Peep toads are out!
on April 22, 2016
at 2:43 am
Chapter: Arts and Entertainment
Characters: Agnes, Alice, Baba Mouse, Beatrix, Burt, Elvis, Lupin, Natasha, Puck, robber mice, Sir Figaro Newton, Tabitha, The Dog, Tommy, Violet
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This ending was.. unexpected. Baba Mouse hoedown??
Love for Puck’s contemplation and Bea sitting on the Dog
They have Coqui in Puerto Rico (my wife’s birthplace) – frogs that make high pitched croaking sounds. This reminds me of those.
I thought chocolate wasn’t good for cats, either.
Maybe they tasted it but didn’t swallow! 😉
It isn’t.
Also, hooray for peep toads!
eeeeeee, i’ve been missing baba mouse! <3 <3 YAY!
bea's little red cheeks! heeee!
<3 <3
It’s morning here in Bulgaria but that just made me want to climb into my PJ’s and snuggle down with a drink of hot chocolate while Baba Mouse and the gang party <3 For some reason, looking at the last panel the part of Back to The Future 3 with ZZTop playing popped into my head.
LOVE Tommy’s PJ’s btw 😀 i need a pair of those 😀
OH. MY. CAT. 100% truth, I said to the Man as I was finishing that panel, “Every time I look at this I hear the ZZTop song from Back to the Future III.” Hahahaha!!! I didn’t mean for that to really be the song, but maybe it’s just sort of an unstoppable fact. Ha!
I have to give you and Catherine credit for greater creativity than I have. I saw Babamouse with the fiddle and all I came up with was “Hey Diddle Diddle”
Oh my cat. How great is this one! Love it.
So cute! And the last frame is just great! <3
Hurray! The Dog again! And with a Kitten on his head again😊 Peep peep!
Love the final panel as well, with Baba Mouse and all the Tiny Folk dancing up a storm, too. (We will not speak of Tommy’s PJ’s)
We got married in the driveway of my aunt’s beautiful “hacienda,” in El Paso, TX. It rained for two hours, delaying our wedding. In addition, we had irrigated our two tiny horse pastures just prior, because in the desert, one must never pass up water.
The toads serenaded our entire wedding ceremony! It was not beautiful music, but it was entertaining, and ducks even came to the pastures as if it was a lake. The two hour delay for mother nature, turned it into a ceremony serenaded by her, and we treasure it to this day.
I should add, that our 24th anniversary is next month. 🙂
Congratulations!! 😀
That sounds lovely!!
In my head I call Tommy’s jammies “Pizza Party PJs.”
Tommy’s PJ’s made me think of Mr. Pizza’s Best Friend Buffet – I went back to that strip to see if the pizza had sunglasses!
What’s on Tommy’s shirt? Pizza slices with sunglasses?
Yes!! In my head, I call them “Pizza Party PJs.” 😀
Had to go back and look at the Pizza Slice with the googly eyes, when the “People abandoned the Children.” 😻
I want a pair of pizza party pj’s!
So beautiful!
Oh my another wonderful cartoon..
The first ever BCN “peep show”
“A lady never tells” Truer words were never spoken Beatrix..
Um, it’s 3AM, I just finished patrolling the halls of my workplace.. My legs are shot tired, and I’m hallucinating, imagining Baba mouse on violin and the robber mice dancing with frogs
Oh my cat! So much beautiful detail. Almost the whole animal crew in one strip. Christmas light bugs! Peep toads in clothes dancing with robber mice! Baba Mouse on the fiddle! Tommy in his PJ’s. Beatrix sitting on the dog’s hat. The only one I couldn’t find was Sophie. It’s too early for peep toads here yet, but I did see a “a narrow fellow in the grass” when I was mowing yesterday and thought of “The Dog.”
Tabitha and Sir Figaro!! I’ve been missing GN for a while now!
Oh my cat! Robber mice dancing at the peep toad ball! *is ded from cute* This HAS to be a poster! Georgia, this is amazing! Too many good things to name them all (Tommy’s pizza Jammie, Bea’s red cheeks – Squee)
This is so charming. It reminds me of a Beatrix Potter story. Especially the hoe-down with Baba Mouse.
