Re: Character Dossiers
Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 12:53 am
Spo’s dossier is relatively short compared to some of the others... On the other hand, as a mouse, and one of the characters who’s NOT a dog or cat, he provides some interesting insights.
1) Spo was caught by either Sabrina or her (undisclosed) owner after - apparently - being spotted by said owner.
2) Spo has no compunctions about making jokes at the expense of large predators who have ALREADY trapped him. Whle they do seem benign at the moment, it's bard to believe that he doesn't know that they could change their minds at any time.
Inference: Spo is not nearly cautious enough for a small mouse - unless he's deliberately gambling on befriending a large protector.
Inference: Spo's "voice" can be clearly heard through a box, and is apparently at normal conversational levels for a dog, cat, or human. This could simply indicate that the Pets have very good ears, or that mouse voices are unexpectedly loud, or perhaps pet "voices" are - like the Dolphin "voices" in the zoo arc - partially the result of projective telepathy adding details and overtones to the sounds they produce.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/16/ohh-diss/
3) Spo seems to be familiar with human culture. Possibly another argument for telepathy.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/ ... mebreaker/
4) Spo is small, even for a mouse.
5) Spo can be sensible, even if it takes direct threats to his life to bring it out.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/20/compensation/
6) Spo prefers grains to cheese. Of course, too much cheese is actually very bad for mice.
7) Spo was indeed the runt of his litter.
Speculation: This may reminded Fido of Joey, and pulled up some old protective tendencies.
8) Mice evidently have rather large families. The simplest translation of "SPO" would make him (19 x 26 x 26) + (16 x 26 ) + 15'th in his family - or 13,275'th. This seems unlikely - a single mother mouse can have a lot of descendants very quickly, but that's because her offspring start having kids quickly, not because she produces thousands. Presumably mouse "Famalies" are actually sizeable clans or - perhaps - are designated by geography rather than blood. That would mean that most of the mice of Babylon Gardens would be of the same “familyâ€.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/ ... er-charge/
9) Spo is aware of the Babylon Gardens taboo against interspecies relationships - at least as far as the dogs are concerned.
10) Spo does not see much difference between K-9 units and human policemen. Of course, from the point of view of a Feral - who has no rights in either case - there isn't much difference.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/ ... y-who-who/
11) Spo is subject to motion sickness.
Note: Nausea apparently shows through fur as blushes do. The strip reality continues to follow artistic conventions.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/ ... bike-ride/
12) Spo gets lonely, and likes having a friend.
13) Spo is aware of the oddity of having animal cops with such limited authority.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/ ... nfessions/
14) Spo has claustrophobia. This provides a good explanation of why he was spotted anyway; he may be too reluctant to hide properly.
15) Spo is a bit insecure. That's probably a way of life for small prey animals however.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/ ... e-the-box/
Note: I get the impression that Spo is rather appalled at the burning building here - but he has no dialogue and the image is very small, so "impression" is as far as it goes.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/04/ ... good-year/
16) Spo seems to have gotten pretty good at hanging on to Fido - and has apparently gotten over his motion sickness.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/ ... character/
17) Spo has apparently been watching police dramas, and has begun to regard riding along with Fido as the equivalent of an action movie he can participate in.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/ ... at-driver/
18) Spo likes watching violence, and regards toning it down - or departing from the dramatics in favor of dry legalities and procedures - as "ruining it".
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/ ... -mixed-up/
19) Spo is apparently acting as a narrator for Fido's feelings. They're pretty obvious of course, but this could be taken as support for the "telepathy" hypothesis.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/ ... ood-crowd/
20) Spo apparently finds it hard to see how deeply conflicted humans can be.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/ ... nd-humans/
21) Spo is still sensible enough to want to retreat - urgently - form predators who AREN'T friends of his.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/07/ ... -cant-buy/
22) Spo apparently does not get taken along on dates.
Note: This may have been because the “restaurant†was primarily a cat hangout, but most of the cats seem civilized enough to refrain from eating someone’s companion. Jinx certainly doesn’t seem worried about it. Fido might have been wiser to bring a chaperone, but it probably wouldn’t have had any effect on Sasha if Grape’s presence, and being in a public place, didn’t.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/ ... -smooches/
23) Spo has acquired tiny sunglasses to go with the police dogs.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/09/ ... stigation/
24) Spo does not know about "Zoning Issues", despite spending a great deal of time with Fido.
