99 Reasons to Hate Cats: Cartoons for Cat Lovers (8 page)

Reason 96:
Personal space invader

Reason 97:
Cats are taking over the Internet.

Reason 98:
Cat owner codependency

Reason 99:
Cats hate other cats.

Angel
(a.k.a. Booger)

Angel was a stray kitten my wife and I adopted before we were married. The orange tabby was sickly in her earliest days and we nursed her to health. Bottle fed and adorable as a kitten, Angel grew to be a petite cat with an ironic given name. Her nickname, Booger, was more apt with her attitude toward other cats and human beings. Angel has since passed on but her legend continues.

Moses
(a.k.a. Fat Boy)

My wife and I adopted Moses as a teenage cat as “company” for Angel. Little did we know, Angel could have well done without any other feline companion. Nevertheless, Moses spent a great deal of time trying to play with his older, smaller and fussier sibling. This grey tabby also shows a strong love for chow and therefore earned his nickname.

Cookie
(a.k.a. Cookie)

My wife had a short but enjoyable career as a veterinary technician. One Easter holiday weekend, she brought her work home in the form of 9 kittens. We were traveling to visit my parents that same weekend and took the little furballs with us. My parents adopted a black and white kitten from that litter who turned out to be one of the greatest cats ever.

Fluffy
(a.k.a. Fluffimus Prime)

In a weak moment, I allowed a new kitten into our home. With our son growing older, my wife and I thought he would benefit from having a pet of his own. Fluffy is a petite, black and orange tortie who is my freshest inspiration for a sequel to this book. She has also become the best friend and playmate that Moses always longed for.

Thank you to the following people for their encouragement or inspiration (intentional and unintentional) for
99 Reasons to Hate Cats.

Melynda Milburn Briscoe
Will & Aerin Briscoe
Drew Benson
Hunter Cressal
Amy Walker Miller
David McElroy
Bev Gallegos
Carmen Lanza

Cartoonist Tom Briscoe got married. Now he’s “doomed” to spend the rest of his life with his sweetheart and her cats. This book is how he copes with his hopeless situation.

Tom Briscoe is also the creator of
Small World
, a weekly comic strip on pop culture and politics. The feature appears in the
Birmingham Weekly
, Universal uClick’s
GoComics.com
and its own website (
smallworldcomics.com
). Tom also regularly contributes editorial cartoons to the
Birmingham News
.

Visit
hatecats.com
and share the reasons you (love to) hate cats.