Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for June 29, 2024

Set off every dang sensor and alarm in that house!!! Use the distraction to spring Sophie!

Come on, Burt! Have some faith in their abilities!

OT Busy June

Gutter, now is your time to shine. Natasha has made a list. I’m sure she’s had an idea, and we all know Burt can fashion her whatever she needs for the heist. With a little hunting and gathering from Gutter and the gang of course.

Cool grappling hook! How could a plan with a cool grappling hook possibly fail?

FINally!

Not the grappling hook!! This is a family comic strip!!

The mice have donned masks in the last panel. I guess the Robber Mice are now ready for action.

“It’s clobberin’ time!”

A Saturday cliffhanger with hope for a rescue. I have high hopes for success. How can it fail with Gutter and the Robber Mice.

i am shocked that Burt doesn’t think he can hack into the security system. I thought he was able to hack into anything.

Tommy truly gets her. They are blessed.

who do you think is going to be the ultimate hero in this arc?? i know most of us want it to be Gutter, but Georgia has a way of taking left turns when we think she should go right. i’m presuming that it won’t be anyone who has been a hero in the past. i know it’s crazy but since i like impossible odds i’m wondering if Wicket will somehow be helpful (maybe not willingly but still…maybe he could bite the wires with his new beak). i also really do hope that Sophie is instrumental in her escape and not just a damsel in distress.

Toebean alert panel 4! And Gutter has an upraised “finger”. And Natasha is tying on her mask! Squeeeeeeeee! [faints from lack of oxygen.]

You can tell Burt’s never assailed a secure compound like Gutter and the girls!

You go, Gutter! And robber mice! Alice and Natasha have experience dealing with a secure facility—they esacped!

The Sophie heist arc!

Your mission, Mr. Gutter, is to break into the prison and rescue the fair Sophie. This message will self-destruct in 30 seconds.

The list! The hook! Two robber mice with a history of breaking out! And I bet a legion of wildlife critters ready to help. What could possibly go wrong?

Never underestimate the power of a cat!

It should be Wesley who saves Sophie!“As you wish”

If they succeed, I hope they all do the-Hero Walk, while everything explodes, in the background!

Gutter: Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the

Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Natasha: Germans?

Violet: Forget it, he’s rolling.

Gutter: And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough…

[thinks hard]

Gutter: the tough get goin’! Who’s with me? Let’s go!

Just overrun the house with raccoons, and sneak Sophie out in the confusion!

Burt has assembled his “Mission Impossible” crew! “Your assignment: rescue Sophie from an impregnable fortress with multiple security systems. If you or any of your team are caught, the government will deny any knowledge or the existence of your organization. This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Good luck, Burt.”

I’m surprised Burt is being so negative. He’s usually right in there with ideas and helping.

Robber Mice to the rescue!

/play: Mission: Impossible theme

I can hear Gutter shout “RAMMING SPEED” as he maneuvers a trash panda Deathmobile through through the living room window.

Well, I discovered something by accident – bumped “random” and it took me to the middle of the Goldie origin story. I was clicking back on strips as there was also a story line about the raccoons (how timely) – Tommy went undercover as a report – and found Oct. 15, 2019 to be quite interesting. It appears that Sophie may have already known about Gutter! Check out her drawing/painting in the last panel!!

I love Georgia’s story arcs because every time I try to guess which way it will go, I am surprised. That is good writing.

OT:

What a roller coaster today’s strip is! Panel 1: My heart is breaking for Tommy’s anguish. How rare to see an unhappy Tommy. Panel 2: giggling at Natasha’s giant pencil and her needle coat. Panel 3: oh no, Burt’s face is unhappy now too. Panel 4: Distracted by Burt’s denim-look pants, don’t usually see bottom half of Burt…oh! The team is assembled! Go Gutter!!! Go Robber Mice!!

Not easy to sneaks into a secret alien hideout ya knows.

I went to a few cat shows, back in the late 80s/ early 90s. It was interesting to see all the beautiful purebreds, but I always left thinking “My cats would hate that. It seems like a very unnatural environment for any cat.”

The Siamese that had a go at one of the judges probably thought so as well.

I think it’s rare that any expensive security system is mouse-proof. My mouse-proofing consists of putting food in glass jars and metal cabinets. No cameras involved.

I would imagine Ora Zella is already adding “Baby’s First Grappling Hook” to her Christmas wish list!

And they’re probably going to have to literally break her out of there too, because it occurred to me that just getting one of the humans over there and try and explain “hey, that’s MY cat, not yours” is probably just going to be dismissed out of hand in a sort of “well now she’s MY cat” finders-keepers kind of logic, and given the only thing Sophie has one her that would clearly ID her and prove otherwise is the chip these guys won’t check anyway.

Ya Raccoon! You go Raccoon!!

OT: Ticks & stuff

Sis had her yard sprayed for ticks yesterday. Since the spray can also harm bees, the Terminix guy only sprayed around the bases of all her flowering plants in addition to the lawn. She also decided to move all the bird feeders away from her deck, because birds & squirrels can carry ticks. She says her yard smells like mint & citrus. We’re all hoping that takes care of the problem!

