What we did on our summer vacation, Part 1 of 7

The Slinky One and m'Man loaf on grass in the sun, looking at a tiny kitten on a blankie. Nearby another kitten plays in the grass. "Okay, how come these baby cats keep showing up here? I dunno what to do with a baby cat except cover it with a blankie and put it in the sun, that's what I like." m'Man, elbow over a box, says, "I'll go find him some m'lick. I like a nice cold bowl of m'lick." In the distance, Tookie climbs down a tree declaring, "Hang on, I'm the bestest babysitter!"

Cats know how to have a good time.

Hello, how have you all been? This is the comic you’ve waited over a month for, and I haven’t worked out the layout yet, but wait, did I just make a comic about kittens in the afterlife? That’s not funny.

STOP SPEEDING DOWN STREETS.

The rest of this month we’re going to catch up on what everyone else has been doing on their summer vacation, and look at it this way, we got the horrible part out of the way! Unless you count the art in the next six comics as the true horror. Think drawing really fast because that’s all I got time for right now. You’ve been warned.

No social media until I get some comics made!

A woman wearing a shirt that reads "Science!" waves. Text reads no social media until I get some comics made. A smile face and the initials LBN are underneath.

I mean, I have some made, I just have to finish them and maybe have them look better than this, but what do you want from me? I haven’t drawn in a month!

I cut everything else out, so checking if my friends and family are okay is next. Be okay, people! Wear masks and social distance so I don’t come and break your kneecaps! I mean unfollow you. Or avoid you. Wait, I’m already doing that. Don’t mind me. You do you.

Summer Is The Time To Relax!

The Slinky One, appearing as a butterfly, said, "Okay, it's summer. Time to relax!" Utter chaos is going on around him. I'm on two phones, saying, "...but if Legionella is in the water, how do you wash it away?" The Puppy is saying, "Oh hey, there's a cat," to which The Fluffy One responds, "Indeed, I am your cat!" but behind him is a peach-color cat, sitting in a plant and asking what's for dinner. In the window, Babycat announces she'd like to go out and roll in the grass. Her kitten, now the length of the window, says, "Mom! Mom! What about the fireworks? You said it's dangerous out there!" "Nothing is as dangerous as living with you, baby," his mother tells him.

There’s a lot going on here, and I do want to make comics about all of it, well, not all of it, but I want to make sure my Mum can see them and she’s in the hospital fighting off Legionella pneumonia right now so I just don’t really feel like going HAHA LET’S COLOR MY SHIRT or anything much right now. I did want to get my hello summer strip in here, and here it is.

The comic is taking July off, but it will be back in August because I had quite a few comics in the works when everything went very wrong. As of today it’s getting tiny bits better every day, and that’s all I can ask for. Well, I’d like my Mum home for my birthday, too, but we were in the hospital on the original one so way to celebrate, Mum!

While she’s away, I’ve taken over the things she usually does, so there will be comics about that when I think it’s funny again. Legionella isn’t funny, though. No idea where it came from, but if it’s in our showerhead or faucets or even that puddle under the sink I had fixed while my mother was on a ventilator, that’s a problem. All you need to know is staying home and not catching Covid-19 was cool, but the water got stagnant in a lot of places so keep that in mind and continue to be terrified of breathing along with me. Hello. Sorry.

The peach cat who now lives in my yard ran around my house and busted back out the door like a Looney Tune so I don’t know that he’ll be living with us any time soon, but he just squeezed under the fence and plopped down in the grass for the evening.

Did I ever mention I schedule these? Yeah, see, I’ve scheduled EVERY summer series, but I just don’t have anything ready this time because I manage my time well only in my head first thing when I wake up and then NOPE. The only schedules I can live by right now are breakfast for cats when my Fluffy son decides it is and dinner by 7 for humans and everything else is sort of around that.

There are a whole lot of comics to look back on, if you like. When I find a layout that displays images instead of text, that’ll be even more fun!

Good Question!

A squirrel leaps off one tree and shouts, "Where's our treeeee?" Another squirrel, clinging to the massacred stump of a tree, is yelling, "WHAT THE FUUUUU--"

This is how I cope with devastation, okay?

