The Quadra Cats

The adventures of Tux, Jazz, Alien Cat, and Scatcat

[quadracats]

From Madame Gloriana Catsby’s essential book for all cat lovers, One Cat, Two Cats, Three Cats, More!:

“Remember that felines are obligate carnivores. Much as it my be tempting to offer them bites of what you are eating, many human foods are not good for cats. You wouldn’t eat their food, and they shouldn’t eat yours – no matter how much they beg!” 

Aaaand… that’s the end of this scene, so it seems like a good time to take a short break, it being summertime and all. See you in two weeks — next post will be Monday, July 5. (promises, promises, see update below)

UPDATE: Sorry folks, it’s going to be a little while before I can get the next page up. I’m juggling heat waves, health issues, and some other work that needs to be done, and while I hope it won’t be too long, it might be realistic to estimate resuming in September at this point. I won’t set a date, because I hope to get back sooner, but even if so, pages will likely be sporadic for a bit. Please be patient, the story will continue!

[quadracats]

Author’s note: here Madame is quoting more or less directly from her own classic book, Madame Gloriana Catsby’s “Ode to Felines”.

[quadracats]

From Alien Cat’s journal:

“Since Scatcat was so resourceful in contacting me, and he seemed quite agitated, I revised my plans to explore the large city in the centre of the continent that I had found to have so many delectable takeout opportunities (the primates here seemed a bit overly susceptible to my iZap anyway; I must recalibrate it to compensate). I set course immediately for the coast to find out what he wanted. I really must speak to him about all the space junk flying around up here, though; these primitive cats have a lot to learn about keeping their planetary space tidy. Molly had to clean up quite a number of small robotic vessels before we could leave the area.”

[quadracats]

From Alien Cat’s journal:

“I don’t know how Scatcat managed to contact me via his iStudy — I didn’t even know it was possible! It must be a new model. I must have a good look at it when next I see him. He couldn’t have picked a worse time, though, even more disconcerting than being interrupted at dinner! Still, these Takeout Planet cats keep managing to surprise me — such cleverness must be due to their primitive circumstances, where one needs to be on one’s toes to make anything happen at all.”

[quadracats]

From Madame’s Diary:

“Aside from all the possibilities for face-to-face interspecies communications that have opened up, I am sure there will be some interest in these devices from our galactic visitor. Imagine being able to just think of someone and talk to them instantly by machine-assisted telepathy! Although, I suppose that could create some awkward moments, for humans, at least.”

[quadracats]

From Madame’s diary:

“This Alien Cat is creating quite a stir. From what Handsome tells me, this “iZap” device of his is responsible for the rash of takeout thefts around here. Perhaps he doesn’t realize he has to pay for it? Much as I love cats, they can be rather “entitled”. At any rate, someone is going to have to set him straight, he can’t just go around taking whatever he likes, especially now that we can talk to him!”

[quadracats]

From Madame’s diary:

“It’s amazing how information gets around these days — not to mention mis-information! The internet is already full of tweets and videos about talking cats, and of course the “experts” are explaining it already. It’s funny to think that no one really knows what is really going on except the humans and cats in this house right now — and of course, that mysterious friend of Handsome who seems to have caused it all.”

[quadracats]

From Madame’s diary:

I am going to have to have a stern talk with Handsome’s alien friend. He did NOT think through the repercussions of his actions, whatever they were, that led to us being able to talk to cats. Reminds me of some people I know, actually.

[quadracats]

From Madame’s diary:

Handsome told me about his cucumber experience today. I had to look it up on the internet. His former humans were not very sensitive to his feelings. But… I have to confess, I did laugh a bit imagining all those magnets. A human failing, I’m afraid.

[quadracats]

From Madame’s diary:

“The implications of the situation are starting to overload my mind. If the political sorts get hold of this, and they will, it could mean disaster, for cats and their people. We need a grassroots effort, right away, to start calming things down and prevent hysterical reactions!”

(As I said before, I’ll be updating once a week on Mondays for a while; this extra one this week is because I only posted an in-progress this past Monday.)

[quadracats]

I’m running a bit behind this month, what with vet visits for my kitty Arthur (he’s fine now, but gave us a bit of a scare), and trying to get the garden in while the sun shines, and just all the general hubbub of life and chores — but I did manage to get Madame’s office ready for the next scene, so think of it as the empty stage awaiting the arrival of Madame and Handsome. 

I don’t share process stuff that often here, so here’s a bit of that. I realized that I had a whole string of office scenes coming up, pretty much from the same viewpoint, so I decided to do a background on which I can overlay the characters. Ultimately it will save me a bunch of work (as well as maintain consistency between panels) but for some reason it took me a long time! The computer screen itself is going to feature heavily in the next several pages, so there will be changes in that.  

The next page, universe willing, will be up by Thursday.

[quadracats]

From Madame’s Diary:

“Today we had an example of what kind of misunderstandings can arise between our newly connected species. As Fiona said, we’ve all got a lot to learn. I’ve got some inklings of ideas stirring to help things along. Ramón and Rosa’s backgrounds in scientific method and teaching languages should be helpful.”

(Hey folks — break time again; The Quadra Cats is going to be on a once-a-week schedule for at least the next month or so. I’m working on a children’s book project and just don’t have the time to keep up two pages a week. Updates will be on Mondays, starting with Monday April 19th. Thanks for your patience, and thanks for reading!)

[quadracats]

From Fiona’s diary:

“And to top it all off, I managed to hurt Handsome’s feelings. I just couldn’t seem to say anything right! I guess it’s just as well Sabrina couldn’t come today too — anyway her parents have grounded her for getting suspended — it would just be one more person to be embarrassed in front of!”

[quadracats]

From Fiona’s diary:

I can’t believe I started out meeting Tux and Jazz with a dog trick! I was sooooo embarrassed! I thought it was bad in school sometimes when I say the wrong things, and those girls in gym laugh at me — I just wish I could drop into a deep, dark hole! And now I’m trying to talk to a whole other species! But Tux was so nice about it — I guess I have to remember that these cats aren’t like kids, they’re actually grown-ups. Among cats, I mean. I wonder if kittens have social anxiety, ever? I wonder if the girls in gym have cats — maybe they’re feeling the same way for a change!

[quadracats]

This seems like the most complicated page I’ve done for this book yet; it took a crazy amount of time to squeeze in all the details and people and cats! It was also an awkward one to place the words as written in the script, so both the art and the script got adjusted until I could fit it all in. Whew!

“at sixes and sevens” is a British expression meaning “in a state of confusion”. Given Fiona and Eric’s report from the previous page, it looks like a good call.

[quadracats]

A note passed from Fiona to Sabrina:

Sabrina — I totally believe cats can talk! Call me tomorrow and we’ll go over to my Grandma’s house — she’s a cat expert! We’ll show old Mr. Sourpuss — haha, get it, sour-puss?

(Another famous cat on a t-shirt: Eric is wearing the Perogy Cat, by the amazing Gareth Gaudin!)

(Next page will appear Thursday, March 25)

[quadracats]

From Madame’s diary:

“Handsome is not as slow on the uptake as he sometimes makes out. He may have come from a rough background, but he is good at picking up social cues. With a little more exposure to both human and cat society, I think he may make a good cat ambassador — I have the feeling we’re going to need some, very soon.”