I just noticed Alice playing the tambourine while the other mice dance with the peepers. And the boys looking at the fireflies from their window while listening to the peepers makes some pretty panels. Then to top it off we have Tommy talking to Burt and The Dog while Beatrix delivers cocoa and tea. The gang is well represented in this delightful strip. Incidentally, I’m listening to the peepers myself as I write this.
Tommy’s Jammies….
Cocoa run….
Puck’s nose on the screen….
Peep toad/mouse jamboree complete with mama cat fiddle…
So much awesome in one comic….
Beautiful.
Thank you.
Oh, yeah, definitely – that’s the music for that panel! So much awesome in this strip, it defies enumeration! You continue to outdo yourself Georgia!!
Beatrice is so adorable! And that last panel should be on a t- shirt.
Yes! I would buy it! 😀
Hey diddle diddle
A cat with a fiddle
And toads dancing under the moon…
You beat me to the “Hey diddle diddle” comment!
So adorable! [So glad I hit refresh.] LOVE the pizza party jammies
Froggie went a’courtin, he did ride, uh huh, uh huh…set Miss Mousie on his knee, said “Miss Mousie, won’t you marry me?”uh huh, uh huh.
I agree that the last panel deserves to be a poster. I did search google for some printed cotton in the same pattern, but to no avail. So far nothing peeps or creaks or blinks here in NW Illinois, we haven’t had lilacs yet, and are expecting at least one more night of frost.
This is delightful, and it just keeps unfolding into something better with each panel! Thanks!
For some reason, maybe the gentleness and detail, this reminds me of Kit Williams’ art.
It is not Spring until we hear the Peepers!!!
Last night, it was a tree frog calling for some Love.
How beautiful, makes me want to come over and see the peep toads and Christmas light bugs – pardon my ignorance – are they realises?
Realsies
They are! 😀
So many things I o love. Glad to see so many of the gang here. Love Tommys pizza sunglasse pj’s and the party. Who know Babba mouse was such a party animal. 😻
Got to stop hitting post and then reading. Should be so many things to love. Dang spell check.
Thanks Georgia for the great strip. It was fun and a great look at spring. I really loved the exasperated Elvis wanting to know how Beatrix is always getting out to go for refreshments, and her response was so cute.
Christmas light bugs (I havr to call them that frim now on!) always make me smile. My parents live in a semi-agricultural area and there are fields around their house which are not in use so they don’t get mowed/plowed/planted. Usually around late May/early June they get tons of Christmas light bugs floating around. I love to just sit outside with a cup of tea and watch them dance.
Thank you for including them in this strip and reminding me of those peaceful summer evenings!
i LOVE Tommy’s pjs! I wonder if I could get a pair for my cat Mac!!!
Tommy is so cool. And love Elvis angry that B keeps getting out.
Dancing in the moonlight
Everybody’s feeling warm and bright
It’s such a fine and natural sight
Everybody’s dancing in the moonlight…
My happy earworm for the day. Thank you!
The tiny tambourine completely did me in! 😊
Why do I have ‘The Devil Came Down To Georgia’ in my head now?
I just love, love, love the paw prints on the cocoa/tea cups!!!
I love Baba Mouse so much! All I can hear is Froggie Went a Courtin’. We got our first batch of “neekerbreekers” last night!
Yeah, as far as I know, it’s bad for them, too. I keep ‘my’ black cat away from it, but he’s hellbent on figuring out what chocolate is. Cute troublesome little devil.
OH MY CAT! I LOVE love love this one! They’re all good, but this particular strip is on my top fav list! 😀 That last panel is marvelous! I want to hang it on my wall! I love Tommy’s pj’s! Pizzas! How perfect!
I propose to allocate a few minutes each day to contemplate the majesty of nature. Camera one?
Well…….that was enlightening. My initial impressions are that it is indeed majestic. I need a lie down now.
Camera one?
Now I can’t get that song out of my head!
I don’t think we have peep toads here just outside Seattle–but we have singing frogs.
Georgia, you realize that Beatrix can never grow up, right? She’s just absolutely right as a kitten.
The song I get from the last panel is Heather Alexander/Alexander James Adams’ “Cat and the Fiddle”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XY4DquAVPc
Love Tommy’s footed pjs! Wow, so much to take in. I had to read the comments to catch the tambourine. Is The Dog in a night shirt with a sweater and slippers?? Elvis frustrated with Bea because he can’t figure out how she gets out. Next investigative report??
