Cat Sigh

Imagine the reader who is just picking up Garfield for the first time today. All they see is a man impossibly excited about being treated by an animal doctor. There's nothing wrong with that joke, I guess. It's not much more complex that he is just excited to make a pass at the vet.

Jon's gotta know he's going to fail when he hits on Liz next week. And yet he cannot wait to try. Because the fun, ladies and gents, we all know, is in the hunt. The failure may be crushing, success may be even more crushing. Jon doesn't rush to heartbreak, he rushes to the sweet moment before you know one way or the other. Flirting is forever suspended like a mosquito in amber. In the meantime, our cats wait alone.

Some days the waiting room chairs are connected... today they're not. All I know is when Jon runs, he leaves a trail of popcorn in the air.

Eat the Birds/ Tuppence, Tuppence

Finally, Pikachu make the cover of Vet. It's a pretty classy magazine, published at the human-torso proportions usually reserved for W and Interview.

Garfield, though already dreading his vet appointment, is willing to make himself sick just to eat a bird. Does he eat the bird because it is a cat's nature? Does he eat the bird because we'd all like to eat that guy who won't stop making noise in the quiet waiting room? I think Garfield eats the bird because he knows it may make him ill, may get Jon in trouble, may prolong his visit to the doctor, but can't help it. Given the expression on Garfield's face, he gets no pleasure from this act. And in this way, perhaps we all sometimes Eat the Bird.

Rashodog

Laff & Learn With Garfield
-Dogs are allowed in the waiting room without supervision, but cats must attend vet appointments with a legal guardian.

-Three Purple Lumps has stepped up their advertising campaign to the back cover of that famous red-bordered magazine. The one that starts with a W.

-The "trip to the vet" story has been dragged out for a week and a half without even making it into Liz's office yet. Good chance this plot could last an entire month, depending on how many shots Garfield needs. Or if he gets a skin disease from that dog.

-The amateur Garfield reader may think this could've been a one-panel cartoon, since all the dialog and action is packed into the final frame, and the rest of the strip is the characters sitting silent and motionless. I say that Garfield is about the stultifying boredom, and subcutaneous boiling frustration of our lives, and you can only feel that with the rhythm of the first two panels. There's a reason this isn't Heathcliff.

A Mite in Her Ear

Veterinary degrees consist of the word VET written over two horizontal lines, with a child's drawing of a seagull at the bottom.

Garfield, who thus far has been responding to the vet trip with his usual sarcastic bile, is now pouting like a baby. He looks furious. I like when Garfield's cool veneer is stripped away and makes it obvious his quips are fueled by petty self-interest.

Jon happily reads a two-page issue of Purple Magazine, which they always provide in vet's offices. Animals with ear mites have big crumbly chunks of brown matter in their ears. Infection can lead to skin disease, spread to the neck and tail, and if left untreated, cause deafness.

The Lost Skeleton of Cat-avra

Yes Garfield, not "I hope I don't die", but "I hope you brought a snack."

Panel One: We already know what Dr. Wilson's receptionist, Nel, looks like, so why not show her? A) her appearance was just a punchline sight gag about how ugly she is, and seeing her in this context might be distracting. B) the panel's a little crowded for Garfield as it is. C) it's easier not to deal with people's reactions to seeing a cat walk on its hind legs.

Panel Two: It's an unfair complaint to criticize comics reality which I always allow to warp reality to best tell a joke. The zoom-in reveal places the skeleton closer to Garfield than it could have been in panel one, but that's totally okay. Not-okay is that the skeleton - smaller than Garfield, and without a tail - seems to be that of a baby hippo.

Panel Three: I'd like to think Garfield doesn't think a mere snack can save him, and has just accepted that the waiting room shall be his death chamber. He would've asked for a snack anyway.

Kick Me Beneath the Milky Twilight

Criticism: I usually try to ignore it unless making a joke about it, but... The computer color job on today's strip is atrocious, distracting, and doesn't make sense. It's a simple, reasonably funny gag confused by some kind of spotlight (?) at frame right that looks like it should have something to do with the action but does not. As a light source, it's badly rendered (explain the shading in row 2 panel 2?), and besides, Garfield isn't normally drawn with deep shadows unless there's a reason.

