Cats really don’t listen at all. You can say things like, “Don’t destroy that, it’s hand-made!” or “Don’t punch each others’ faces, it’s 3 a.m.!” But it just goes in one ear and out the other. Unless food is involved.
Once they hear the sound of the food bag opening, they come running at top speed. But in today’s strip, there is no food. Only justice.
Ever since the first day we brought Olive home, she’s enjoyed running through the entire house at top speed. That’s all fine and dandy, except for one small detail. The wooden floor in the final room of the house. For the gamers out there, it’s kind of like the boss at the end of the level.
See, one of the laws of cats is that when one hits a wooden floor at maximum velocity, it is impossible to maintain traction and a collision with the wall is imminent. Olive has experienced many of these crashes (I usually hear them from upstairs) but either doesn’t realize or doesn’t care what’s about to happen.
Hazel, always the voice of reason, actually did check on Olive the first time she smashed into a wall. She hasn’t done this lately, probably because crashing sounds have become normal and Olive is made of rubber and can’t be harmed.
Sometimes I watch Olive’s acrobatics and think of her as a type of martial arts star. But let’s face it. The Chuck Norris thing has gotten a liiittle old. So I decided to go down the road less traveled. That of Jean Claude Van Damme.
My favorite part about Van Damme fight scenes is the way he integrates the act of doing the splits into the battle. So the strip above is based on a scene from Timecop, which actually has some swearing in it, so to keep things friendly for younger readers, here is a clip of David Letterman pulling off the exact same move.
And as a side note, this is actually the last strip of 2011! Thank you so much to all the readers out there for making it a great year! I truly appreciate everyone taking the time to stop by and give the comic a look. There is a lot of fun stuff lined up for 2012 - see you then!
Ah, Christmas. That time of year when Olive makes it her sole mission in life to mess up the tree. I’m not sure what it is about the thing but she cannot leave it alone. The minute I had it set up this year, she ran at it full speed, dove into the skirt underneath and managed to roll herself up in the fabric like a Christmas cat burrito.
She’s also taken out a few ornaments in the past, which means most years, I leave all my sweet superhero ornaments in the box. Bummer.
So what about you other cat owners out there? Do you take any steps to keep your pets away from the tree?