A lady never tells; indeed not Miss B. Love your tweets!
Maybe I’ve got Merrie Melodies on my mind, but the first musical frog I thought of was named Michigan J. =^..^=
Tommy in footie pajamas! Beatrix making a cocoa run! Puck being the adorable Pucky cat that he is! My heart is warmed beyond measure! <3 Thank you, Georgia!
I woke up this morning still reeling from yesterday, reading a news feed of full of purple images and remembrances, and people being sad and still shocked, expecting to have another down day, and then this beautiful strip, so gentle and sweet, soothed every sore heartstring. We are in full chorus here. There is a glorious moment where the exuberent cacophony of spring peepers, leopards, and western chorus floods through the car just as we pull up to home. Thank you, dear.
I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. Beatrix is the best, and I love her burgeoning friendship with the dog. Hooray for spring, and warm nights, and nature. Thanks, Georgia, for being awesome. 🙂
I love Bea’s purple pj’s 🙂
This is the best one yet! So. Cute. The last panel brings to mind the illustrations of Harrison Cady. Are they playing “Foggy Went A’Courtin'”?
I love that Lupin isn’t impressed with the peepers! You are so fantastic with consistency in your characters.
Love this one! Is the mouse in the pink dress doing a Dirty Dancing move? 😉
It’s Babapalooza!
The spring peepers are out here in the South Central Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but we won’t have Christmas Tree Light bugs until July.
I love all the suggested sound tracks for the last panel.
It’s fun to see nearly the entire cast here. Sophie is probably reading “On Waldon Pond” by firefly – excuse me – Christmas Tree Light bug light and listening to the peepers.
So I had a Total blonde moment when I read the title of this strip in my email… I thought it was going to be about the marshmallow PEEPS and that somehow there were toad shaped!
So imagine my surprise that it was about actual toads! Are they called spring peepers? I always used to think they were birds chirping in the middle of the night.
Beautiful strip, I am going to love inspecting each panel over my morning coffee. 😊
Missed seeing buzzy mouse sharing the moment with Puck. But still thought your cartoon was delightful today!
Pizza Steve! From Uncle Grandpa. Google him. 😀
Fireflies in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpywSqvXDqc
Flying insects that light up …….. I feel like I’m missing out 🙂
Of *course* Lupin prefers the lightning bugs (which, actually, won’t be out for another month or so, but, cartoon timing…) – he can’t hear the peepers!
Actually, they’re such a high-pitched constant-background-sound, that sometimes it’s hard to actually notice that they aren’t my ears ringing. Go toads! Eat mosquito larvae!
“Mr. Frog went a courting…”
What a sweet way to start my day. Love seeing Baba Mouse having fun, and I now need to find some Pizza Pjs like Tommy’s!
Amazing! I can’t imagine a strip where you hadn’t outdone yourself! Imagine my surprise when I saw Baba Mouse playing the fiddle ( Kudos to d’ Glenn for that clever rhyme)! I just love your works! Have the boys ever caught something from the outside? I’d love to hear something along those lines!
We don’t have peepers or “Christmas light bugs” here in San Bernardino County but the Jacaranda trees are blooming–a beautiful purple haze in the distance but when you get close they are both messy and a little smelly. Perhaps the “cocoa” Bea is serving is actually carob? I think that might be used in pet treats instead of chocolate. Probably heavy on the milk, too.
You never cease to amaze me. I love this strip. Wonderful
Am I imagining a nod to Dirty Dancing in the mouse with in the pink dress being held aloft by the toad?
Nope, you’re not imagining it Kathryn, it totally is! I love that movie, ha! Can you believe I only saw it for the first time last year? The Man insisted I sit down and finally watch it.
Funny, a man insisting that a woman have to watch that… it’s usually the other way around!
That strip was like poetry!
I adore the peep-toad hoedown! What a lovely spring night festival. Thanks for letting us peep in on it.
Pizza Steve on Tommy’s jammies…on Instagram the RLMan was wearing a Steven Universe T-shirt…
Miss Georgia, you must like the *other* CN!
Nice to see Baba Mouse smiling. <3
Love it! I love that Elvis asked how Bea keeps getting out!
Excellent!
You do great work, Georgia.
;-D
This is delightful!
