Big Cat, Little Cat: Birthday Suit
Cinematography: Erika Grumet
Executive Producer: Rocket
Big Cat: Frob
Little Cat: Widget
Description below.
The Birthday Suit and the Paradox of the Cat
I think I like cats because they combine some of the best traits–affection, playfulness, musicality–with some of the worst traits–distrust, schadenfreude, lack of accountability–of people. A cat will break something and just walk away. A cat will play with its food… while it’s still alive. And a cat will ignore a perfectly executed greeting. And yet. If you’ve made a cat your friend, it seems to know when you need it to comfort you. The laziest house-cat seems always to be up for a game with a mouse-on-a-string or a laser-pointer. And of course a cat’s range of vocal expression, from purring to yowling, is… well… is usually a delight. Except when they’re in heat at 3:00 AM.
We have this habit of writing our animal-characters as if they were people. But I think it would be much more interesting to write a human-character as if they were a cat. Much more likely to show the human as they are, warts-and-all. Think about it. We find the need to soften the rough edges of a human character; to sand away or explain away their foibles. But with a cat, the foibles are the point. Also, a friend of mine wrote a novel in which the main characters are cats. It’s really good.
Description
Four identical panels, two-and-two. In each panel, two cats are lounging on a blue cushion. On the left, a large orange with darker orange stripes looks down at his friend, smiling indulgently. On the right, a small grey with darker grey stripes looks out of the frame, looking like someone stole the sardines out of his sandwich.
Panel 1
Little Cat: Did you ever think: Every cat is always wearing their birthday suit.
Panel 2
Big Cat: Huh! I guess we are!
Panel 3
Big Cat: Maybe it’s because we’re as innocent as newborns, not shackled to the gross materialism of humans.
Little Cat: No it’s because it’s always our birthday.
Panel 4
Big Cat: Um…
Little Cat: Meaning Human-Mom owes me a shit-ton of presents. Payment due, deadbeat.
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Celebrate Caturday with Big Cat and Little Cat’s “Caturday Questions”