Praise: Today's Garfield combines a solid character joke and a typically cynical assessment of our role in the universe. In the first, Odie is so used to being physically abused that it is the only way he makes sense of his existence, and will hurt himself if Garfield is not there to do it... The dog equivalent of a cutter, I guess. In the second, Garfield is punished for not accepting his eternal job as Odie's designated abuser. If Garfield had taken his preordained place on the table top and kicked an innocent dog, instead of being on the floor, he would never be crushed by the punishing will of the cosmos. If it's in the cards for you to physically injure animals, Garfield urges you to rush to your work with open arms.

Insightful Observation: Odie looks more and more like Super Mario's dinosaur friend Yoshi.

Hot Shots! Part Mew

Jon is suddenly unexcited about going to the vet. Perhaps he realized he hasn't time to grow a mustache, or that it's pointless to fret over what to wear when you only have one shirt. This lack of enthusiasm is a strange, unexplained twist, but at least it makes the formality of his phrasing "we must go to the vet" even funnier.

Garfield is just trying to voice his hatred of getting shots, I know, but his grumpy complaint seems to imply: A) Dr. Liz thinks hypodermic needles - probably several - should be stored in pincushions, or B) when Liz gives cats a shot she simply jabs the needle in and leaves it there.

The "camera" tilt-up to accommodate the thought bubble of standing Garfield in panel three is distracting, but not as distracting as watching Garfield's hind legs go from thick and blobby to scrawny. The pincushion is ready to have confusing anatomy when you are! It is cute that Garfield is still excited about cat treats, when he can eat entire cakes, pies, and platters of cookies at home all the time.

Flowers for Veterinarinon

Beginners Tips for 06/23/2006 Garfield
-Garfield's punchline only funnier than Jon's last line, if read with sassy gay voice.

-Pray that if we're spending all week setting up Garfield's vet appointment that we get to spend a minimum of seven strips in Dr. Liz's office. She's such a great foil for both Jon and Garfield, that I only assume Davis doesn't use her more because any real vet would tell Jon not to feed his cat entire hams or let it walk on its back legs so much.

-Do not be distressed when Garfield's ears seem to merge when viewed head-on, as in panel three.

-Do not question why Jon's closet door is so very, very tall.

-Do not wonder why Jon wears the same green plaid sport coat on dates when he has that salmon blazer in his closet. Those are to indicate we are seeing A Closet, but they do not represent real wardrobe choices for Jon.

-It looks like the bureau would prevent the closet door from being opened or closed, but we must assume some tricks of light and perspective are at work.

-Lament the practice of reading comic strips on the internet instead of newspaper, as the cheap print version allows readers to see what Jon would look like with a Bic ballpoint mustache in a matter of seconds.

Paws On-Cup-orated

The awesomeness of Jon's ineptness with women is that he is not nerdy and shy around them, but nerdy and far too confident. Nebbishness wears thin for me, misguided bravado does not.

Yes, yes, Jon's pet name for Liz is weird and yes, would've been funnier if it were "Snooky-Wookiee", but I think we all know the meat here is in panel three. A lot of people would've had the punchline be that the overweight ugly receptionist gets excited by Jon's come-on, but Jim Davis allows no character to feel loved: she's horrified.

RE: Panel Three
-Surely I am not the only person who at first glance before reading the word balloons thought that in panel three Jon morphed into a fat lady named Nel? The layout of all three panels is so identical that there's no reason to suddenly think we've "cut" to a different building... especially since that happens about twice a year in Garfield. This might've been remedied by, say, putting Nel's computer on the opposite side of the frame, or her body in a position that doesn't exactly mirror Jon's. I offer these solutions though I don't want it remedied.

-As do all good veterinary receptionists, Nel keeps a green condom in her pencil cup.

-And a tiny blue Odie serves as Salacious Crumb to Nel's slug-bodied, earless Jabba.

Email My Friend I Said You'd Call Dr. Wilson

Garfield is the only strip that would try to whip readers into an anticipatory frenzy by foreshadowing something as mundane as a trip to the vet. I must confess the tactic works on me. It's been sooo long since we've seen Dr. Wilson ("Dr. Liz", Jon? Really!), and by Garfield standards she's pinup-worthy hot. She always injects a little laconic outsider wit into the weird Garfield/Jon dynamic, and a little S-E-X appeal into the G-A-RF world.

