I know. I KNOW–I am sad too! Please hold on and trust me though–there are still two more parts to this special. Hold on. Many people have written in, asking me “please don’t let the ghost cat die…” but… She’s a ghost. We knew she was a ghost when we fell in love with her.
I’m a 45 year old man, and I still cry watching sad parts in movies, or listening to sad songs (or driving past dead dogs and cats on the road). It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen the movie or heard the song, they still make me tear up. If anyone’s bothered by your crying (whether you know what’s coming or not), that’s their problem, not yours. Kids used to laugh at me because I cried so easily, but now I’ve come to realize that it’s a blessing, not a curse. My strong emotions allow me to more easily sympathize with others, even when no one else seems to be able to. I still try to hide my tears, not because I’m ashamed, but because I don’t want my tears to distract anyone from whatever it may be that is causing them.
Thank you for making her death instantaneous. That helped a lot. So, Tillie does not know she died, or that Freddie grew up, and Freddie is still looking for her beloved kitty. Freddie also lived long enough to recognize a pocket calculator, but not a smart phone. The plot thickens but I sense a happy ending.
Now that’s undercover, Lupin(panel 11) ! and Puck trying to shield Tillie from seeing her skeleton, so very very precious, and sensitive! Love the cracker jack and lumberjack. I’m a professional, ha ha. It’s very sad right now, but I’m sure there will be a happy ending.
So we do get a kitty skeleton. Looking forward to the happy re-connection between Tillie and Freddie. And maybe Tillie can continue as a Special Noncorporeal Correspondent!
Originally I was afraid she went exploring and then accidentally got sealed in… while I’m glad it was more of an instantaneous accident, it is still very sad that they found her remains. Dang, I’m getting the feels!
Now I’m all mixed up! If Freddie is the missing little girl…then who is the old lady? How does she play into it? Or is Freddie the old lady grown up? The plot thickens! And I’m sad about little Tillie…poor little one!
My guess is that the missing Matilda was not a missing little girl, but a missing little girl kitty… AKA Tillie. And Freddie passed away as an old lady without ever finding out what happened to her little cat.
“Matilda” is the cat (tillie). The little girl didn’t go missing, the cat did, but the people are assuming it was the little girl. Freddie is the girl, but she grew up and lived a long life, so now she is an old lady ghost. Tillie doesn’t know Freddie grew up, she thinks basically no time has passed and she’s still alive
No, no. Freddie WAS the little girl, but it was Matilda (“Tillie”) who went missing. And now we know a little more of how and why. So Freddie grew up into an old lady always hoping Tillie would come back, and now she’s a ghost still trying to find her cat.
The little girl (Freddie) didn’t go missing, her cat (Matilda/Tillie) did. The People don’t know which name goes to who in the picture they found and are assuming human tragedy rather than cat tragedy. The old lady is Freddie grown up. Assuming Freddie is short for Winnifred and Tommy’s been sitting on her tombstone, she lived until 1989 and age 85. And is wondering why her childhood cat is nowhere to be found in the afterlife.
Dang it! If people ask why my nose is all red, and I have to explain that I’ve been crying about the death of a ghost kitty from the 20’s who is haunting a team of modern day cat journalists who have their own TV network… well, They will probably put me in a nice quiet room “for a rest” and take away my phone before I have a chance to explain!
Did you know they used to seal a live cat in the wall of a new house for good luck? The British have found their remains dating back at least 400 years. I’m glad she wasn’t one of those!!!
From wikipedia (and I really hope it’s correct):
“It is the custom in some European cultures to place the dried or desiccated body of a cat inside the walls of a newly built home to ward off evil or as a good luck charm. Although some accounts claim the cats were walled in alive, examination of recovered specimens indicates post-mortem concealment in most cases.”
And Freddie recognizes a calculator, which means she made it at least into the late 70’s or early 80’s. (Which, of course, matches with her being an old woman). But not into the early 00’s when smartphones made an appearance.