I love Bea and Tommy’s jammies! Glad your kitties like the peep toads, they tend to drive our kitties nuts. “Hoomin, dere’s NOIZE comin’ from da outside that we DO NOT LIKE!”
And Uncle Elvis getting annoyed at his kitten niece getting out is adorable. He nags because he cares, Bea!
Perfect ending. 🙂
I love this! I’d love to have a print of that last panel. I bet it would sell well in your Etsy store!
Wow a tea drinking dog! Must be English!!!
Actually, the song that came to my mind was “Froggy went a-courtin'”
(uh-huh!)
I love this strip and and always look forward to it, and I have to say that this one is my all-time favourite so far. It was so perfect! I love the boys, and I simply adore Beatrix! Makes me yearn for spring, which here in the frozen north, is very, very reluctantly starting to arrive. We rarely have lightning/Christmas light bugs up here, so I always look forward to heading to the States in the summer to have a chance to see them.
Perfect Earth Day strip. Another gem.
Very fond memories of my childhood and youth going to sleep to the peep toads/frogs chorus.
So MANY smiles…Excellent, Georgia !!!
“The spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) is a small chorus frog widespread throughout the eastern USA and Canada.” They are real, and they are awesome! Type “spring peeper” into Bing and you can hear them!
New favorite page.
Great song suggestions. I assumed they were dancing to ‘Jeremiah was a peepfrog’
So I guess I’m the only one who thought of Rupert and the frog song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4xeidmjy6s
I’ve had that in my head all day, ever since I read this adventure!
Peep toad rave!
Georgia, do you miss seeing fireflies where you are now? For whatever reason, there aren’t fireflies west of the Rockies. I wish there were.
As wonderful as all the panels are, my favourite is Puck with his nose pressed to the screen. Sometimes on warm summer nights when there are too many hungry mosquitoes outside, my Tuulikki and I will have our noses to the screen too, drinking in the quietness of night (after the noisy day), the warm sweet smells and sometimes the sounds of what we call ‘spring peepers’.
Actually all toads make quiet sounds. It’s frogs that are loud. When I first read “peep toads”, I thought “Huh. What are those?”
I do miss them! Very much. 🙂
Here in California when it rains the little tree frogs get to singing, but they are not a patch on northern New England “Peepers” in the spring. There were a number of small ponds and puddles and swampy areas on our New Hampshire farm and they were all full of frogs. As kids we always scooped up some eggs, kept them in a bucket of water and then returned them when the eggs hatched into tadpoles. I guess it was a spring ritual. A whole swamp full of frogs singing in different ranges is a magical thing. Thank you Georgia for reminding me!
Devil Came Down to Georgia 🙂
I probably missed this in an earlier comment but Kitties Can’t have Hot (or any other) kind of Chocolate either ! Of course they also can’t play fiddles or put together a TV feed either, so maybe I’m being picky but I don’t want anybody to get wrong info (and I;m sure Georgia doesn’t either !)
Mr. Frog went a-courtin’, indeed. I guess mice and frogs do have special relationships.
The last (gorgeous!) two panels bring The Cunning Little Vixen to mind: Nature and the Joy/Music of Spring 🙂
Enchanting!
OMG that was adorable!!!
They had pizza slice pj’s at target this winter. Now I want a set. O_o XD
This is just plain wonderful all around!
Where’s the cow jumping over the moon? 🙂
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Butterfly_Ball_and_the_Grasshopper's_Feast#Original_Album
Gotta say, I kept thinking about this opera from my youth
Actually, chocolate isn’t good for cats, either. (I know, it’s a nitpick and I apologize. You don’t have to do the Foghorn Leghorn impression: “It’s a joke, son, it’s a joke.” 😉 ) That said, I’ve had two cats who actively liked chocolate: Melon was one of them. I discovered his penchant one Halloween when a malted milk ball escaped. It never occurred to me that he’d eat it, but eat it he did and developed quite the taste for chocolate. The other cat was Tom, a childhood cat who helped my mother eat Hershey bars. Once she accidentally gave him a piece with a large almond in it but before she could get it back he managed to swallow it. This was before we knew cats shouldn’t have chocolate, but Tom survived the treat quite well.
Everyone who wants a full length childrens’ story about Babba’s Peep Toad Party sign the petition!