Since this is such a blockbuster event, we get a double-joke strip for the build up. In Joke A, Jon misconstrues that vet appointment reminders contain coded desire for his intimate company. In Joke B, Garfield counters Jon's excitement by remembering aloud that such visits for him mean only the physical violation of his body. In the third joke emerging from the synthesis of A and B's acid+base=noxious gas formula, the reader imagines Jon's clammy hands fondling Dr. Liz. The "foreign implements" I leave up to the foul and comics-page-unfriendly imaginations of Permanent Monday readers.

Panel three reminds us why we value Garfield above real cats. The actual feline is unable to contort his face to display such sickness and revulsion.

Note that the misplaced computer mouse has been eliminated after yesterday's gross technological violation. These are the days it becomes clear the PAWS, Inc. staff is using PerMon as a fact-checking tool. Perhaps they began this storyline to see if I will count the days since Liz's last appearance? I shall give them no such satisfaction.

Of Eighth Notes and E-mails

Graphic Storytelling Lesson for Today
Comics lettering decibel indicators:
1. Exclamation points/ multiple exclamation points
2. Bigger letters
3. Boldface
4. Block/balloon letters
5. Colored block letters
6. Gradient colored block letters

When Jon shouts in zombified monotone, he shouts IN YELLOW. Please note that two exclamation points is always funnier than one or three.

Earth-quaking Revelations

Jon has an iMac. This, combined with the infamous recent appearance of Garfield's iPod, should tell us something. "Should" but "doesn't". Whether that's a PAWS, Inc. buyout of Apple (most likely) or that Jim Davis just likes Macs, we may have to wait for his next booksigning and ask in person. Either way, be thankful we Garfield fans don't have to put up with the hideous '80s PCs still portrayed daily in On the Fastrack or the crap that goes down in Shoe.

A consistently heartening thing about Garfield's technology jokes is that they always make sense, don't seem like they're written by someone out of touch with daily communications technology, and aren't about old people's inability to integrate electronics into their lives. It's almost like Jim Davis knows what it's like to sit for hours, staring bug-eyed at a Mac screen... writing about... Garfield... every day.

Burning, Itching Question

How did Jon achieve the position of his left arm, keyboard and mouse in panel one? I tried to duplicate this scene for five minutes, with no success, even excusing the misplaced mouse port as artistic license. Now I won't be able to sleep.

We're Ready to Party! We're Ready!

Q: How is Garfield's party hat staying on his head? I SEE NO ELASTIC STRAP.

Only in comics can you pull this kind of timing. Obviously missing is the moment when Jon and Odie pull out the massive 3-foot candle, crush the cake, and light the wick. During this missing time, Garfield has plenty of opportunity to see the gag and react. Thanks to the variable time-flow of pictographical storytelling, we don't have to witness these joke-killing seconds. But what fun to imagine them! Does Garfield see what Jon is about to do and try to stop him from ruining the cake?

Oh, the pleasure Jon and Odie take in this prank. Over the Hill parties are rife with gentle gallows humor... but the birthday boy ends up with real gifts and gets a slice of cake. Garfield's friends choose instead to insult him, and destroy the cake they made their grit-toothed grins the only prize, at the cost of having any communal, celebratory fun. Ha ha, jerks, you're 28 years older too. Well. Not Odie.

On this occasion of 28 years of Garfield, it is easy to look back and see how much the strip has changed. More satisfying for me is to see how much it has not changed at all. The eyes may be bigger, the jowls may be smaller, but Jon hasn't changed his shirt. As Garfield noted on his 15th birthday, the punchline today is the same as it was on June 19, 1978: Jon sits alone as Garfield is distressed and wants to be fed.

Happy birthday, Garfield. I'm pretty tough on you here at Permanent Monday, but I wouldn't do it if I didn't love you. I'll stick a candle in a lasanga for you, old buddy.

Rodentia Lapdancia

Surprising facts culled from today's Garfield:

1. Mice think cats get turned on by sexy mice.

2. Cats don't like to have mice in their mouths. Should a cat have a mouse in its mouth, the cat will spit it out.

3. Girl mice - even though no other animals in Garfield wear clothes - wear heels and little black bras.

4. Sometimes Garfield just stands around staring into space.

5. Though the job normally requires multiple burly full-grown men, Garfield is able to control the tremendous pressure of a firehose so precisely as to put out the tiny flames of birthday cake candles without damaging the cake, and the resultant moisture only causes two tiny drips on the elaborate decoration.