And 1904-1989 on the Quinn gravestone in Part 3 would fit on both accounts (age and not recognizing a cell phone), but “Freddie” doesn’t go with the initials (W.M.)…
Digital calculators were available – but very expensive – in the later 1960s. My parents tell the story of the Chemistry Department at the University of Alberta, where they both did their PhDs; in about 1968, all the profs in the department pooled their funds to buy a calculator for the department. People would book time slots to use it. The only calculator that could do square roots at the time was made in Bulgaria, behind the Iron Curtain, and they had to make some “arrangements” to get it to Alberta!
My Dad used a digital calculator in his engineering job. I actually still have it around here somewhere. My earliest memories of that particular calculator are from when I was around 3 years old in 1973, but I don’t know when he actually bought it. It is about the same size as a good-sized Nero Wolfe novel. It had an 8-digit LED display and about 100 buttons. I never actually thought to ask him how much it cost, though. Long about the early 80s, he bought a new HP engineering calculator for roughly the same amount as two car payments on their Cadillac. I still have – and use – one just like it that I bought for myself in college in the mid 80s. By then, the price was down to $100 (and about a month after I bought mine, the price dropped to $90). That calculator really is about the size of a large smartphone, so Freddie makes a logical mistake in calling the phone a calculator.
I knew it was the robber mice!And I think I know why puck was covering Tillie’s
eyes.You see puck does not want her to know that she’s the dead cat!That’s why!
Oh, and poofy Lupin wrapped around Elvis in the first panel is fabulous! As is the line of bandit mice on the ceiling later on. By the way, I hope those mice get proper credit for leading the Man to find Tillie’s remains!
If the tombstone that Tommy was sitting on in Part Three is any indication, Freddie lived from 1904 to 1989, so she could have seen a lot of calculators, and even the advent of the PC, although the widespread proliferation of laptop computers was still a long way off, and smartphones were even farther off.
So sad! But I have heard that ghosts linger in a place when they have unfinished business, like Freddie, or don’t know they’re dead, like Tillie. Waiting for a happy ending. Puck is so sweet to try and spare Tillie’s feelings.
Well, I know this will have a happy ghostly ending. I have faith.
Love the robber mice, love Lupin as the laundry basket as well as his ears and the microphone head just barely in the panel in the second to last. Love Pucky trying to shield Tillie from the horrible truth… I’m glad it was instant and Tillie honestly didn’t know what hit her. Love puffy Lupin holding onto Elvis.
I have to wonder when Elvis is finally going to see what’s happening there. At this point, he seems to be the only cat who is unaware of the supernatural goings ons.
With the research the Upstairs Woman’s doing, it’s likely they’ll realize Tillie’s a Quinn family cat, and the Quinn family cemetery’s nearby. If I was in that position, I’d bury the kitty in the family cemetery, and ignore anyone who tried to tell me that pets aren’t allowed in a people cemetery.
I am LOLing at all of us needing to be told that since Tillie is a ghost *obviously* she is dead so hoping she doesn’t die is a Captain Obvious moment. I think it is like watching Titanic and getting so wrapped up in the characters and story you forget what *you already know* is coming…..
Had a dilute calico named Tillie Lou….I keep seeing her as ghost Tillie. Knew we’d have to deal authOritative Tillie’s passing, so glad it was quick for her. Love little PUCK trying to shield her from the “remains”.
I’m glad Tillie’s death was instantaneous and she didn’t suffer, I was worried that she might have been walled in, a horrible fate! Then again, I trust you, Georgia, you wouldn’t make us all love your creations and then make something terrible happen to them! (Adore protective Pucky in the last panel too {g}!)
I invented Tillie, but she is based very, very loosely on a few actual strange happenings involving the real Puck and Tabitha randomly freaking out in our apartment building. And her appearance is based on a real cat I had.
Awww!
Poor Tilly.
Maybe she doesn’t realize that she’s dead. She’s looking for “her” family. The little girl grew up and became the old woman…who still misses her cat.
so freddie must me wm quinn who 1903-1989, because she recognises a calculator, but she doesn’t a mobile phone. and she was a little girl when tillie went missing.
lupin turning mostly invisible in the basket; freddie popping bubbles; pucky trying to shield tillie from the sight of her own skull.
