Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for March 15, 2020

What’s Agnes stealing in the last panel?

Can anyone tell what’s going on with Agnes in the last panel?

I relate. Glasses and all.

…Agnes! Get your paws out of Tommy’s Woman’s pocket – she’s here to help! (Unless you’re dragging your sister out of there by her tail, in which case go for it.)

I think Agnes found the opossum’s lost glasses and is putting them in Tommy’s Woman’s pocket for safekeeping? :)

It always confused me: it’s spelled ‘opossum’, but I never heard anyone pronounce the ‘o’. To this day, I still say ’possum!

I couldn’t read the chart at all, so I went to another location where I find it easier to enlarge the BCN page. It’s still within the Go Comics umbrella.

https://www.uexpress.com/go-comics?amu=/breaking-cat-news/2020/03/15

Important: Updates from Georgia: https://www.instagram.com/p/B9vBHGzpkXM/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Possums are awesome creatures, but I had no idea they could also quote Shakespeare! ;D

Of course he lost his glasses. Beware the eyes of March.

I used to volunteer at a zoo and worked with two opposums. The female was always angry and hissed at anyone who came close, even as she accepted treats from your hand. The male was a total sweetheart and a stage 5 clinger. Loved hugs and wouldn’t let you put him down. I miss those two weirdos.

Good morning all! I come to you early after taking a long nap this afternoon, so still awake. I can sleep in guilt-free in the morning as church is canceled.

On a similar subject, no hopspitality work for me in the coming weeks. The mall has canceled the Easter Bunny for this year. Understandable, but disappointing.

I’ve had several close encounters with ‘possums over the years, and my experience has been that they don’t just roll over and play dead when they feel threatened. They stand up on their hind legs and spit and hiss something fierce!

Puck! There may be HAMlet!

That nice BCN infographic has at least one error that could be important. Rabies is rare in opossums but does occur.

We had an opossum who figured out our TNR traps were baited with canned cat food, and that he’d be let loose within an hour. He had a lot of good breakfasts!

Goldie brings a wealth of knowledge of the outside world to the rest of the BCN staff! They are so fortunate to have her (Lupin, one day you will realize how much of an asset she is to have around)!

Watch out, Jules! lol

Also, Baby Possums Eat Watermelon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bidKbF8JSs

My brother once picked up a possum that was eating cat food on his porch Thinking it was his cat! Possibly had smoked something that evening—it WAS back in the early 70s. He swooped it up to cradle it like a baby as he did with his cat. At that point both he and the possum were freaked out to discover what had happend and both let out a little yelp. My brother dropped the possum and it hightailed it out of there.

I have plenty of opossums in my neighborhood— or, as we call them here, tacuaches. But from now on, I’m calling them dogcodiles.

I love that Goldie is so much taller than Puck. We’ve seen in Georgia’s photographs that she’s so kind to share with us that Puck is a little guy, and Goldie a big girl, and it’s a lovely little bit of this comic being drawn from life that we’re seeing it here! There’s such a cultural assumption (at least where I’m from) that women are smaller than men, and invented-from-scratch characters could have so easily gone that way without any readers remarking on it.

SUNDAY FUNDAY TIME

Agnes is a caring sort. She just doesn’t like to be seen caring. And Goldie tells true as Elvis reveals another ‘myth’. The garage.

My two kittehs encountered a possum on my back verandah a few years back. They had a Sylvester moment (“That’s the biggest mouse I’ve ever seen!”) and declined to go out into the yard until Brer Possum decided to decamp…

Well, at least Mr. Opossum was not mistaken for another cat. That has happened before, and I’m sure it would be very awkward.

Stop pretending, oh possum. We know you ain’t dead.

I find it surprising that no one has commented on the chyrons, or Puck’s reaction to Goldie’s statement or the fact that Agnes is reporting for Cat News, not Mouse News.

Thank you for this. I am constantly advocating for opossums and the good they do. They are so misunderstood, but such an important part of our ecology.

I love Beatrix’s informational graphics skills!

Have we ever been in the garage before? Did we even know it existed? And what else is down there?

Love opposums!!! Always happy to see one in our backyard at night.