Maybe “Alice’s Very Busy Day”
or “The Mouse Thief’s Party Dress”There should be a kickstart!
Amazing strip! Peepers are out here in Central NY! LOVE the hoedown and everyone enjoying a beautiful spring night!
Pizza Steve 🙂 Tommy’s Jammie’s are Pizza Steve!!!! How awesome…Sam saw them and was so happy….As usual, great story and great surprises😀
Ayep!
This is a pure delight !!!. This at a time when the ability to feel delight is too often absent. It’s like the May day celebrations back in Europe and how everyone celebrated the long awaited end of winter. Thank you.
Can’t stand ’em myself. I’ve recently taken to running a set of several old “ambient sound” CDs on my computer as “sounds to fall asleep to”. Was awakened at about 4am by the “Tropical Night” soundtrack and its peep toads, which in my semi-unconscious state I heard as some unidentified alarm going off.
Only thing worse was when one of the baby birds in my attic crawlspace, who hadn’t yet learned that birds are supposed to sleep at night, started waking up and crying at 2:30 in the morning. And the first one wakes up all the others around it and then *they* start in.
I never, ever play favourites, but whenever I see Lupin being ‘invisible’, Elvis protecting Gwen, and now Puck with his stretchy nostrils trying to snort all of outside, I totally melt.
Invisible Lupin is definitely in my top one list.
Amongst numerous other highlights of course!
This is going to sound impossible, but I swear it’s true–I never saw Pizza Steve before folks started mentioning him in this thread! Oh no! Hahaha!!! I came down to a decision between pizza wearing sunglasses, parrots wearing sunglasses, or cacti wearing sunglasses, and opted for pizza!
Blast, this likely means I may have to change Pizza Party PJs. And I even googled “pizza wearing sunglasses pajamas” to make sure it wasn’t a thing! Well, it happens. He looks so cute for now, though! 😀
And I LOVE Steven Universe–the Uncle Grandpa cross over episode is one of the only ones I hadn’t seen!
You still keep the alliteration if you go with “Parrot Party PJs.” Though I loved the tie-in with the Mr. Pizza’s Best Friend Buffet.
Wonderful strip! Still chuckling over Elvis’ totally exasperated “How do you keep getting outside?” 😀
The first peepers are here now. Those- and the cheeseburger bird- are the true heralds of spring. (Sorry, Mr. Robin!)
My vet introduced me to her new tech by running down the list of my cats and their quirks, and when she got to Dexter, she said he was the only cat they have ever had to treat for chocolate toxicity. What a claim to fame. Silly cat- but please make sure Bea brings him tea, as well, please. 😀
Rosin up the bow, Baba Mouse! It’s a ceilidh!
Wait, I just noticed – is Elvis chasing after the fireflies in panel 13?
I’m happy to see Sir Figaro Newton and Tabitha enjoying the fireflies — I hope the cast does so vicariously for me. Fireflies are one of the things I miss most from my growing up home.
4am this morning my dogs just decided they had to go outside, made me grumpy (and didn’t impress our house chicken) until i got outside and heard the toads singing away under the full moon… no christmas light bugs here but the nightingales were adding their voice to the chorus.
Made me smile and i went back inside spinning an imaginary guitar while going “PEEP! PEEP! PEEP! PEEP!” intune to the B2TF3 ZZtop moment.
I love this!! 😀
What in the name of Bast is a “cheesburger bird”—or is that in the sense of “I can has cheezeburger?” %oD
LOL!! It’s the spring mating call of the chickadee. Sounds like “cheeeese-burger”.
Panel 2: Best line yet!!
I thought the same thing! It is so startling with you hear that someone else has had the same off-beat thought and you. Made me add on smiles to the last panel.
Caffeine isn’t great for dogs or cats, either; I’ve been taking all the coffee as artistic license. Maybe dogs avoiding chocolate IS a religious or cultural thing in the world of BCN…
Yes!! That is what I’m going for here–though, I do appreciate folks pointing out that chocolate is not good for cats either. Or coffee! Speaking of which, has anyone out there ever read the story of Gummitch? I believe it was called “Space-Time for Springers” or something very close. In my world, it was a bedtime story my Mom used to tell me about a kitten who drank coffee and became a cat. It was very charming and sweet as she told it. Occasionally I have met other folks who know it, but it has never been brought up here on the message boards, and with cats and coffee I keep waiting for someone who has read it! 🙂
It was in a series of science-fiction stories, right? I started reading sci-fi when I was still a child.
