Mark Kausler’s CatBlog

Mangy on the Wall

 Remember the theme song of Walt Disney’s “So Dear To My Heart”? You’re looking at a cat right now that I think of whenever I hear that song. Her name was Mangy. She lived at my wife Cathy’s little house in Sierra Madre, Ca. Cathy rescued her from starvation and a bad case of mange on her back. Mangy became a very loyal domestic cat after that and lived with Cathy for the rest of her life. Cathy immortalized her in several stories in her “Mad Raccoons” series of comics in the 1980s and 1990s. You can see all of Mangy’s comics on this blog’s archives, just search for them. I just recently got a copy of this photo of the REAL Mangy, and thought I’d share it with my Catblog readers. She was an incredibly sweet little black cat, but when I paid her more attention than she required, she let me have it with her front paw. She never had her claws out, and Cathy once drew a caricature of her with a boxing glove on her paw. This post is in memory of her.

One of my three readers, Thad Komorowski, has a friend who figured out at least part of the “Where was Ducky?” mystery first presented a couple of posts ago. The office Ducky is standing in, might be a French embassy, because the portrait on the wall is of Pierre Mendès France, French Prime Minister 1954-5.  Maybe it’s a publicity session promoting the Jane Russell movie: THE FRENCH LINE, if so, the next question is where’s Howard Hughes? Again, a lifetime subscription to the Catblog for the reader who correctly solves the mystery.

 Krazy is from 6-22 to 6-27-42. Herriman uses a few old sayings such as “A cat may look at a king” and “Every dog has his day” as the basis of the 6-23, 6-24 and 6-27-42 strips. My favorite is the 6-22, which has a pun woven into Krazy’s “Kat Langwitch”. “Cat’s Paw, no doubt..”

 Myrtle is from 3-15 to 3-20-1948. My favorite gags this time are the 3-15 with Hyacinth the cat playing with the goldfish, and the 3-17 in which Myrtle sits on a wall and eats Bingo’s dog food. Why? Bingo ate her ice cream cone. When my brother and I were little, we sometimes ate our dog’s biscuits. They didn’t taste too bad, but were pretty tough and gritty. It’s surprising what a kid will eat when he’s hungry.

 Felix is from 6-11 to 6-17-1934. The dailies continue the story of the “Gentleman of Seizure” as he calls himself. He sheds the scarecrow outfit from last time and dons a stolen cop’s uniform. Mr. Yiminy and his family are so gullible that the phony cop fools them into “Protecting” all their jewelry and Mr. Yiminy’s crop money. Felix isn’t in his own strip much this week, but manages to return all the stolen goods in the 6-16. We’ll see how long the Yiminys are beholden to Felix this time. In the Sunday, the pole explorers aren’t loyal to Felix at all, but lock him out of their igloo and airplane. What follows feels a lot like an animated cartoon, as Messmer uses progressive panels to show a sled dog rolling in a snow ball and gaining enough volume for Felix to get a new igloo home. Don’t you think it’s fun having a place on the web where you can read the classic Felix, Krazy Kat and Myrtle strips for free? Make sure you keep the Internet a place that has equal access for all, write to the FCC and demand they declare the Internet a public utility! Do it today!