Fido...
1) Is Bino's Brother.
2) Has graduated from police dog academy.
3) Is evidently far more popular than Bino is (not that this seems to be very hard).
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/08/2 ... yal-order/
4) Is highly regarded by the other dogs; they all “want to be like Fido, except for the lady dogs who have ‘other intentions’â€.
5) Fox is also quite enthused about Fido - unless he's just going with the group.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/09/01/a-breed-apart/
6) Joey is another one of Fido's brothers.
Inference: with three canine brothers in the same community, it seems likely that they were all born in the immediate area.
Inference: based on later data, Joey wouldn’t be getting any respect at all if he wasn’t Fido’s brother.
7) Fido is being driven home by Ryan - who is probably his owner.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/09/0 ... cred-duty/
8) Ryan (“Dadâ€) is confirmed to be Fido's owner.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/09/0 ... -constant/
9) Fido gets much more respect than Bino. Even better than popularity.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/09/0 ... ne-to-ask/
10) Fido has apparently Co-founded the Good Ol Dogs Club, pushed for pet rights, fought ferals, won the last three annual pet park games, chased off nearly a dozen burglars, and taught several of the local pups to read and write. Given that this is Bino's attempt to run him down, this may be accurate - unless Bino is so incompetent as to exaggerate the virtues of someone he's denigrating.
Inference: Fido as probably at least three years old, and near-adult, before he started winning the pet park games, and won three years running. He may or may not have participated before that winning streak. Since this predates the first Christmas of the strip, and it's currently past the second, Fido is at least seven years old, and is probably at least eight or nine. Bino is probably of similar age, or he probably wouldn't be a co-founder of the Good Ol Dogs Club.
11) Fido apparently does not think his academy graduation is all that important.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/09/1 ... ed-speech/
12) Fido apparently feels that this level of adoration is silly...
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/09/1 ... raise-you/
13) Fido feels that helping people is what dogs are supposed to do, and it's simply following his nature.
14) Through this sequence Fido also demonstrates some of his negative qualities - he’s more than a bit unobservant, since he hasn’t noticed that a dog graduating from the police academy seems to be considered an event by the local pets, and he’s not very good at understanding other creatures motivations. If he was, he wouldn’t have found the party confusing or unexpected.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/09/1 ... ve-of-him/
15) Fido's owner plays D&D.
16) Fido's girlfriend is a cat named Sabrina.
17) This is apparently the first appearance of his glasses (being held) unless I missed the earlier.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/09/2 ... everybody/
18) Fido overrides Bino and re-admits Peanut to the Good Ol Dog's Club. He may or may not be aware of how much this is likely to upset Bino.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/12/03/he-minds/
17) Fido Co-Founded the Good Ol Dogs Club with Bino, but apparently has more effective authority.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/12/0 ... our-thing/
18) Fido rigged the GODC Secret Santa drawing to pair Bino and Peanut in hopes that he and Bino would thus get over their conflict.
Inference: Fido does not understand Bino at all, and may not be any good at psychology at all.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/12/1 ... things-up/
19) Fido does recognize that Bino is going to swap out his obnoxious gift for a nicer one. Apparently he's either learned something new about Bino, recognized the symptoms, or the laws of funny have kicked in.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/12/2 ... like-that/
20) Fido is still with involved with Sabrina. This appears to be a steady relationship.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/12/2 ... s-edition/
21) Fido often gets drafted by Sabrina to relocate ferals that she doesn't want to kill.
22) Is definitely in love with Sabrina, since he puts up with this on a regular basis.
23) Acquires Spo.
24) Is first seen wearing his glasses (at least as far as I can tell).
h[url]ttp://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/16/ohh-diss/[/url]
25) Fido is willing to hide having a mouse in the house from his owner. He evidently feels that minor deceptions are acceptable.
26) Fido is willing to issue threats - including veiled death threats - when necessary.
27) Fido apparently has other feline friends.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/20/compensation/
28) Fido is even nice to rude mice. Evidently he’s exceptionally tolerant.
