understand during times when it does get delayed.
Awww … I just re-read and finally noticed Sweet Little Cat from the Shelter Report in the 8/20/15 article picture. Really, that little darling broke my heart (even if I’m far more likely to wind up with Sir Bites-a-Lot in real life).
Amazing work – love how you are building a perfect little ‘verse for your cats and their people! Now, to prep myself for the end of this seasonal tale (tail) …
its ok, i feel you. It happens
I love seeing the reporter cats through the ages.
This is a beautiful ending, Georgia. Loving this comic is so emotional.
I just found this Halloween special, and I am verklempt.