Lost Cat!

In today's strip, the Bitmap World neighborhood kids go out in search of their neighbor's cat. I really had fun putting this "gaggle" of kids in that panel. They are just standing there, but the reader gets a sense of what's happened. Basically the Pixel kids went out to look for the cat, and presumably got all of their friends involved. This was also a neat way to throw in one character who has not been formally introduced yet.

I don't know what it is, but there is great fun in searching for a lost animal. A few months ago, our cat, Waffle, ran away. We were very distraught, and a resulting search of the neighborhood ensued. The funny thing was that when my kids went out to search, the very first thing they did is went to their friends' houses and asked them to join on the expedition. It's true that more eyes are helpful in that type of thing, but I think in this regard it was just more exciting to have a big group looking. Probably safer in this day and age too, but ultimately more fun. Plus, it's less sad dealing with the situation of a lost pet when your friends are around to support you. Incidentally, my kids never did *find* the cat--he ended up coming back home a week later, very distraught. I can only imagine he ended up having an adventure similar to the cat in the comic, though without the kind old lady to care for him.

Anyhow, getting back to the search for run-away animals, this brought to mind a time in my own childhood. I was probably in 4th or 5th grade. I was hanging out with the neighborhood kids when this stray dog wandered in. We had no idea whose dog it was, or where it came from. I don't even think the dog had a collar, so there wasn't even any guarantee it belonged to anyone! Still, without any prompting, we decided to catch the dog. Much like the kids in the comic, we went and enlisted a bunch of our friends. We took off on bikes and foot, trying to corral this pooch. Looking back, we were crazy. We had no idea what we were actually going to do with the dog if we caught him, but it was great fun trying. We ran around for hours, chasing the dog, cornering it, and then cursing as it got away. I'd say we were terrorizing that poor canine, but it seemed to be having great fun, waiting for us to get close before running away. And if we ever lost sight of it, that dog would end up coming to look for us so we would continue the chase.

We never did catch that dog, but we had a blast that afternoon, and it makes for a great memory.

If you haven't read the current storyline, we have been featuring the neighbor's cat, Nyanko (which means kitten in Japanese). It's been a lot of fun utilizing sight gags for these past few comics. I still get a thrill at how expressive thos little smilies can be. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, start at this strip and see for yourself.

Current Mood: nostalgic