*sniffles* knew she was dead, but the beam did me in anyway. thank goodness for a quick death.
if freddie’s grave is right there by the house and pretty knew, there must be someone nearby who knows who she is/was. none o fhte cats, cause 89 would make even a kitten 26 now.
will we find out if the house is still in freddie’s family, i wonder…
I wonder if Baba Mouse is Tillie’s many greats-granddaughter and/or the last kitten that Freddie got to hold.
I also wonder if Baba sent the Robber Mice on a mission to get the wall opened up so Tillie’s spirit could get out (or so her remains could be put to rest next to Freddie)
Loved Lupin hanging onto Elvis’ face and Tillie breaking the bubble. I can hardly wait for Monday. Until then, I’ll have to just go back and read from the beginning. That’s what I usually do any way.
I hope Freddie ends up like Phoebe in The Ghost In The Big Brass Bed: after Phoebe, an old woman, dies, her ghost keeps fluctuating through the various stages of her life. Eventually, when she and her family (ghost family!) are ready to go Over There, she has settled on one form; that of herself as a young girl. It would be so cute if reuniting with Tillie REALLY brought out her inner little girl!
Poor Tillie. I wonder if she even realizes she’s floating around and going through walls/ceilings, and just what she thinks about the strange People living in HER house. But Puck has the pieces, now, and can lead Freddie to Tillie. I wonder if cats and people can talk to each other in the afterlife?
Minor prediction: Tillie will greet Freddie as if she’s meeting Freddie’s grandmother.
And as an aside, I love the moments we get to see that Elvis is the Alpha of the boys. Springing to their defense, the one they run to when royally freaked out…it’s sweet!
My Dad was a general contractor for two decades and he pulled countless cat bodies out of old houses. The walls are warm and fairly safe so they crawl there for a safe and comfortable last resting place.
Still its sad.
We had a cat who tried to do just that in our walls. She got sick, did NOT want to go the the Vet, and found the crawlspace in the walls that was usually used as a Thunder And Fireworks Shelter made a great space to hide where the People couldn’t get to her. We had to call a contractor to get her out and off to the vet to see if anything could be done for her (Answer: VERY sick, let her go). The other family cats are annoyed the Thunder And Fireworks Shelter is now blocked off until we can block off the inaccessible to humans part.
Kinda nice to know our Tabby wasn’t the only one who chose the walls for her last resting place.
Horatio just wants to thank you for all of the hugs he and his brothers were forced to endure after I read this – not to mention the reminders that this is why they aren’t allowed to explore holes or climb in cabinets. I know my boys hate it when I read or watch anything sad involving animals – especially kitties – because they have to hear the lectures all over again! Loved the strip, as always
So Tillie, being a reporter cat in Ye Olde Days, went to look at the new addition to the house, got bonked on the head, and has been quiescent until her remains were disturbed… possibly by the robber mice, possibly by the network being hooked up in the basement.
Now the “new addition” isn’t new anymore, but Tillie, having been dead all this time, doesn’t realize that… or does she? She talks about the baby being “old news.” Or was that a different baby she was thinking of?
I’m guessing that Tillie was probably around before Freddie was born. So the “baby” she calls “old news” could be Freddie. And at the time when Tillie disappeared, Freddie was indeed 9-year-old news.
This is actually making me feel bittersweet towards my own dear, departed Siamese. I’m not sure if I believe in ghosts, but I think we all know the feeling after a best kitty friend passes, that we’re being watched and loved on.
In the last place where I lived in SF, a 6-unit apartment building where they’d never had animals, I talked my landlord into letting me in with my cat Scathach (can’t do the accent, it’s a Scottish Warrior-Queen name), and the first full day we were there, Sca walked into an open cupboard and fell about 3 feet down, because there was no floor to the cupboard, which I hadn’t known. Freak out much, me? Well, YES!!!!! I was asking the landlord to, like, pull apart the floors and find a way to get down there to get her back, and he – never having an animal in the place before – wasn’t sure *what* to do. And then Sca, being all of 9 months or so at the time, just JUMPED! And it was all okay…. (Best landlord ever in SF, where I lived for 16 years in the 1980s and 1990s) Scathach lived another 13 years, and came with me to Canada in 1996, and was happy here.