SpaceTime for Springers is one of my all time favorites. Gummitch sacrificed the chance to become human to save the baby from the nasty toddler. The Man knew the secret.
For those wondering – for the sake of their real furballs – I’ve worked up some details. I’ve used some round numbers for the sake of simplicity.
Average adult cat = 4kg (8.8 lbs)
LD50 (average lethal dose) of theobromine for cats = 200mg/kg (400mg/kg for dogs)
So the lethal dose of theobromine for that 4kg cat would be 800mg.
Cocoa powder contains ~20mg/g of theobromine.
The average cup of hot cocoa uses 1 tbsp cocoa powder, or 7.5g, so it contains 150mg theobromine.
So that 4kg cat would have to consume more than 5 cups of hot cocoa in a single day to get close to the lethal amount.
So yes, chocolate is bad for both dogs and cats, but a cup of hot cocoa would probably not be dangerous to any of them except Beatrix (since she’s only a kitten).
Fritz Leiber, yay! Good story, along with many others that he wrote…..
Yes, Georgia, I read it!!! For years I tried to find out what the name of the story was but couldn’t find it and shelved the thought. I’d forgotten all about it till you mentioned it now. THANK YOU!
In fact, it’s been so long I can’t quite remember how it ended but I felt very very sad. Didn’t he want to turn into a little boy and was convinced that would happen, but instead ended up becoming a sullen tomcat …or something like that?
I believe that is it! It had some sadness to it; he had wondered about coffee so long and thought the people must drink it to be people (I think?) and when he finally got a chance to have it, it was like a cat coming of age story? Haha… Sniff 🙁
I HAVE had cats that will sip (or in Leo’s case, drink) my coffee, but I always put milk in it, and I usually snatch it back, so I’ve never worried too much about them. Right now the only one interested is Peaches and she does DEFINITELY not need to be caffeinated ! Your childhood book sounds like something I will have to lookup !
http://www.amazon.com/Gummitch-Friends-Fritz-Leiber/dp/1880418177/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461444967&sr=1-1&keywords=Gummitch
This isn’t it, is it ?
http://faculty.uca.edu/rnovy/Leiber–SpaceTime%20for%20Springers.htm
BINGO !
The above is the whole story – but of you Google “Gummitch” you find discussion groups -philosophical treatises – etc. Apparently this story was the “BCN” of its day !
I found it, Georgia. Kind of wished I hadn’t – though I’m glad I did – as all the sadness of the ending came flooding back. I guess I should feel happy for the little girl but I can’t.
Here’s the story in its entirety, by Fritz Leiber.
http://faculty.uca.edu/rnovy/Leiber–SpaceTime%20for%20Springers.htm
Thank you for posting it here Jude! I had only heard it as a bedtime story, and this was my first full reading of it! Oh, my heart. Oh, Gummitch. We considered naming Lupin a’Gummitch’ briefly for his personality! I feel really lucky that he is nearly four years old and still very kitten like. The similarlies in this between he and Gummitch squeezed my heart–even the missing tail tip!
Oh, Gummitch. What a wonderful cat. I should feel happy for the girl too, but sigh… I wish the coffee ceremony had all been real.
Thank you for feeling the same heart tug I did, Georgia. I wasn’t sure as a mother of a toddler and baby if you would. It was because of the way I feel about Gummitch and other animals that my mother was worried if I’d be a bad mother, neglecting my babies. She doesn’t think at all like me so she couldn’t see one can deeply love animals and love your own equally.
Dear little Gummitch. 🙁 At least he grew into a dignified tom and not a sullen one as I thought. I rescued my Tuulikki as a grown mother cat with a tiny new kitten so I never knew her as a kitten. But I’m glad to say she’s delightfully zany, very comical and races about the house (sounding like a herd of stampeding elephants). All my kitties were special but she, along with a tom we rescued (and had neutered) many years ago are extra extra-special.
Do you remember reading Jack Vance (no longer alive)? He wrote some horrible cheesy books (quick money then) but he also wrote some outstandingly good novels and short stories too. One collection of short stories is Chateau d’If. The story with that name is my favourite. And of his Lyonesse Trilogy, I loved Madouc! I can imagine you’d both be similar when young – and you already have the red hair! I miss the way these older writers could weave their words with such skill.