“Oh, it’s an opossum.” “Gesundheit!” I LOVE it! I know it’s an old joke, but it made me laugh.

I love the robber mice in the last panel!!

I knew Georgia was a Shakespeare fan, I just knew it!

What is Agnes doing by the Woman’s coat pocket, I can’t make it out?

I love the crawl at the bottom of the broadcast and Pucky saying Gesundheit!

Oh, I know very well what it’s like to lose ones glasses. That sense of panic as you wonder if your next move will find them under foot or elbow, wishing you still had that backup pair. One morning a few weeks ago I felt that panic as I realized mine were not in the case I usually put them at night and thus began a slow creeping search dreading to hear the fateful crunch that would mark their demise. Then an inspiration hit me as I remembered that I did have one other option and thus carefully made my way to the closet and donned my prescription snorkeling goggles. About ten seconds later I was wearing my wayward glasses again.

Alert the BCN Science team to investigate this hitherto unknown species!

Pickpocket!

Are those his glasses in the mid left section of panel 4? Looks the same as glasses being placed in vet’s pocket.

I have an opossum in and around the barn, gets along well with all the cats, been around for years and has had several babies!

Oh Elvis, are you about theorize that because you’ve never seen a garage, it doesn’t exist? (Like the mailman)

Hello! New account here, but I’ve been reading both Swan Eaters and BCN for a long time without an account and eagerly followed discussions. Nice to meet everyone c:

With all that is going on with the Coronavirus, this cartoon saves the day and makes me smile.

There’s a possum that comes to dine on whatever leftover catfood is out when the feral kitties don’t eat it all. I’ve been trying to get photos but no luck so far. It’s beautiful. There’s also a great Twitter account called “Possum Every Hour” @PossumEveryHour that’s totally one of the best accounts I follow!

Oh yeah – I can completely relate to opossums; I bump into inanimate objects all the time (but I try not to apologize to them).

I wish Walt Kelly’s heirs would allow Pogo to come to Go Comics. I’d love to be able to read all the strips again. Somehow, I feel they would still be pertinent today.

We’re off to MIL and FIL’s for an afternoon and evening of euchre, food, wine, and general jollification. I’ve made up a big batch of Paul’s milkshake for him as he still can’t swallow solid food.

O.T. Serious message from Georgia on Facebook “Governor Inslee closed schools here for six weeks. Starting Monday I‘ll be homeschooling our kiddos for a bit, with support from our terrific school system and their online/printed materials. One of the Man’s co-workers tested positive for the virus, his office sent everyone all home to work remotely. We’re all feeling healthy, but we’re self-quarantining for the recommended 14 days. I don’t believe we can be too careful right now. We‘re young and healthy, we have no underlying health issues. HOWEVER, if we accidentally carried this to someone high risk in our community and got them sick? Oh, heck no. That would be such a heartbreak. It‘s not worth it. We’re fortunate enough that we can work and learn remotely, and so here we are for now. We’ve prepared like New Englanders anticipating a storm and I feel confident we’ll be ok through the 14 days. We have food, extra cold meds, household essentials. And we keep a winter/storm/emergency pantry on hand that’s already been a big help during all of this. We’re all doing our best; as a state, as a nation, as a world. This reminder of how powerful nature can be is rattling and humbling, it’s ok to feel a little shaken right now. We’re all in this together. I’m in the mindset of “do not panic and do not downplay.” Those are just two ways to look away from what‘s happening. Take all the necessary precautions. Listen to the CDC and your local health officials, even if it is inconvenient. Reach out to folks you think might need support. Do what you can. Take good care of yourself and do your best to protect yourself and those around you.”

And they know Shakespeare too!

While I love Georgia’s standing up for possums, they aren’t entirely immune to rabies: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-13-me-49343-story.html

I wonder if he’s a veteran of the Racoon War.

One of my cats got out and attacked an opossum. The possum was decapitated but the boy dealt with abscesses for a couple of months in spite of good care.

When I read the description in the first panel my first thought was “What is Ammit doing outside of Egyptian mythology?” Yeah, I’m weird

Aww cute. Another one of those misunderstood creatures that for some reason freaks out a lot of folks but does a lot of good. Just got back from a roadtrip to Utah and Arizona.