Sorry, longish story but yours has also made me remember so hard and loving about my beautiful Sca; thanks for bringing the memories and the tears!
I wonder if finding out that she was killed would give her closure. I don’t think I’d want to know I was brained by a plank, but finding out the truth about the “little girl” would be nice, I guess. Hopefully they get to be together in the hereafter.
Had a small scare on Friday; the plumbers came to my apt. and tore out the wall under the kitchen sink to look for a leaky hot water pipe, then went away for a while in search of parts, leaving the gaping hole. Fortunately it turned out that my tuxedo Maggie was safe and sound, shut into the bathroom! Kept her there until all was safely re-plastered and replaced and the men were gone, too!
!!!!
I know. I KNOW–I am sad too! Please hold on and trust me though–there are still two more parts to this special. Hold on. Many people have written in, asking me “please don’t let the ghost cat die…” but… She’s a ghost. We knew she was a ghost when we fell in love with her.
Let’s see what can be done for Tillie now.
I know you’re gonna pull a happy out of all of this – still … poor Tilly. The last panel is so dear … **sniff/giggle**
At least Tillie can RIP with her death solved
Crying at work – even though I knew what was coming (I’m like that – it annoys friends and relatives). OH GEORGIA
Hugs, Sybil! I’m sorry!!
I’m a 45 year old man, and I still cry watching sad parts in movies, or listening to sad songs (or driving past dead dogs and cats on the road). It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen the movie or heard the song, they still make me tear up. If anyone’s bothered by your crying (whether you know what’s coming or not), that’s their problem, not yours. Kids used to laugh at me because I cried so easily, but now I’ve come to realize that it’s a blessing, not a curse. My strong emotions allow me to more easily sympathize with others, even when no one else seems to be able to. I still try to hide my tears, not because I’m ashamed, but because I don’t want my tears to distract anyone from whatever it may be that is causing them.
I’m just relieved it was instant and that the kitty didn’t suffer too much. Is that why you think you have a tortie ghost in your place?
I hope, when this adventure is over, that Puck still occasionally uses Tillie’s slang! (Is it 20s? I think it’s 20s?)
Tillie died in 1913, so it would be slang from the pre-World War I period.
Poor Tillie! She doesn’t know that she’s dead! At least she’ll be reunited with her girl by the end of the story arc… right?
And I love poofy Lupin clinging to Elvis in the first panel. (And the mice walking above the people.)
Ace stuff
Oh my goodness! Lupin is in the clothes basket!
JoAnn: Thank you for pointing that out; I totally missed it!
I re-read the strips a few times and then a catch the little gems. Georgia is great that way! (Thanks, Georgia!)
Thank you, JoAnn!!
He’s a professional.
Ooh, I missed it, too! I did catch the robber mice running on the ceiling, though! Up to no good, no doubt!
Oh, I didn’t see that at first! Love it!
This cracked me up! Lupin thinking he is invisible again!
And Lupin is in the next-to-last panel, too!
Freddie looks like she had a long life without Tillie – it’ll be nice for them to be together.
I love how Lupin is mostly invisible in the laundry basket.
Thank you! I missed that. LOL!
Thank you for making her death instantaneous. That helped a lot. So, Tillie does not know she died, or that Freddie grew up, and Freddie is still looking for her beloved kitty. Freddie also lived long enough to recognize a pocket calculator, but not a smart phone. The plot thickens but I sense a happy ending.
YES – I was afraid she’d been trapped in the wall.
Like…maybe til 1989, I’m thinking…? (There *may* have been a clue in the Drawlloween drawings)
Oh poor Tillie . . . at least she can have a proper burial.
I wonder what happened to her Freddie?
I love the way Lupin’s made himself into the clothes’ basket, haha! Too cute!
The old lady ghost is Freddie. I’m hoping they cross the rainbow bridge once they finally meet up.
Lupin is super super sneaky…. And are those mice on the ceiling?!