Now that the pressure is off to get ALL those wheelie bins out of here before I leave, I detoured into setting up shelving in the former Bear Cave for the craft stuff, & emptied out a half dozen more boxes. I’ll be able to empty out a few bins onto those shelves too. I need to get a few more clear plastic bins for some of the craft stuff. I’d love to shock Riley’s socks off by having all his bins out in the stairwell by the time I leave, but I’m not going to push. What gets done, gets done, & what doesn’t, doesn’t.

Progress marches on…

I don’t remember Natasha having bristles. Are those new? What are they?

Yes gutter! Save your girl! Declare your love and earn that happily ever after!

Oh Burt, remember faint heart never won fair lady

Tommy knows her so well and is so rightfully concerned. Go Gutter and Natasha (and Alice)!

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

Sophititi: So my descendant is being held captive to become a Show Cat? The audacity!

Beatrixia: Don’t worry. I’m sure her friends will be able to rescue her.

Soph: I suppose so. It makes me want to grab a space time anemone and rescue her myself!

Violet-Ifa: We definitely don’t recommend that.

Beaver Lee Cleary: Why don’t we take a break from this and look at cook scrolls for awhile.

Soph: I suppose so. It just makes me feel so indignant.

Bev: Then we should experience The Joy of Mastering the Art of Cooking Even Though I Hate to Cook by several favorite authors. It even has a preface by Erma Bombosis.

Iggy: Not a bad idea. Maybe Patrice Possum can give us some pointers.

At the Afar Kitchen

Patrice Possum: G’Day, mates. What can I do you for? And how’s my cousin Obadiah Opossum?

Iggy: Obie’s doing great. We’re visiting to learn about Sophititi’s descendant, and decided to learn more about cooking as well.

Patrice: I can help you there. I’m just working on a batch of no-bake oatmeal cookies. We can have them with tea later.

Iggy: That would go great on board ship. I can show my cousin Ziggy Starcross the next time the Red Planet Spider puts in to harbor.

Patrice: And you may be interested in the scroll: The Tortie’s Scroll of Recipes You Can Shred, Pound, Burn, and Smash.

The destroy & rescue crew is on it!

Jail Break! Jail Break! Jail Break! Jail Break! Jail Break! Jail Break! Jail Break!

call in the moles!

Love knows know security alarm. Also burt.. come on. These three are veterans and you fixed a vacuum that won a war. They can heist a lady and you can’t give up this easy.

Escape from Colditz Castle

All security is an illusion.

Leave it to the professionals, Burt. No one is as good at getting into places as the animals that humans term “vermin”.

Because of artchick530’s comment above, I was poking around in the past. On Oct. 11, 2019, Sophie is watching Gutter appraising trash for Queen Mag right before she declares her love for the raccoon’s “trash couture armor.” This is what inspires her to make the armor for Tommy, so that he can go undercover out in the Wildlands later on. Then, on Apr. 2, 2024, we see Gutter’s room, where he has Tommy’s armor hung on the wall next to a poster of Sophie as the Existential Dread. I think Sophie and Gutter are definitely aware of each other! (Georgia’s little circle of love here – 4 1/2 years apart –has made me SO happy!)

do we have to wait until the July bug comes to the rescue?

Never mess with a highly motivated raccoon. Resistance is futile.

I haven’t read all the comments that have come in since I went to bed last night, but the solution to all this electric security hardware seems pretty simple. Have a mole eat through the electric lines running to the house, cutting off all power to the house, disabling ALL the security systems that rely on electricity to work. All the rescuers come in, get Sophie, mess the place up, and leave before the security company even has time to think about notifying police or fire.

If that house has a chimney, I know how the grappling hook fits in, and all that soot will leave a nice statement on all the white hideousness.

Just a thought. Do these people have any other caged “pets”? If so, they could be great allies in the escape. I imagine that Burt and the crew would have spotted them by now though, but they might be so consumed with rescuing Sophie that they missed them?

I have yet to see a security system to match an angry raccoon.My neighbors once went on vacation and unknowingly locked a mother raccoon in their brick garage. That mama dug up concrete before she found a wooden vent in the rafters. Sophie will be out in time for tea.

The plot twist — Sophie’s current Man watches Cat News due to some perfectly reasonable and funny coincidence, and knows what the animals are up to. He’s tired of how clean the house is, so will make sure the alarm doesn’t stop them. He would just free Sophie, but he knows firsthand what happens if he (openly) meddles in the Woman’s plans.

Midnight Cat Rescue is on the case.

C’mon, Burt! Put on your hacker hat and help save the day!

Independence Day coming soon!

Cry “havoc” and let loose the bugs of July!!!!!

Oh, heck yeah! Those lunatics will pay for catnapping Sophie.

I can’t wait until the actual jailbreak. I have a filk in mind.

I have faith in Gutter and Natasha, so should Burt and Tommy.

The mice, like Old Mr. Benjamin Bunny, have no opinion whatsoever of security systems. They steal for a living and live well.

There is no technology that can lock out the fanatic zeal of love!! …or heavily armed mice

Oh, yes! Bring on the rescue!

MISSILES ARE THE ANSWER

If they have automatic, electric locks, all the CN crew has to do is hack the entry codes. It shouldn’t be too hard for a team like theirs.

Good luck

And the robber mice are back!!