Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for June 16, 2020

Threshed. Okay, we can go with that.

Cardboard is also extremely awkward in its bulk form, and juuuuuuuust too wide for me to comfortably get my arms around. I’m really looking forward to getting all those flat-pack boxes from the mailroom today. (/sarcasm)

These boxes all appear to be far too large for a cat to want to squeeze into them. (I hear Tommy asking Elvis, “Is the box not small enough?”)

So educational!

A lesson in natural history for the kitties!

What’s best is it all fits! So they sits.

Thank you Georgia. I love it.

Beatrice is just too adorable.

I love it! Released into the wild! Cardboard be freeeeeee! :D

Finally. Now I know how cardboard is born. And, when I receive packages, they’re coming in from the wild. Wow!

Exactly. They come from the wild, as nature intended. Nothing to do with the mythical Mailman.

A friend sent a box of books to me last year. It was immediately occupied and so it still sits by the door, now with his name on it. He makes sure that the other, but older and head of the household does not get it!

But Beatrix is there a different between wild grown and farm grown cardboard?

It’s a feline nature documentary with our own Cutest Kitten Beatrix as the host!

The cardboard doesn’t appear to be afraid of Beatrix. Is it naturally tame or just in hibernation?

I’m sinking my money into cardboard futures.

I can hear Sir David Attenborough’s voice- And the cardboard box nervously turns and gives it’s human care taker one more last look and takes off into the wild, in search of a door step to call it’s own…

This reminds me of the mini-documentaries on science and industry they would show us in class when I was a kid

Does Goldie have any information about cardboard boxes once they’ve been released back into the wild?

“Once upon a time there were three little foxes

Who didn’t wear stockings, and they didn’t wear sockses,

But they all had handkerchiefs to blow their noses,

And they kept their handkerchiefs in cardboard boxes."

(A. A. Milne)

So, where’s Goldie? Could it be she’s reading the Sherlock Holmes’ story “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” by Arthur Conan Doyle?

(Free download at gutenberg.org)

I absolutely love this!!!

I’m glad to see Beatrix as a more frequent character; she will always be one of my favorites.

Puck still needs to be handled With Care.

The bookstore needs to get the book “Growing Cardboard in Small Spaces”

So THAT’s how cardboard boxes are made! Thank you, Beatrix!!

Empty box allocation in our house hold went from cats…to kids for a time…and back to cats. There are several being used in the house right now by Holly Berry and Belle, the two youngest family members.

Since we are coming up on July, I think it is time that we renegotiate my contract with Breaking Cat News for my posts. We will keep the basic contract in place, however, there will need to be a few more riders attached to the new contract. To wit:

*Only Red and Brown M&M’s in my candy bowl.

*A case of grapefruit each week.

*Two (2) Albino Typists at my disposal.

*A trampoline.

*Only left-handed servants.

*My specialty Vietnamese weasel coffee must be stirred counterclockwise.

*Only Giblet and I only can be in the escape pod should the Empire attack.

*Robin Harwood must say Mass for my cats every day.

*No Disco music may be played in my presence.

Are these organically grown cardboard boxes? Or fair trade?

How very clever, beloved artist and author Georgia!

One large box has been empty and open on its side in the entry for a couple of weeks because the cats are still enjoying it. Although it’s too big for the “I fits-I sits” game, they like the enclosure with a view that comes with it being on its side. They take turns sitting in it and looking out at the world from their cave. Zeus is creative and does more than sit and look like the others; he is still trying to subdue it and whacks at it from within. I think he’s winning.

These days I wish I was a cat, such a wonderful existence

Sounds like one of those planet earth documentaries!

On 26 December the Big Box descends and drops off take-out containers for all the good little cats!

Yesterday

All the cardboard seemed so far away

Now it looks as though it’s here to stay

Oh, I believe in better days

Suddenly

There are boxes where they never used to be

There are box flaps hanging over me

Oh, better days came suddenly

How the boxes grow, I don’t know

Bea’ll have her say

And with this side up

How I love these better days

Better days

Hunkering’s such an easy game to play

Now I have a place to hide away

Oh, I believe in better days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMajkpYw2sI

Songwriters: Paul Mccartney / John Lennon

What a delightful lesson on the life of cardboard!