Inference: this may explain how Bino survived growing up with a family.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/2 ... er-charge/
29) Fido has not noticed that Fox has been back for weeks. Apparently he’s more than a bit unobservant at times.
30) Fido wants his relationship with Sabrina kept secret since he bellieves that having it revealed would compromise the loyalty of the other dogs despite the fact that humans apparently think that such cross-species relationships are “cuteâ€.
- This - along with the “Farm†arc - brings up a notable point. Farm animals are apparently quite accepting of cross-species personal relationships. This is sensible; animals would definitely NOT want classical-style human population control measures or intervention in their personal lives. Cross-species relationships are one way to ensure that such interventions are never required. The fact that the Babylon Gardens community finds them odd may be symptomatic of most of the pets there being relatively young and having been raised near-exclusively by their owners.
31) Fido continues to be bad at psychology, since it would be hard to make it more obvious that he's hiding something.
32) Fido continues unobservant, since he has no idea how long Fox has been present.
33) Fido has apparently rescued and cared for a long selection of feral animals. While some are presumably from Sabrina, it's unknown if all of them are.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/2 ... w-and-the/
34) Fido rides to work with Bill.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/0 ... bike-ride/
35) Fido is “only†a K-9 Unit, and thus is trained to sniff out drugs, track people, and attack suspects when so ordered - presumably by a human.
36) Fido is still bad at psychology and motivations.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/0 ... nfessions/
37) Fido worries about Spo. This indicates both kindness and a certain shortsightedness; he knows that Spo’s family - and by extension, other mouse families - are immense, but only focuses on the one he’s dealing with.
38) As a police dog, Fido apparently works a 12-hour shift (from the Alt text).
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/0 ... e-the-box/
39) Fido feels that the annual easter egg hunt can be called a “success†since it only resulted in holes in lawns, broken windows, and - hopefully - only one burning building. He agrees to have it involve waterguns next year.
Inference: Fido still isn't that hot on personal judgement. Judging by the number of missed eggs, the dogs are more enthusiastic searchers than effective ones.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/04/1 ... good-year/
40) Fido likes to catch frisbees at the dog park.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/0 ... character/
41) Fido apparently spends a lot of time with Fox, as was implied back in http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/2 ... w-and-the/
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/0 ... s-missing/
42) Fido did not see the PETA van outside the dog park, although he did notice that Fox was missing at some point.
43) Fox was surprised that it wasn't Fido who poured water on him. Another indication that they spend a lot of time together.
44) Fido does not normally let Spo come along on his shift and has not revealed him to the other police dogs.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/2 ... at-driver/
45) Fido is good at following procedures, as in “ warn THEN tackleâ€.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/2 ... -mixed-up/
46) Like other police dogs, Fido is permitted to give the Miranda Warnings.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/2 ... ood-crowd/
47) Fido is rather appalled by Joel's history.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/2 ... nd-humans/
48) Fido once again displays spectacularly bad judgement, as demonstrated by his willingness to listen to Bino's plans.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/07/2 ... mpetition/
49) Fido is loyal to his friends. He is, however, once again really bad at reading others, since he doesn't recognize that the ferret is serious about eating Spo.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/07/2 ... -cant-buy/
50) Fido does stick around to visit Bino, no matter how stupid he's been, he's family.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/0 ... llar-sign/
51) Fido is still bad at dealing with others; he doesn’t know how to deal with Sasha - even after all that similar attention when he returned from the academy.
52) Fido is still no good at reading others.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/2 ... -smooches/
53) Fido makes terrible puns, in a scene which may not be intended to be taken seriously.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/09/1 ... stigation/
54) Fido is asked to organize a search and attempts to get Tiger and Bino to cooperate. He's still not too good on handling people is he?
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/1 ... oth-start/
55) Fido is apparently both taken unawares by Bino - again - and by Joel/King. He still isn’t too good at reading people either.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/12/2 ... /#comments
- Fido’s likely history is pretty straightforward. He and his brothers were almost certainly born in the area, since the odds of the three of them winding up in the same place otherwise are quite small. His owner moved into Babylon Gardens almost as soon as it was opened, as did Bino’s owner - and the two of them founded the Good Ol Dog’s Club. As construction continued, Fido helped chase bothersome ferals away, scared away burglars, and mentored younger dogs and new pups.