*sniffle* Of course if she’s a ghost something had to have happened to her… hopefully the girl and her cat will be reunited!
Lupin’s “I’m a professional” brought all the laughs, though!
Now that’s undercover, Lupin(panel 11) ! and Puck trying to shield Tillie from seeing her skeleton, so very very precious, and sensitive! Love the cracker jack and lumberjack. I’m a professional, ha ha. It’s very sad right now, but I’m sure there will be a happy ending.
So we do get a kitty skeleton. Looking forward to the happy re-connection between Tillie and Freddie. And maybe Tillie can continue as a Special Noncorporeal Correspondent!
What a great idea Fido Gato!!!
Originally I was afraid she went exploring and then accidentally got sealed in… while I’m glad it was more of an instantaneous accident, it is still very sad that they found her remains. Dang, I’m getting the feels!
Now I’m all mixed up! If Freddie is the missing little girl…then who is the old lady? How does she play into it? Or is Freddie the old lady grown up? The plot thickens! And I’m sad about little Tillie…poor little one!
My guess is that the missing Matilda was not a missing little girl, but a missing little girl kitty… AKA Tillie. And Freddie passed away as an old lady without ever finding out what happened to her little cat.
“Matilda” is the cat (tillie). The little girl didn’t go missing, the cat did, but the people are assuming it was the little girl. Freddie is the girl, but she grew up and lived a long life, so now she is an old lady ghost. Tillie doesn’t know Freddie grew up, she thinks basically no time has passed and she’s still alive
No, no. Freddie WAS the little girl, but it was Matilda (“Tillie”) who went missing. And now we know a little more of how and why. So Freddie grew up into an old lady always hoping Tillie would come back, and now she’s a ghost still trying to find her cat.
The little girl (Freddie) didn’t go missing, her cat (Matilda/Tillie) did. The People don’t know which name goes to who in the picture they found and are assuming human tragedy rather than cat tragedy. The old lady is Freddie grown up. Assuming Freddie is short for Winnifred and Tommy’s been sitting on her tombstone, she lived until 1989 and age 85. And is wondering why her childhood cat is nowhere to be found in the afterlife.
Tillie died when Freddie was a little girl, and doesn’t seem to realize she died. Freddie grew up and died an old woman.
Dang it! If people ask why my nose is all red, and I have to explain that I’ve been crying about the death of a ghost kitty from the 20’s who is haunting a team of modern day cat journalists who have their own TV network… well, They will probably put me in a nice quiet room “for a rest” and take away my phone before I have a chance to explain!
LOL! I too find it hard to explain my fascination with the world of BCN to the uninitiated!
Did you know they used to seal a live cat in the wall of a new house for good luck?
The British have found their remains dating back at least 400 years. 
I’m glad she wasn’t one of those!!!
From wikipedia (and I really hope it’s correct):
“It is the custom in some European cultures to place the dried or desiccated body of a cat inside the walls of a newly built home to ward off evil or as a good luck charm. Although some accounts claim the cats were walled in alive, examination of recovered specimens indicates post-mortem concealment in most cases.”
Thanks catena. FYI I learned about this from a British Comedy “Grace and Favor” and looked it up online. I too hope your quote is right.
I think you mean “Grace and Favour”, but I pick nits (and am unanimous in that…)
Well I’m British and in over 50 years I’ve never heard of that! Hopefully it wasn’t a widespread custom.
Omg!! That is so barbaric!
Lupin in the laundry basket!
And Freddie recognizes a calculator, which means she made it at least into the late 70’s or early 80’s. (Which, of course, matches with her being an old woman). But not into the early 00’s when smartphones made an appearance.
And 1904-1989 on the Quinn gravestone in Part 3 would fit on both accounts (age and not recognizing a cell phone), but “Freddie” doesn’t go with the initials (W.M.)…
ooh….yes it does! Winifred!!
Digital calculators were available – but very expensive – in the later 1960s. My parents tell the story of the Chemistry Department at the University of Alberta, where they both did their PhDs; in about 1968, all the profs in the department pooled their funds to buy a calculator for the department. People would book time slots to use it. The only calculator that could do square roots at the time was made in Bulgaria, behind the Iron Curtain, and they had to make some “arrangements” to get it to Alberta!