6. This gag is repeated from the June 19, 2002 birthday strip, except this time Garfield put the lady mouse in his mouth instead of just being grossed out. I guess the comics page got more permissive in the last four years. What's next? A panel about Marmaduke's balls being cut off?

Sandman: Dream of 1 Cats

The death-sand timer: the only Birthday Nightmare that wears a party hat.

This confirms one thing about the Garfield universe we've always suspected: not only is your empty life short, but it's all a joke on you, and one the Reaper finds very, very funny. The universe is laughing at you, Jon and Garfield.

Also cool about Birthday Nightmare week is the visual stimuli of the Nightmares themselves. I like the long floppy feet on them, though they should go all the way and have Don Martin hinged joints on the end.

I do hope this is not supposed to be a foreshadowing of the amount of Garfield we have left.

... Oh, what am I talking about? The Garfield machine can run indefinitely even after Jim Davis dies. Whether this is a comforting thought or not, I have no idea.

Nightmare at 2 Feet

The Birthday Nightmares: they don't do anything, they just announce their identities. Nonetheless, it freaks Garfield the hell out! Missing from panel three is the thought bubble "WAAA!"

Speaking of panel three, Garfield's pop-eyed terror is aimed at us, even though he's dreaming. Even in his nightmare, Garfield breaks the fourth wall to give us a conspiratorial glance: "Can you guys believe my dream!?" Would that we could all be so self-aware.

Perhaps Garfy is most upset about a world in which medical practitioners issue gift certificates for major joint-replacement surgery, more than the suggestion that he needs one. It's a mild dystopia, but unsettling... I guess I could say that about Garfield every day, though.

In other news, Ain't It Cool News hates the new Garfield movie. How anyone could dislike a movie called Tale of Two Kitties is beyond me, but then a lot of things are beyond me when it comes to Garfield.

Tiddy Tiddy Bang-Bang

Top nominees for funniest thing in 06/15/06's strip:
-Garfield's first reaction to a "nightmare" is not fear but... sneering disgust and "Great. Another nightmare"!
-What's in those suitcases? Not Garfield's memories: the Brain Guy is his memory. So that means it's just the Memory Brain's personal stuff.
-Garfield's nightmares: not scary, but they do tell him jokes.
-Please please please this year actually let Garfield start becoming senile. Actually, since Garfield was born the same year as me, I want his mental degeneration to mirror my own. Please please hold off for another 40 years on Garfield's senility.
-Garfield's brain is huge and gross!

Nightmares and Dream-cakes

All those who wanted me to count all the candles and make positive that there were twenty-eight may rest easy. I did, and there are.

Comedy/Tragedy: The only celebration in Garfield that warrants this kind of week-long buildup are major holidays... and sometimes not even those. But every year we have lots of time to get ready for the gala celebration of Garfield's "birthday", which is the symbolic representation of the strip's debut on June 19, 1978. On major anniversaries, sometimes the prelude-to-a-cake strips will go on for weeks before the blowout... all a gala celebration for an event that Garfield hates because it reminds him of aging and thus death. The most celebratory time in the strip is potentially when the title character is at his most miserable. Which only serves to remind us why Garfield's birthday is worth celebrating!

Comedy/Weird: Okay... so... Garfield-the-character's birthday is supposed to coincide with Garfield-the-strip's birthday. That would be fine, but the logic is extended to mean that Garfield's age is the same as the comic strip. Which means in the very first strip, Garfield had been born earlier that day. He should have been a tiny kitten, slick with afterbirth. Ponder it!

Personal aside: One thing that's cool to me about Garfield (among many, many things), is that because the strip was created in the same year as my birth, I can always remember how old Garfield is turning. More often though I use Garfield to remember how old I will be later in the year.

Cat Bone Connected to the Lasagna Bone

For the non Garfield die-hard, this strip is a wind-up for our favorite orange devil's birthday on-or-about June 19. Around this time we will be treated to many references to how very old Garfield is becoming. The implication in this strip that perhaps Garfield's body is deteriorating with age and the turnaround joke that Garfield was always in poor shape forgets key Garfield history: he was a lot fatter and more disgusting in 1978.

The funnier part of the strip though, is Jon's behavior. It's about when someone tries to make a wise-ass remark, then realizes that it didn't work, and maybe the truth is even worse/funnier. The mode of delivery is funnier than the message, and check out Jon's acting in panel two. That serene/sick expression as Jon accepts that the joke he made about his friend becoming crippled with age is true, that's what Garfield birthdays are all about!