Let’s see. We have a mouse reporter, a group of mouse leprechauns, four reporter cats, and a dogodile. What’s weird about that?

Remember the foot of snow I was chortling about yesterday? It’s here, on my car and my driveway! Honda Snowblowers Rock! No, I wish they would pay me, but mine has been so efficient and so reliable for thirty years, I pat it and tell it I love it when I’m finished.

Just so you know: I’m sick as a dog, but it’s chemo not covid.

Those “weird sweethearts” can tear you up too! Please don’t encourage people to handle wild animals.

My then 10-year-old son once tried to pet a cute raccoon. I had a terrible time convincing him to leave the animal alone … until the animal got into a fight with another raccoon over some chicken bones. They can quite vicious.

Reminds me of this commercial from a few years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGMGe3jQNjY

Today is “Everything You Know Is Wrong Day.” I am unclear if that means a day for all the things you are certain are wrong (seems an odd thing to honor); or a day when, for one day only, everything you know for certain, is wrong. This latter is definitely consistent with the universe as we know it. But everything we know is wrong, today, so our idea of the universe is wrong. Furthermore, if we know that today everything we know is wrong, then knowing this is also wrong …

I think I’ll go back to bed.

Possums have brought great luck to the LSU baseball team. Geaux Tigers!

Our neighborhood possums come to eat the fallen sunflower seeds from the bird feeder and leave fertilizer for the tree.

I was expecting a St. Catty’s Day adventure with mouse leprechans. Don’t be fooled about possums. They are viscous if cornered. Sharp teeth and nasty claws that can gut a small pet if it’s stupid enough to get too close. Never feed them.

We call the possums “funny looking cats” from the time I was trying to trap the neighborhood ferals (to get them fixed) and caught one of them instead. My sig. other says from the deck “You’ve got a very funny looking cat out here…”

OT: I’m extremely busy with a household project at the moment. I will eventually reply to all replies to my comments, at least with a “like.”

Entertainment, education, and a Shakespeare quote too. ❤️

Thank you for the chart, Beatrix.

OT: Gripes and Groans

Elvis, the garage is the mythical land where mailmen come from.

Opossums are not immune to rabies; they are resistant to it.

In a house we used to live in a mother possum lived under the shed in the back yard. Sightings were great. What is the mouse pickpocketing?

Leave it to Georgia to make (o)possums oppealing!

The O’possums might like to celebrate St. Patrick’s day on Tuesday.

Just think boys, if migration had gone the other way when the Panama land bridge was created, there would have been marsupial cats living in North America.

Found a baby possum in our garage once. Local animal rehab place surmised that he fell off his mom in the previous night’s storm, and that he was too little to survive on his own – bring it in. So husband and I corner the little guy and I grab him using an oven mitt, which the ungrateful little bast**d promptly shat upon. Scratch one oven mitt. But we got him into the cat carrier and transported to rehab.

The adults are hideous, but the baby possum was actually kind cute.

I think we should ask Georgia about what is in Tommy’s womens pocket!

And when not playing dead they hiss at you.

Startles easily, losing glasses, quoting Shakespeare…yep, that chyron does not lie

Is her pocket being picked? I would not like to have mice in my pocket! It seems so unlike any mice I have ever met.

Yes, they play dead and in a creative touch, they also exude fluids.

When my sweet Nutmeg was just a baby-cat, she took off one evening at dusk to play with a baby opossum under the neighbor’s patio. I was horrified. After an eternity, she returned (to my relief). Despite her moments of reckless youthful indiscretion, she lived to the ripe old age of nearly 19 years old.

the “sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care"

Agnes, what are you stealing??

so, if its always scared, it always plays dead?

I mostly like opossums, but keep cats away from them. My sister’s cat got in a fight with one a few months ago; it bit the cat’s tail, which got infected and the poor kitty had to have her tail amputated. Opossum teeth are long and very sharp.

my grand dad has these on there porch ever night along with some racoons scratch that a lot of racoons oh and when i was over there last a white cat had been seen around i do hope there ok for some reason my grandparents didnt want to adopt it

Hilarious strip.