My Dad used a digital calculator in his engineering job. I actually still have it around here somewhere. My earliest memories of that particular calculator are from when I was around 3 years old in 1973, but I don’t know when he actually bought it. It is about the same size as a good-sized Nero Wolfe novel. It had an 8-digit LED display and about 100 buttons. I never actually thought to ask him how much it cost, though. Long about the early 80s, he bought a new HP engineering calculator for roughly the same amount as two car payments on their Cadillac. I still have – and use – one just like it that I bought for myself in college in the mid 80s. By then, the price was down to $100 (and about a month after I bought mine, the price dropped to $90). That calculator really is about the size of a large smartphone, so Freddie makes a logical mistake in calling the phone a calculator.
We’ll get an ending for the ghosts …. but what do the mice want with a pen … writing ransom notes? what nefarious plot are they hatching?
You. You are catching on, oh my!! File that thought away for later.
Oh, no! I knew she was dead now, but I hoped… Dammit. Tearing up over a little cartoon kitty. :'(
No story – even a cartoon – is worth much if it doesn’t evoke some kind of emotions
I knew it was the robber mice!And I think I know why puck was covering Tillie’s
eyes.You see puck does not want her to know that she’s the dead cat!That’s why!
Oh, and poofy Lupin wrapped around Elvis in the first panel is fabulous! As is the line of bandit mice on the ceiling later on. By the way, I hope those mice get proper credit for leading the Man to find Tillie’s remains!
It looks like the woman is automatically petting the cat skull just as she would pet any cat.
? How does Freddie know what a calculator is ?
Love the Lupin wash basket, love all his fade to white disguises
If the tombstone that Tommy was sitting on in Part Three is any indication, Freddie lived from 1904 to 1989, so she could have seen a lot of calculators, and even the advent of the PC, although the widespread proliferation of laptop computers was still a long way off, and smartphones were even farther off.
Aha! Thank you Awgie, for some reason I was thinking of Freddie’s age in cat years – silly me
Poor, poor Tilly, but I too am a professional – sob!
So sad! But I have heard that ghosts linger in a place when they have unfinished business, like Freddie, or don’t know they’re dead, like Tillie. Waiting for a happy ending. Puck is so sweet to try and spare Tillie’s feelings.
Can;t wait for what happens next. I hope Tillie shows up now and, then in the future.
Is Freddie delightedly popping the soap bubbles? Your ghosts are so adorable. I would love to have them hanging around in my home.
That ghost is indeed popping soap bubbles! I could not resist.
So, the mice woke Tillie up, I think, with their shenanigans, and Freddie had been the new baby that was “old news” to Tillie!
This is so poignant. I just hope Freddie had other cats in her lifetime!!
I think maybe a certain AV cat caused the initial disturbance when he conncected all the different Cat News broadcasts.
I rather think Freddie Quinn founded her own cat shelter, and “had” a lot of cats. Some people turn grief into good works
I hadn’t thought of the shelter connection — what a lovely idea.
Well, I know this will have a happy ghostly ending. I have faith.
Love the robber mice, love Lupin as the laundry basket as well as his ears and the microphone head just barely in the panel in the second to last. Love Pucky trying to shield Tillie from the horrible truth… I’m glad it was instant and Tillie honestly didn’t know what hit her. Love puffy Lupin holding onto Elvis.
I have to wonder when Elvis is finally going to see what’s happening there. At this point, he seems to be the only cat who is unaware of the supernatural goings ons.
Looking forward to the ghostly reunion!
I hope Tillie can be buried close to Freddie’s grave . . .
With the research the Upstairs Woman’s doing, it’s likely they’ll realize Tillie’s a Quinn family cat, and the Quinn family cemetery’s nearby. If I was in that position, I’d bury the kitty in the family cemetery, and ignore anyone who tried to tell me that pets aren’t allowed in a people cemetery.