All the Lonely Jons/ Where Do They All Come From?

Damn it, Jim Davis knows what I like! Unlike a lot of other badly-drawn comic strips on the newspaper page, Garfield uses the minimalistic requirements of the format to underline its themes. Like for example Jon is depressed, alone, and bored, so to make the room as depressing, lonesome and boring as possible, it is represented by one horizontal line. Meanwhile Fox Trot only looks all crappy like that because it has to.

Garfield, meanwhile, is such a bastard that his packed schedule of lying on his back for hours and eating is more important to him than giving his only friend a moment of comfort.

Q: Which character's plight is a metaphor for your own?
A: Both.

Merry Christmas, Olives

Title panel: Garfield, in his beachside reverie/fantasy has acquired a lounging chair built to cat proportions. The amazing thing about this is that even if Sharper Image or someone did make a cat-sized beach chair, it would not likely be built for bipedal cats with humanoid joint configurations.

The Fence: It's been awhile since we've had a Fence Performance strip. I'm sure a lot of the readership wants to hear snotty remarks about "hey, who is Garfield performing for, anyway?" I've come to terms with this convention long, long ago, and the answer, simple and perfect, is that Garfield is performing for you.

I am, however, a little curious as to where the fence is geographically located.

The Performance: Those Looney Tunes where drunk cats stand on fences and sing are referencing the true-life fact that at night you can hear cats yowling from alleys. Garfield intends only to do a soft-shoe, I guess, so I'm not sure why it's so disruptive that people throw food at him.

Misc.:
-First and only comic strip utterance of "Uh-oh... Grapes!"? Perhaps, but I think it was also a line of dialogue in From Hell.

-Before reading the thought balloons, I thought Garfy was being pelted with olives and a tiny Christmas tree.

-Jim Davis' signature on the curve of the moon is, as our hero would say, a "nice touch."

Keep on Truckin'

Q: Is the appositive in the sentence "A blind date, at the monster truck rally, what was I thinking?" the best way to phrase this?

Q: Is Jon's pre-grooming morning appearance just to enhance the second-level of the joke about Garfield being put off his feed?

Q: Why did Jon see his date's bare back?

Q: What does the monster truck rally really have to do with this? I guess it's suggesting the woman is trashy as all monster truck fans are, but is female baldness a white trash stereotype?

Q: Is Jon's cup melting in panel three?

Q: Garfield, though possessing opposable thumbs, usually walking on two legs, drinking from coffee mugs, and comprehending English, still eats out of a pet bowl... with his hands. Does he resent this, or is it a personal choice?

Q: Why does PAWS, Inc. not sell cat dishes that say "GARFIELD"?

Q: Two strips about trucks this week?

MaxiJon Overdrive

A woman tried to murder Jon. I don't think there's many other strips besides your weirdo alternative web comics that hinge gags on the attempted homicide of the main character. Then again, I don't read Marmaduke every day, so I could be wrong.

In this case, though we don't witness the scene, the situation probably wouldn't even be funny if we did. It would just be horrifying. Instead we are treated to this funny retelling, in which Jon looks depressed because his quest for love has failed, but also exhausted from running away from someone trying to run him down in a truck.

Garfield: not concerned for his owner's life, the cat just sees an opportunity to make fun of Jon's romantic track record.

The Arbuckle of the Beholder

Jon's worried that his date will be ugly. That Jon has to keep monotonously repeating these platitudes tells me he doesn't believe them. It's funny, but that we "get" the joke means that deep down, none of us believe them either.

The Garfield canon seems to waver on how attractive Jon is supposed to be. I like a happy medium scenario, in which Jon is a regular-looking guy, but his bad taste, dullness, desperation and poor self-image make him unattractive. I like that idea because it makes him a better foil for Garfield, who is physically disgusting, has no interest in women, and is rude to all comers... but is the more charismatic and beloved of the duo.

Which brings up an important question: why is there not more Jon Arbuckle merchandise available?

Incidentally, in terms of collector's market, you can judge a book by it's cover and dust jacket, but you also have to open it and check the bind and page conditions.

How Can Jon Hang ANYTHING Off His Tiny Nose?

Jon Arbuckle: painfully self-aware of his own problems, totally oblivious to his goony behavior and its impact on others.