Note: Spo does seem quite familiar with human culture. Possibly this is an aspect of canine behavior that Fido just does not want to think or talk about, and so Spo hasn't picked up on it.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/ ... oth-start/
25) Spo apparently finds Tiger and (especially) Bino as infuriating as everyone else does.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/ ... oth-start/
26) Spo apparently was not taken along to the dogs Christmas party either.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/12/ ... hed-socks/
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Possible History. Please note that this is - again - quite speculative. It’s also rather short: even if we assume that Housepets mice have double or triple their real-world life expectancy, that still isn’t very long - and, since Spo is a recurring character, presumably it will be a few years in the comic before he dies of old age. Ergo, he’s probably pretty young.
Spo was the runt of the litter. He soon developed a dislike for dark, confined, places and a fondness for exploring simply because - whenever he tried to get back into his mother’s tight and well-hidden nest - he got picked on by his siblings.
Being a weirdo as well as a runt didn’t make him many friends amongst the other mice, and his reluctance to squeeze himself out of sight on a moments notice soon led to him being spotted around the house by Sabrina’s owner.
Naturally enough, he called on his cat to get rid of the mouse. Disliking killing things, Sabrina did so by passing Spo on to Fido - and the pair found themselves unusually compatible. Fido kept Spo around instead of simply relocating him.
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Replies:
And for Rockstar Raccoon: It would be nice to see more Maxwell wouldn’t it? Of course, I’m greedy; I’d like more appearances and information on pretty much every character...
Return to Thread Index: https://www.housepetscomic.com/forums/v ... ?f=2&t=199
1) Spo was caught by either Sabrina or her (undisclosed) owner after - apparently - being spotted by said owner.
2) Spo has no compunctions about making jokes at the expense of large predators who have ALREADY trapped him. Whle they do seem benign at the moment, it's bard to believe that he doesn't know that they could change their minds at any time.
Inference: Spo is not nearly cautious enough for a small mouse - unless he's deliberately gambling on befriending a large protector.
Inference: Spo's "voice" can be clearly heard through a box, and is apparently at normal conversational levels for a dog, cat, or human. This could simply indicate that the Pets have very good ears, or that mouse voices are unexpectedly loud, or perhaps pet "voices" are - like the Dolphin "voices" in the zoo arc - partially the result of projective telepathy adding details and overtones to the sounds they produce.
- Speculation: A limited telepathic ability might account neatly for a number of factors - the use of human actors to portray the creatures in the Pridelands movies (telepathy would not record), why the horses in the farm arc imply that horses don't get to talk on television or in movies and so get portrayed as "bicycles" (telepathy won't broadcast or record), the assumption (also from the farm arc, by Grape's "Mom") that mental traits can be passed on to pets, the ability of the zoo animals that are behind glass to talk to the visitors, the occasional appearance of emotional indicators and the rapid development of relationships (the animals occasionally broadcast emotions), the extremely rapid development of "linguistic skills", the variances in vocabulary, why Karl-Lenin Faust's "Oration far exceeds my writing skills", why most of the animals don't really seem to be good at lying directly, the widespread familiarity with human culture - even among the Ferals - and the fact that all the Ferals seem to speak English. It would not account for the female otter in the zoo arc apparently speaking another language - unless she (1) is intentionally doing so to indicate how upset she is, (2) it's a humor-based anomaly, or (3) she simply imprinted on the dominant language of the area where she was born and raised.
Speculation: If there is indeed a telepathic factor in pet language, this may help explain why they can be such good readers, and yet seem to be fairly poor authors. It would also help explain why Tarot is not in a lab and is so readily accepted; telepathy isn't too abnormal; she's simply exceptionally good at it. Similarly, it would help explain why pet relationships so often mirror human complications, why they can be satisfactory even if nonphysical (such as Joey and Squeak), and how humans can treat the sapient animals of the housepets universe as normal animals without being fundamentally monstrous; most of them will simply believe that the animals are mirroring them.
Note: Judging by the response from Rick, this particular hypothesis is too off the wall (and, come to think of it, wouldn't work with Grape on the phone in the farm arc too well); I'll have to settle for "Pets have really good ears" as an alternative and try to account for some of the items above in some other fashion
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/16/ohh-diss/
3) Spo seems to be familiar with human culture. Possibly another argument for telepathy.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/ ... mebreaker/
4) Spo is small, even for a mouse.
5) Spo can be sensible, even if it takes direct threats to his life to bring it out.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/20/compensation/
6) Spo prefers grains to cheese. Of course, too much cheese is actually very bad for mice.
7) Spo was indeed the runt of his litter.
Speculation: This may reminded Fido of Joey, and pulled up some old protective tendencies.
