Mutts (10/23/09)

Most days, Mutts seems like a very lonely voice on the comics page. Its gentle, whimsical characters are surrounded by crude, loutish contemporaries. Its appeals to support animal shelters are drowned out by jaded, sarcastic punchlines. Its appreciation of nature’s simple pleasures are overshadowed by surreal, hyperactive dreamscapes. And it’s touching, old-fashioned sensibility is shown up by dated icons from another era. But with other strips focusing on the merits of volunteering this week, it seems as if Mutts has finally come out on top.

Mutts (9/10/09)

My thirteen-year-old cat is used to being fed twice a day and has developed some creative ways of letting me know when I’ve been derelict in filling the food dish. His repertoire includes gnawing on the plastic garbage bag in my room at 3:00am, lapping up the water in the glass on my nightstand, caterwauling at birds, hissing at alley cats and scratching everything in my apartment other than his scratching post.. It seems to me that the phrase “heads will roll” is entirely appropriate coming from a hungry feline.

Mutts (6/26/09)

Summer arrived in Chicago this week, with temperatures hovering between the mid-80s and mid-90s. That would have been fine had my office building been properly air conditioned. Unfortunately, our system had been on the fritz for months and our building engineers had yet to resuscitate it. They kicked their relief efforts into overdrive this week and managed to fix the air conditioning by Thursday, but the previous three days were made bearable only through a combination of iced tea, long lunches in cool, nearby cafeterias and large fans blowing constantly on me and my co-workers.

Mutts (4/26/09)

I spent the latter part of this morning moving my dad from a third story walk-up to a ground level studio apartment. It was just the two of us and, as luck would have it, the skies opened up and poured down rain for the majority of the move. To make matters worse, we used a rented pickup truck and were unable to protect his mattress from the elements. The entire move took less than three hours, after which the sun came out and shone gloriously for the rest of the afternoon, just like in this comic strip.

Mutts (4/20/09)

Chicago is in the midst of four straight days of April showers so I can only hope that all of this sogginess will result in an abundance of flowers over the coming months. I’m worried that the rain will drown out any buds that might dare peek their heads out during these still chilly days of spring, but the forecast calls for seventies and sunshine toward the end of the week so their heartiness may yet be rewarded. We’ve had warm days here and there, but it never feels like spring to me until the trees start to regrow their thick coat of leaves. Hopefully that day will come sooner rather than later, since I’m tired of trucking to Home Depot every time I have the urge to see plant-life.

Mutts (2/8/09)

There’s something to be said for winter, with it’s sparse beauty bringing clarity to the lives of us northerners. But it’s also easier to appreciate winter when spring is just around the corner. Chicagoans were treated to temperatures in the fifties this weekend, and while this year’s snowfalls have been majestic, it was even more inspiring to see that snow disappear from sight, virtually overnight. Here’s hoping the groundhog was wrong and temperatures stay above freezing for the remainder of the season.

Mutts (2/5/09)

Every morning at 6:55, my cat starts chewing on the garbage bag in my bedroom, apparently just for kicks. I usually get up and feed him, although he seems to have no interest in kibble and goes straight to pawing at my dresser or chewing on an electrical cord. Some days he’ll walk over to the living room rug, plop down on his side and wait to be fawned over. His behavior can be irritating, but at least I don’t live in a house with stairs. If I did, I’m sure the pitter-patter of little feet would drive me up the wall.