Along the way he fell in love with Sabrina. He was aware that humans thought that sort of thing was cute, and almost didn’t realize that the rest of the local dogs would think it was weird. Fortunately, it was pointed out in time, probably by Sabrina herself - or perhaps Fido simply picked it up from observing the other dogs reactions to Joey.
As one of the most athletic local dogs, as well as one who liked to help people, Fido went in for Police Dog training, which incidentally always involves a certain push for pets rights; there’s a bit of a contradiction in relying on dogs with very few rights to help enforce the laws which govern humans who have many.
By human standards, Fido is near-perfect. Of course, human standards don’t call for all that much initiative, independent observation, or psychological skill from dogs; they’re supposed to wait on human observations, decisions, and orders - not to handle things on their own.
As far as actually leading the canine community goes, Fido leaves something to be desired - one reason that Bino, who actually is scheming and driven, is still hanging onto a top position in the Good Ol Dog’s Club.
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And now for some comment answers:
For Caesalson:
As for how much time it takes - it probably takes two or three hours per character, but most of that time comes in small segments that are being spent waiting on other things, such as file transfers or proofreader responses.
For ndigit:
There are certainly many other possible theories about Joel's past; that's why the version I put up is labeled a "possible scenario". Constructing backstory is essentially a game, with rules of (1) never contradict any known fact, (2) do not introduce any additional factors you can avoid, (3) account for all possible available facts, and (4) try to stick with the most probable sequence of events you can come up with. Now, if Rick points out any errors, missed facts, or supplies any more facts (which is always useful in this kind of game), I'll be delighted to incorporate whatever he has to say.
The possibility (not certainty) that Joel himself was abused was listed as an "inference" in the facts section. It's primarily based on the information that using a shock-collar on Bino was NOT considered harsh, that the image of Joel's cat huddled in the corner with the young Joel is suggestive of the common cringe-and-hide symptoms of abuse, on the fact that pets seem to be treated as surrogate children in the Housepets universe, and on his accepting being hit rather than - say - calling the police to report a case of assault and battery. Dealing "harshly" with animals is a very common symptom of an abusive personality even in the real world. In the Housepets universe, where the distinction between "my animal" and "my child" is a great deal smaller, being "harsh" with pets is likely to be a strong indicator of an individuals likely behavior with children.
His pets might indeed have blamed him when the group was caught - but Joel's pets had already gone feral on him. If his pets were simply pointing fingers to try to escape blame (a tactic known to every child), and managed to get off with not being punished as severely, why would it make a strong enough impression on him to be one of the first things that comes to his mind many years later? Why would the push for pet rights be so important to him - rather than, say, laws against being mean to them? Miranda warnings are not a major factor with young children since they are legally incompetent in any case, and cannot waive them except with the participation of a guardian.
The "when I try to be a decent person you turn on me without a thought" line is new information (since both the facts listing and the possible history posts predate the publication of that strip), but it would fit in; Joel is shown attempting to comfort or protect his cat - being a decent person - and they turned on him. Thus the "but every time I have to face any of you, I keep thinking about that week" - not "how it all turned out".
Juvenile hall is possible, but mildly unlikely at the apparent age shown. It's also not all that much like prison, and would not account for him turning to PETA because the ASPCA would no longer accept him. After all, that episode would have been before he was old enough to work with the ASPCA in the first place.
Finally, if he was simply a "passive type of person", why would he be out doing something that's rather active in the first place?
That is a happier scenario, but it doesn't account for as many of the known facts. Personally I'd prefer to have information show up that improves the scenario I came up with; it adds depth and drama to the character, but it's still kind of depressing.
For Buckdida:
Oh certainly. It hadn't occured to me that a title of "Character Dossiers" wouldn't be enough to say "Spoilers" by itself.
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