I am learning so much!

They can also be miraculously returned to their flat upright state where they can be kept in a garage for ten years.

Learn something new every day! <3

Are they moving again?

Someone please answer the bigger question: is the cardboard delivery person a mailman in the broader sense? How are the boxes harvested when they appear? Do delivery people exist? Why are many of their trucks smiling?

Today is World Tapas Day. I’m too much of a gourmand to really get into tapas in the way I’ve had them. Now, a little research has told me that tapas are supposed to be served at a bar, and small amounts of food served on a small plate resting on top of the drink. Much better idea! Because one is eating food, the alcohol will be easier on the stomach, and you can drink more before you are completely sozzeled, and ones appreciation of the food is enhanced, so that one leaves the bar both pleasantly full, glowing, and at peace with the world. Simply making a meal of various small dishes is too much like gourmet eating, where one is supposed to be satisfied by a mere taste of food, lost in a vast, featureless expanse of inedible white porcelain. Adding a stiff drink to an amount of exorbitantly expensive food too tiny for scientific analysis is a brilliant idea the gourmet chef’s of the world should adopt. It has the additional benefit that if the chef is off his or her game, the gourmet diner (or secret agent food critic) will never notice.

A toast to this excellent Spanish idea!

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

Maat-Tilda: There, we’re all finished with Emma-Peelia’s wedding veil. Now to send it to her for her wedding scroll.

Sophititi: Are Kara and Vann available?

Maat-Tilda: No, they’re with their family celebrating Hump Day.

Sophititi: I thought every day was Hump Day with them.

Maat-Tilda: True, but they don’t get to celebrate with their family a whole lot.

Tabith-Isis: Wait, I have a friend who can deliver papyri and packages all over. You remember Kat-Mandu.

Sometime later

Tabith-Isis: Kat-Mandu, I’d like you to meet my friends, Sophititi, Royal Priestess and Artist, and Maat-Tilda, Royal Seamstress.

Kat-Mandu: I understand you have a package you want me to take to Afar.

Tabith-Isis: Yes, can you get it there by Friday?

Kat-Mandu: No prob. Haven’t I met you other ladies before?

Sophititi: I think I’ve seen you when I picked up my orders from the papyrus box. Have you met anyone from the Royal Court?

Kat-Mandu: I have met Puckmosis. The others always seem to be preoccupied when I come around.

Not saying he is, but not saying he isn’t, either.

Yes, they are released to the wild with their first meal. Thereafter, they must forage for more, until they return, successful in their hunt.

So how does one grow cardboard?

We just moved. I would have sworn I never want to come within thinking distance of a cardboard box again. But, thank you Georgia, you have given me a new perspective as I dig out out from under. I will think (gleefully and maliciously) of “setting those [wretched] boxes free” as I knock ’em down.

Well, this explains a lot. Thanks for the info, Beatrix.

How very enlightening today’s strip is. I will never look at a cardboard box the same way again. :-)

This is so cute! Georgia , you can make anything enjoyable! (heart emoji)

Thanks, Bea, you’ve explained it beautifully. If things keep going like this you are going to be promoted to cat.

Strong? To a non-fat cat, maybe. But to me or to a fat cat (DC certainly comes to mind), no strength until after the box has been taped properly.

I am glad I now know how cardboard grows and is processed into a useful product.

OMC, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this arc! Logical and touching at the same time.

Hmm. The box in the last panel seems to be the three flap cardboardboxianus asiaticus, rather than the far more common four flap subspecies. (Some put it in a separate species, depending on whether they are lumpers or splitters.) The four flap is sturdy, but does need human intervention in the form of tape, weaving, or industrial strength staples (which involves a post and a foot pedal, don’t ask.) Sadly, as been pointed out above, cardboardboxianus northamericanus appears to be endangered, if not extinct. (And please pardon my terrible fake latin.)