8) Mice evidently have rather large families. The simplest translation of "SPO" would make him (19 x 26 x 26) + (16 x 26 ) + 15'th in his family - or 13,275'th. This seems unlikely - a single mother mouse can have a lot of descendants very quickly, but that's because her offspring start having kids quickly, not because she produces thousands. Presumably mouse "Famalies" are actually sizeable clans or - perhaps - are designated by geography rather than blood. That would mean that most of the mice of Babylon Gardens would be of the same “familyâ€.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/ ... er-charge/
9) Spo is aware of the Babylon Gardens taboo against interspecies relationships - at least as far as the dogs are concerned.
10) Spo does not see much difference between K-9 units and human policemen. Of course, from the point of view of a Feral - who has no rights in either case - there isn't much difference.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/ ... y-who-who/
11) Spo is subject to motion sickness.
Note: Nausea apparently shows through fur as blushes do. The strip reality continues to follow artistic conventions.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/ ... bike-ride/
12) Spo gets lonely, and likes having a friend.
13) Spo is aware of the oddity of having animal cops with such limited authority.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/ ... nfessions/
14) Spo has claustrophobia. This provides a good explanation of why he was spotted anyway; he may be too reluctant to hide properly.
15) Spo is a bit insecure. That's probably a way of life for small prey animals however.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/ ... e-the-box/
Note: I get the impression that Spo is rather appalled at the burning building here - but he has no dialogue and the image is very small, so "impression" is as far as it goes.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/04/ ... good-year/
16) Spo seems to have gotten pretty good at hanging on to Fido - and has apparently gotten over his motion sickness.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/ ... character/
17) Spo has apparently been watching police dramas, and has begun to regard riding along with Fido as the equivalent of an action movie he can participate in.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/ ... at-driver/
18) Spo likes watching violence, and regards toning it down - or departing from the dramatics in favor of dry legalities and procedures - as "ruining it".
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/ ... -mixed-up/
19) Spo is apparently acting as a narrator for Fido's feelings. They're pretty obvious of course, but this could be taken as support for the "telepathy" hypothesis.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/ ... ood-crowd/
20) Spo apparently finds it hard to see how deeply conflicted humans can be.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/05/ ... nd-humans/
21) Spo is still sensible enough to want to retreat - urgently - form predators who AREN'T friends of his.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/07/ ... -cant-buy/
22) Spo apparently does not get taken along on dates.
Note: This may have been because the “restaurant†was primarily a cat hangout, but most of the cats seem civilized enough to refrain from eating someone’s companion. Jinx certainly doesn’t seem worried about it. Fido might have been wiser to bring a chaperone, but it probably wouldn’t have had any effect on Sasha if Grape’s presence, and being in a public place, didn’t.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/ ... -smooches/
23) Spo has acquired tiny sunglasses to go with the police dogs.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/09/ ... stigation/
24) Spo does not know about "Zoning Issues", despite spending a great deal of time with Fido.
Note: Spo does seem quite familiar with human culture. Possibly this is an aspect of canine behavior that Fido just does not want to think or talk about, and so Spo hasn't picked up on it.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/ ... oth-start/
25) Spo apparently finds Tiger and (especially) Bino as infuriating as everyone else does.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/ ... oth-start/
26) Spo apparently was not taken along to the dogs Christmas party either.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/12/ ... hed-socks/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Possible History. Please note that this is - again - quite speculative. It’s also rather short: even if we assume that Housepets mice have double or triple their real-world life expectancy, that still isn’t very long - and, since Spo is a recurring character, presumably it will be a few years in the comic before he dies of old age. Ergo, he’s probably pretty young.
Spo was the runt of the litter. He soon developed a dislike for dark, confined, places and a fondness for exploring simply because - whenever he tried to get back into his mother’s tight and well-hidden nest - he got picked on by his siblings.
Being a weirdo as well as a runt didn’t make him many friends amongst the other mice, and his reluctance to squeeze himself out of sight on a moments notice soon led to him being spotted around the house by Sabrina’s owner.
Naturally enough, he called on his cat to get rid of the mouse. Disliking killing things, Sabrina did so by passing Spo on to Fido - and the pair found themselves unusually compatible. Fido kept Spo around instead of simply relocating him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Replies:
Well, it’s pretty speculative - but I do try to make sure that the "possible histories" are as plausible as possible.GameCobra wrote:I have to admit, it never occurred to me that MAxwell might've been abducted from PETA once until you mentioned that Maxwell was told not to open doors. such a simple task of opening doors could've been something like PETA would do, and i originally thought it was cat courtesy to not open front doors, but recently recall Grape opened a front door. @_@
what a amusing find indeed...
And for Rockstar Raccoon: It would be nice to see more Maxwell wouldn’t it? Of course, I’m greedy; I’d like more appearances and information on pretty much every character...
Return to Thread Index: https://www.housepetscomic.com/forums/v ... ?f=2&t=199