Garfield: not at all an expert on how to get along with people, and demonstrating no interest in the opposite sex whatsoever, but still willing to mock others for their social failures.

Why, it's a friendship dynamic made for the comics page!

Jon tells us about the wacky, gross shit he pulled at the restaurant, but we aren't privy to witnessing the scene. Lately Garfield has tended to go for the verbal description of a crazy sight-gag, whereas in the '80s Davis would more frequently show us Garfield with a banana in his mouth, tomatoes in his eyes and two celery stalks poking out his ears, pretending to be a Martian. I chalk this evolution to the gradual winnowing of Garfield to its elemental core: a guy and a cat at a table.

NYPD Orange

A. If I were Jon's date, I would have him arrested for lapels that stick up over his shoulders.

B. Garfield, I guess, is making fun of Jon for knowing he's dull. But really, it's Jon's self-awareness that makes his plight that much more horrible... and funny.

C. Once again, though Jon's date is trying to indicate something is wrong with his personality, all she ends up doing is demonstrating her possible insanity. You're not supposed to think about it, to make the joke work, but in the reality of the strip, the woman actually did call the police and tell them her date was boring. That means she is a crazy person.

Down in the West Texas Town of El Gato...

YAY! Jon understands why I love Garfield: that single straight line set and empty void backdrop create a Beckettesque abstract existential landscape for this lack-of-passion play. The "barren land" Jon wanders is a regular suburban house made unfamiliar and strange by being so very boring and slightly off. Please see Dr. Freud's The Uncanny... and Jim Davis' Garfield at Large!

Panel three reminds us (read: me) why we (read: me and Garfield) like Jon. He may be the pathetic moron in all of us, but he lives alone because he can entertain himself. No complaints from me if Garfield turns into a strip about Jon as a wandering country-western balladeer.

Get That G Off Your Foot!

Is the bigger news that Garfield got a ball up his rump... or that the pink carpet from last week is back? I don't know if other comic strips think an acceptable Sunday visual gag is a ball going up a cat's butt, but my guess is not.

In his book In Dog Years I'd Be Dead, Jim Davis explains that he tries to make the Sunday strips more visual and broad in their humor than the more dialogue-oriented daily strips. I guess stuff going into Garfield's butt is pretty universal, but also universal is the question "why can't Garfield feel the ball with his feet?"

The answer: if the joke world operated exactly like the real world, nothing would ever be funny.

And cats and dogs wouldn't be walking around on their hind legs.

Laugh It Up, Fuzzball

Since the Ugly Date Outfit is a regular staple of the strip, we may assume Garfield is not laughing at Jon's clothes.

Garfield is laughing because of the serenity on Jon's face as he sits at the table contemplating whatever doomed social outing has spurred him to dress up; Garfield knows nothing about the situation save that if Jon is going out, this Saturday night will end badly. He is, in a way, preempting the punchline of the date-gone-awry strip. Why bother telling the joke, anymore?, asks today's strip: just show Jon ready for a date, and have Garfield laugh at him.

Or maybe Garfield is laughing because if he opens his mouth wide enough while standing on the table, he looks an inch taller than Jon.

And maybe Jon looks shocked in panel two because of how small Garfield's torso has been drawn.

Now Jon Got Worry

Jon needs to worry more because Garfield's going to... what? Kill him? That's a pretty good joke.

I'm not sure why Jon is addressing the fourth wall in the first place. It looks like if creepy-Garfield hadn't interrupted, Jon was about to hold forth on the many things he worries about. ... Which is another strip I would like to see.

Good: that the simple posture reversal between panels one and three creates rare visual balance in a Garfield and eliminates the need to have Jon say "on one hand..."

Bad: that we didn't get a whole week of Garfield trying to murder and/or eat Jon.

The Place Where Fun Never Ends

-Panel two contains a fine candidate for Most Miserable-Looking Jon of All-Time.

-God bless you, Garfield. You are the only comic strip since Peanuts that would start a gag strip with that opening line.

-This is, of course, an opportunity for Garfield to let Jon know that while he ribs his owner on a daily basis, Garfield doesn't hate Jon... Right, Garfield? Maybe after yesterday's outburst of emotion, G-Field's backing off a little. Or could-be he hates Jon. What do I know?

-I do know that since Jon can't hear Garfield's thoughts, all he's experiencing is his cat sympathetically patting him. It's like role-reversal.