Apparently the neighbor and I had differing opinions on what “Cut to the fence line” means. No, it’s not really funny. But I’m trying to force myself to see it as a metaphor for how abuse of power kills the beauty in the world.

It’s Been A Long Time Coming….

A lot is going on in the world, and a lot is going on in my house, so I didn’t get to draw anything this week to show my support for Blackout Tuesday and the Black Lives Matter protests taking place following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Amaud Aurbery. I didn’t really want to go, “Oh look, a cutesy rendering of the victims of systemic racial injustice!” because that felt very wrong to me.

But I remembered this comic I drew back in November of 2017, which at the time I debated posting because gosh, I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but now I realize there are only seven readers of this comic and they need to know, in case there was any question, that I am 100% anti-racist and I’m here to keep listening and keep learning and hopefully see some real healing and much-needed lasting change coming.

I am taking a knee for America.

(And yeah, at the time the most outrageous thing I’d seen the President of the United States do was toss paper towels to the people of Puerto Rico devastated by Hurricane Maria. Now I realize he’s fine with tear gassing people and letting Covid-19 spread as long as it didn’t crash the stock market. He still fails to recognize why Colin Kaepernick was kneeling. I’m not fine with that. There’s so much I’m not fine with. And that’s why I draw.)

Back to silly pictures of squirrels on Wednesday. Go be the change you want to see in the world, kids. ✊🏿

You THINK?

The Spider and I look at my car, which has a flat tire. "So...the car passed its safety inspection...with a flat tire?" The Spider asks. "I asked the guy to put air in the tires, you think he put too much?" I ask.

Still trying to wrap my mind around what kind of service station allows someone to leave on a flat. I guess this is my review?

(I left on the flat because I didn’t have a flat when I got there and once again I trusted someone to do something and tell me if something was wrong instead of covering it up and hoping I wouldn’t say anything. I wish I’d been doing a funny dashboard video that morning because wow that would’ve been hi-LAR-ious! We hobbled around the block, right back to the service station, and he put on the spare. Now next time I take my car out, I gotta go get a tire. I also gotta get another service station.)

Oh Hey, Girlfriend!

Babycat sniffs The Puppy's foot as The Puppy says, "Hey girlfriend, you wanna watch the airplane shows?" Babycat looks up at the TV as The Puppy sniffs her butt. "I love the airplane shows, girlfriend! Can we watch the bird show after? I love the bird show," Babycat says.

After the sneak preview yesterday, was this where you thought that was going?

They do love watching the airplane shows and the bird shows, I think right now we could all do with watching the airplane shows and the bird shows with a friend whose smells you dig.

Happy Birthday, Babe

Babycat is sandwiched between The Fluffy One and the spirit of The Slinky One. "Happy Birthday to you and your brother's spirit, babe! Older men are the best! Let's nap!" The spirit of The Slinky One purrs while The Fluffy One says, "Indeed, you too are the delight, you may share the tuna of celebration with me!" "Oh thanks! My birthday is around now, and my gotcha day is coming up, too!" Babycat continues as The Puppy rolls her eyes and says, "I mean, really, nobody called it a gotcha day when I was a puppy. Whatevers, I has a boyfriend and he's making a weird noise in my ear. That's cute!" The Kitten purrs as he licks The Puppy's ear, his tail making the shape of a heart.

Who knew they’d all end up being friends? Tonight we bust out the good tuna for The Fluffy One, who totally has a girllllllfriiiiiiiiend!

The real Babycat and Fluffy One lounging at a window.

Everything they do is my dream come true and I’m lucky that I get to watch them be adorable together.

And yes, these two are…something.

The actual Kitten and Puppy hang out in the hallway.

April is packed with furry holidays, the 4th was The Puppy’s gotcha day, and she had an extra long walkies in the sun that day and I’ll just say that’s why I didn’t get to draw her a special strip all to herself, sure.

It wouldn’t be a Ninja Twin birthday without both of them, so enjoy this sexy flashback and just know these two boys were always perfect gentlemen and never wrestled without each other’s permission and a little boy with a long tail could learn a lot from them. *AHEM*

The actual Ninja Twins cuddled up on the window years ago.

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