I am LOLing at all of us needing to be told that since Tillie is a ghost *obviously* she is dead so hoping she doesn’t die is a Captain Obvious moment. I think it is like watching Titanic and getting so wrapped up in the characters and story you forget what *you already know* is coming…..
Like every time I watch a production of Romeo and Juliet, I hope that this time, they change the ending.
Had a dilute calico named Tillie Lou….I keep seeing her as ghost Tillie. Knew we’d have to deal authOritative Tillie’s passing, so glad it was quick for her. Love little PUCK trying to shield her from the “remains”.
That weird word in the center should be “Torrid Tillie” obviously auto correct is NOT my friend.
Tortie! Curse you, auto correct!
I sort of liked “authoritative,” as she seems to be that.
I’m glad Tillie’s death was instantaneous and she didn’t suffer, I was worried that she might have been walled in, a horrible fate! Then again, I trust you, Georgia, you wouldn’t make us all love your creations and then make something terrible happen to them! (Adore protective Pucky in the last panel too {g}!)
Poor Tillie…
Did she actually exist, or did you invent her?
I invented Tillie, but she is based very, very loosely on a few actual strange happenings involving the real Puck and Tabitha randomly freaking out in our apartment building. And her appearance is based on a real cat I had.
Did Tillie’s ghost appear because The Man opened up the wall? Or because it’s close to Halloween?
I love how we are getting to know all the cats a little better in this whole story, especially Puck. He’s so sweet trying to protect Tillie
This better have a happy ending! I’m so sad!
Awww!
Poor Tilly.
Maybe she doesn’t realize that she’s dead. She’s looking for “her” family. The little girl grew up and became the old woman…who still misses her cat.
oh oh ! so much love and so much tears!
so freddie must me wm quinn who 1903-1989, because she recognises a calculator, but she doesn’t a mobile phone. and she was a little girl when tillie went missing.
lupin turning mostly invisible in the basket; freddie popping bubbles; pucky trying to shield tillie from the sight of her own skull.
*sniffles* knew she was dead, but the beam did me in anyway. thank goodness for a quick death.
if freddie’s grave is right there by the house and pretty knew, there must be someone nearby who knows who she is/was. none o fhte cats, cause 89 would make even a kitten 26 now.
will we find out if the house is still in freddie’s family, i wonder…
Baba Mouse is 26…
I wonder if Baba Mouse is Tillie’s many greats-granddaughter and/or the last kitten that Freddie got to hold.
I also wonder if Baba sent the Robber Mice on a mission to get the wall opened up so Tillie’s spirit could get out (or so her remains could be put to rest next to Freddie)
I trust you for a happy ending where everyone is united. Love puffy Lupin. I don’t think I have ever seen him puffy before. Can’t wait for Monday.
When writing a story the writer has to give the reader an emotional experience. Pathos and humor. Great work.
Loved Lupin hanging onto Elvis’ face and Tillie breaking the bubble. I can hardly wait for Monday. Until then, I’ll have to just go back and read from the beginning. That’s what I usually do any way.
You turn smiles to tears, back to smiles again as each panel unfolds. Your best story yet.
Those sneaky mice on the third to last panel are running up on the ceiling.
I wonder if Freddie will morph to the young girl Tillie knew when they are reunited.
I hope Freddie ends up like Phoebe in The Ghost In The Big Brass Bed: after Phoebe, an old woman, dies, her ghost keeps fluctuating through the various stages of her life. Eventually, when she and her family (ghost family!) are ready to go Over There, she has settled on one form; that of herself as a young girl. It would be so cute if reuniting with Tillie REALLY brought out her inner little girl!
Poor Tillie. I wonder if she even realizes she’s floating around and going through walls/ceilings, and just what she thinks about the strange People living in HER house. But Puck has the pieces, now, and can lead Freddie to Tillie. I wonder if cats and people can talk to each other in the afterlife?
Minor prediction: Tillie will greet Freddie as if she’s meeting Freddie’s grandmother.
And as an aside, I love the moments we get to see that Elvis is the Alpha of the boys. Springing to their defense, the one they run to when royally freaked out…it’s sweet!
