Olive!

Life is full of the most peculiar twists and turns. When our beloved calico cat, Abby died last summer way before her time, it was a tough experience. She died while I was on deadline for the Holiday Special (around page 8) and also over that weekend I had to finish drawing the Dark Horse Holiday card.

Cory and I weren't sure that we were going to get another cat any time soon and we were quite certain we weren't going to get another kitten. Our other cat, Chipper (who really is just Chips most of the time nowadays), we adopted when he was an adult. Kittens are a lot of work and we both thought we were too busy for a kitten.

Wrong.

Cory saw Olive at a rescue adoption center and that was that. We adopted her on our anniversary in October and life has been an adventure ever since. Olive is a Siamese mix tortie and has the softest fur on any cat I've ever owned. She is also, so far, the most affectionate cat we've had since Augie Dog died almost a decade ago. (Augie Dog lived to be 19).

Olive is a handful. But it is funny, I'm writing sequences about the rambunctiousness of the Pod'l'pool Cuties nowadays and Olive is a daily inspiration for their behavior. I know what Mr. Spook and Proffy are going through trying to keep the Cuties focused and well behaved.

I think I've mentioned in the past that I keep a cardboard box near my drawing table. In it I tend to "file" drawings, sketches, and notes after I'm finished with them. I've always had a box like that nearby for years and years. In the picture above, Olive is in the current box which is just a box that I think might have come from Trader Joe's in Phoenix. Anyway, it's the same box I had by my table there and the whole thing was moved back here and re-put into its place under my table.

Olive likes to sleep in it. So, any Beanworld historians out there in the future, all the cat fur you are finding on these sketches? Olive's 2008!