I have not myself (though I mean to! There are many great old sci-fi and fantasy authors I mean to catch up on) however, I 100% guarantee my Mom has. My mother is a lifetime voracious reader, and from a young age as a kid in the 50s she devoured all things sci-fi. This is how I ended up with many bedtime stories (Dr. Who was told to me as bedtime stories in the 80s, as were other wonderful tales of two children who befriended a little Martian scientist… For the life of me, I do not know what those were called, but I believe she had seen/read those too, I will have to ask her). Gummitch was always a favorite and always made me so sad.
And even as a parent, I was entirely rooting against the mean spirited toddler, in hopes that Gummitch could stop her (Hurting baby and kitty alike, NO!) Though, I am glad for her happier ending… But oh, Gummitch. What a true little hero! This has stayed with me all day, in warm afterthought of sweet-sadness.
I think the ‘little Martian scientist’ might have been Eleanor Cameron’s “Mushroom Planet” series, with Mr. Bass. Which, it was never actually mentioned that he was an alien, but definitely.
Was that the one with “you must bring a mascot”? which became especially vital when they found that they really needed the mascot. No, not a cat – a chicken.
Oh, my goodness there is something SO familiar about that, I feel like you must be right! I will ask my Mom today.
All this discussion of the dangers of coffee and chocolate have me thinking Beatrix is serving the cat safe chicory substitute for coffee and carob as a substitute the hot “chocolate.” The tea bags remind me of a time I left a carton of herbal tea on the counter. When I came back into the kitchen later, I found the tea bags shredded and the tea scattered all over the kitchen and stuck to the fur of a very tipsy cat. I checked the label on the box. One of the herbal ingredients was catnip.
I promise not to keep leaving comments but Gummitch has stayed with me all day too. I know he was a fictious kitten but I keep thinking about him and blinking back very wet eyes. Please consider weaving in a story with a kitten named Gummitch as a tribute to a wonderful furry hero.
I’ve spent a lot of today reading some old sci-fi stories on Project Gutenberg. Going back to read some more now.
It might be hard for me to add in a cat with the same name–but I may try to have one of the boys allude to reading the story at some point? 😉
Yes, yes, that’s how to handle it! They could debate the fact that they have drunk coffee, and haven’t yet transformed into a human – and why would anybody want to transform into a human, when you’re already a Perfectly Perfect Cat?
Love the strip! Love the entire cast of characters. Tommy’s footed, PJ onesie is awesome.
I’ve never heard of “peep toads” before. I thought maybe we just don’t have them this far south (TN), but we do! I found this site http://www.naturenorth.com/spring/sound/shfrsnd.html which identifies several frog/toad mating calls. The Spring Peeper is listed at the bottom and turns out it is a call I know very well (along with a few others that are on the site)! Yep – they DO sound like a car alarm!! Now I have a name and image to put with the sound. 😀
Haha! I remember ‘Over The Garden Wall’. (3
In response to Georgie in response to Jude (links don’t seem to be working correctly) Well, since you already do ghostly cats, why not such a spirit cat who is the soul of Gummitch showing up at some point? Without using the name, I’m sure you can make it obvious who he is—sort of like the Black Rabbit of Inle in “Watership Down.”
We have glow-worms in the UK, but they are pretty rare these days – I’ve not seen them 🙁 I did see a lot of fire-flies in Italy (Tuscany) in early summer so maybe that could be a trip for you?
Ooops – was supposed to be a reply to “Confused Brit”!
Oh, god, I loved that cartoon! The storyline was truly amazing, and so very compelling! I wonder if they based it off of a book?
Almost correct, except that for both cats and dogs, theobromide and caffeine have bad effects on the kidneys.
But these cats are story cats, as was Gummitch—who will receive a true hero’s welcome when he crosses the Rainbow Bridge.
😉
This strip reminds me of a book I once read, “A Lost Tale”, by Dale Estey.
It is magical.
Puck looks like a wombat with his nose pressed against the glass, teehee.
When my family went on day trips to Mass., we would sometimes drive past “Peep Toad Road.” (Right near “Batty Meeting House Road”.) I never heard of peep toads in RI, though.