Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for August 10, 2012

fetch, maybe

F-E-T-C-H Not a word that would be familiar to very many cat “owners”.

Have you ever noticed that in Europe, August is the month everyone takes vacation?

Luddy knows, he’s just not telling….

How about, “Honey!”

arlo needs a dog!

I know a cat who brings his owner a toy and wants to play fetch.

My first cat, Bu, taught me to play ‘fetch’ with a cork. She would play for hours.

Cats will play fetch, given the right circumstances. We had a cat that fetched – a robin, a sparrow, a red headed woodpecker, and a blue jay. We didn’t ask, he just did.

I have trained my cat so she will wake me up any hour during the night if she is hungry. So much for you can’t teach a cat anything.

Our cat Bruce taught himself to play fetch. Hair tie, bottle cap, wine cork, etc. Likes to play in the middle of the night.

Mine does not sit on my keyboard. She will carefully step over it and then sit on my mouse.

My cat plays fetch all the time with the plastic strips I remove from milk bottles. She’ll spend hours with me flicking the strips to her and her returning them to me.

My daughter has taught her cat to ambush her and jump on her back when she enters her apartment.

I know that Jimmy Johnson means Fetch, but if one thinks of it in Internet terms, you could think Find, or Search.

One doesn’t “teach” cats to do anything; what they do comes out of their ancestry as hunters. Cats, once they catch, play with and finally kill their prey, will often offer the carcass, be it mouse, rat, or bird, to their owner. (Not that they ever consider themselves owned by us.) If they have kittens, they’ll do the same to them, thereby teaching them to hunt. Absent actual prey, they’ll play with anything inanimate that responds, like a ball or plastic strips from milk bottle caps. I’ve had many cats, like and respect them, but all this stuff that they interact with us on a personal level is pure self-serving folderol.

One of our 3 cats plays fetch; she’ll return whatever toy I throw over and over and… another will fetch maybe twice, then look at me for me to come ‘fetch’.

Unless I missed someone mentioning it the 5 letter word for command to fetch is “meow”

My last cat played fetch with a little ball. I’d throw it, he’d go tearing after it and bring it back to me. He’d also come when I whistled and he’d go on his hind legs to beg. Great cat!Anyone who is hateful towards cats (or any animal) is just a rude, nasty person who deserves the same treatment that they give towards cats.

Most of the cats I’ve been around will play fetch, but only with “toys,” not as part of helping around the homestead…:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PycSQnwdyw&feature=plcp

We’ve taught three different cats to fetch. The current one, Lily, has been doing it for eight years. She gets cat treats for fetching. She’ll brings us her “toy” when she wants to play. Very entertaining for us “old coots.”

It is difinetely fetch.

Ken Ross: Good one! I just wonder how many readers recognize that a fetch is a type of familiar in mythology.

OK, so it’s F-E-T-C-H, and cats don’t fetch but how is this funny? The cat isn’t doing the crossword which might make it funny if he didn’t get it.

Arlo is apparently writing something down in the last panel so even if the joke was about being a cat owner this contradicts it.

8o/

I love Luddie’s expression! What do you suppose he’s thinking? Something like, “You’re a riot, Arlo!” or “Fetch this!” He knows when Arlo’s messing with him.

My cat Yuki taught herself how to play fetch with a gum eraser and also marbles.

Actually cats understand the concept of fetch. That’s what they expect their owners to do.

Cat owners don’t ever use the word fetch as if a cat would ever follow a command anyway.

If he had a dog, he’d know the word.