My Dad was a general contractor for two decades and he pulled countless cat bodies out of old houses. The walls are warm and fairly safe so they crawl there for a safe and comfortable last resting place.
Still its sad.
We had a cat who tried to do just that in our walls. She got sick, did NOT want to go the the Vet, and found the crawlspace in the walls that was usually used as a Thunder And Fireworks Shelter made a great space to hide where the People couldn’t get to her. We had to call a contractor to get her out and off to the vet to see if anything could be done for her (Answer: VERY sick, let her go). The other family cats are annoyed the Thunder And Fireworks Shelter is now blocked off until we can block off the inaccessible to humans part.
Kinda nice to know our Tabby wasn’t the only one who chose the walls for her last resting place.
My cat did that as well near her twentieth (and on my 21st!).
Horatio just wants to thank you for all of the hugs he and his brothers were forced to endure after I read this – not to mention the reminders that this is why they aren’t allowed to explore holes or climb in cabinets. I know my boys hate it when I read or watch anything sad involving animals – especially kitties – because they have to hear the lectures all over again! Loved the strip, as always
You’re a good cat mom/dad
So Tillie, being a reporter cat in Ye Olde Days, went to look at the new addition to the house, got bonked on the head, and has been quiescent until her remains were disturbed… possibly by the robber mice, possibly by the network being hooked up in the basement.
Now the “new addition” isn’t new anymore, but Tillie, having been dead all this time, doesn’t realize that… or does she? She talks about the baby being “old news.” Or was that a different baby she was thinking of?
I’m guessing that Tillie was probably around before Freddie was born. So the “baby” she calls “old news” could be Freddie. And at the time when Tillie disappeared, Freddie was indeed 9-year-old news.
This is actually making me feel bittersweet towards my own dear, departed Siamese. I’m not sure if I believe in ghosts, but I think we all know the feeling after a best kitty friend passes, that we’re being watched and loved on.
In the last place where I lived in SF, a 6-unit apartment building where they’d never had animals, I talked my landlord into letting me in with my cat Scathach (can’t do the accent, it’s a Scottish Warrior-Queen name), and the first full day we were there, Sca walked into an open cupboard and fell about 3 feet down, because there was no floor to the cupboard, which I hadn’t known. Freak out much, me? Well, YES!!!!! I was asking the landlord to, like, pull apart the floors and find a way to get down there to get her back, and he – never having an animal in the place before – wasn’t sure *what* to do. And then Sca, being all of 9 months or so at the time, just JUMPED! And it was all okay…. (Best landlord ever in SF, where I lived for 16 years in the 1980s and 1990s) Scathach lived another 13 years, and came with me to Canada in 1996, and was happy here.
Sorry, longish story but yours has also made me remember so hard and loving about my beautiful Sca; thanks for bringing the memories and the tears!
I’m glad all was okay!! That must have been quite the shock!
Ooooooo, I have such a hard time with “to be continued”. No patience I guess. This just keeps getting spookier and spookier, Lumberjack!!!! Hahaha!
Well, the Man’s right. Tillie clearly didn’t know what hit her…
And apparently still doesn’t!
Small favors, eh?
I wonder if finding out that she was killed would give her closure. I don’t think I’d want to know I was brained by a plank, but finding out the truth about the “little girl” would be nice, I guess. Hopefully they get to be together in the hereafter.
One of the best things about Breaking Cat News is that I actually look forward to Mondays rather than dreading them.
That makes me so happy to hear, thank you! That’s one of the reasons I originally chose Monday! It’s a day that needs a bit of a lift, ha!
I Found my lost pen!” “Yae-” “And this dead cat…” Nice way to say it… lol.
Had a small scare on Friday; the plumbers came to my apt. and tore out the wall under the kitchen sink to look for a leaky hot water pipe, then went away for a while in search of parts, leaving the gaping hole. Fortunately it turned out that my tuxedo Maggie was safe and sound, shut into the bathroom! Kept her there until all was safely re-plastered and replaced and the men were gone, too!
*sniffles* Poor Tillie.
I’m rereading for the 5th or 6th time Georgia… I just saw the mice running away on the ceiling!!!! LOVE IT!