1) Miles makes his first appearance. He's apparently used to mugs or cups, as well as furniture.
Inference: Miles has probably had at least a few weeks worth of experience with civilization.
Note: Peanut apparently has trouble with things that are out of context. He's seen wolves at the zoo, but presumes that one in the living room must be something else.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/09/ ... er-danger/
1) Miles has moved into the neighborhood; this is evidently quite abnormal.
Inference: Miles is either being backed by someone, or has somehow acquired an independent source of income (and, presumably, a court-appointed Steward like the Ferrets).
2) Wolves are apparently substantially taller and heavier than most dogs.
Note: Wolves are apparently normally ferals.
3) Miles is acquainted with "civilized" mannerisms, such as shaking hands instead of sniffing.
Inference: Miles has spent at least some time observing, if not necessarily interacting with, humans.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/09/ ... n-my-room/
4) Miles has been introducing himself and his pack to the neighbors. Evidently he is concerned about fitting in.
5) Miles and his pack are renting a house in the neighborhood.
Note: The Ferrets have apparently put together a special social program designed to promote the notion that animals can function like humans in society.
6) Mile's wife, Lucretia, thinks that being feral "sucks".
Inference: Presuming that Housepets wolf-packs are similar to real-world wolf-packs, since Miles is apparently mated, he is either the dominant (alpha) male OR the pack is doing extremely well and he's a beta male. Similarly, Lucretia would be either the alpha or beta female, as appropriate.
7) Miles had access to books in the wilds: this also implies access to various other parts of human civilization and probably implies someone teaching him or helping him learn to read, and a reasonably weatherproof storage location for said books.
8) Mile wears glasses to read. He's evidently farsighted.
Inference: Miles could have picked up a pair of cheap reading glasses at any large store, or he could have simply found them somewhere - but he probably wouldn’t have known to do so unless he either did a great deal of reading before obtaining them (and thus didn't need them much) or someone told or helped him. Ergo, he most likely had a friendly human contact early on. That would also help explain his access to books, his naively expecting other humans to behave similarly, and his evident disappointment and disillusionment when they did not.
Inference: Miles and the pack have been living on the edges of human civilization, and have probably gone well out of their way to avoid any conflict with it.
9) Miles is aware of how some others romanticize feral life. This may indicate actual experience with others with similar views or simply having read books which mentioned the viewpoint.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/ ... t-speaker/
10) Miles taught himself to read, presumably from some books he picked up. This is a fairly remarkable feat.
Inference: Managing - as a wild animal - to teach yourself to read, to obtain books (and reading glasses), to become familiar with an alien culture, to either teach your prospective mate to read or to inspire her with enough interest in a facet of that culture to lead her to take a name from it, all before reaching adult status (and thus, per a later strip, being ready to choose an adult name) while simultaneously learning to hunt and establishing pack-dominance, is a feat worthy of superman. Perhaps that's what that physique of his is all about.
11) Miles acquired books over time. He may have had a friendly "civilized" contact, scavenged for them, or even have bought them. After all, if a friendly feral has found some money, I suspect that most retailers would be happy to take it.
12) Miles apparently taught the rest of the pack about human culture since "we became fond of human culture".
13) Miles "sought his fortune in the big city".
Inference: Miles may have been familiar with "Dick Whittington and his Cat" or a similar tale.
14) Miles was quite naive about actual human behavior.
Inference: Miles probably had an extremely eclectic collection of books, and relatively little direct experience with humans. He evidently hasn't - for example - read much about things like the second world war or he'd probably be a great deal more cautious.
Note: Even friendly wolves often cause humans to call for animal control and get hysterical.
15) Miles gets thoughtful when discouraged or disillusioned.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/ ... n-the-car/
16) Miles has been roped into the Ferret's social engineering project.
Note: The Ferrets are aware that they - at least - are powerfully driven by instinct and appetite.
17) Miles is both surprisingly empathic, familiar with intoxication, and - at the time - was familiar with orange soda.
Inference: Miles may be familiar with campers, hunters, hikers, or picnickers. Given the close proximity of the woods to Babylon Gardens - and what is evidently some really nice scenery there - I'd bet on campers, hikers, and picnickers. The woods may be too near to developed areas to allow much hunting.
Note: I'd expect "hunting" to be a bit less popular in the Housepets universe than in reality anyway, given that every kid will probably be acquainted with at least some of the local birds and rodents while growing up, that the animals can plan and hide intelligently (for example, going into neighborhoods where the houses are too close to allow the firing of weapons during hunting season), and that hunters will be able to understand the animals pleading and mourning. Farm animal species may have struck a social bargain of sorts; rather than a dangerous and unpleasant life that ends in being killed and eaten after much terror, they get a comfortable, healthy, and well-cared-for life. While that comfortable life still ends in being killed and eaten, it's arguably an improvement over the feral lifestyle for many animals.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/ ... st-friend/
18) Miles, and apparently his pack (since they apparently have been taken in by the ferrets) have apparently passed the General Obedience Exam and are now legally pets.
Inference: Feral animals moving in with humans is actually pretty common.
Note: The Ferrets want to make sure that everything related to the pack is done "nice and legal", the better to exploit all the available legal loopholes.
Inference: The wolves are technically pets, property of the Milton estate (in trust for the ferrets), and will be obeying all the applicable laws.
19) Miles, and possibly additional members of the pack, were given "humanish" jobs.
20) Miles is already familiar with Television during what is apparently his first open trip into human civilization. Maybe he's been looking in windows?
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/ ... o-they-do/
21) Miles and Lucretia have little direct experience with human culture and etiquette, but are apparently familiar with many of the physical details of human civilization - doors, clothing, party streamers, etc.
Inference: Miles and the pack probably spent some time with the ferrets - encounting the physical elements of civilzation outside of human authority - before being ready to move into their own (rented) house.
22) Miles has been methodically visiting the neighbors to invite them to his housewarming party.
23) Miles is not immune to the puppy-eyes routine.
24) Lucretia has a speciality apron in her size.
Inference: The "sniff" motif is probably intended for canines. Since it seems unlikely that enough large ferals join human civlization to fuel the commercial production of such items, either there are larger dog breeds around or it was custom-made for Lucretia (arguing for the ferrets throwing money around in pursuit of their latest project as well as in pursuit of shiny things and treats).
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/ ... e-forever/
25) Miles recognizes a police uniform, even if he's not entirely sure - and is sensibly cautious about it.
26) Miles evidently implicity recognizes human dominance, and is not about to challenge it.
Note: Wolves - and especially North American wolves - are generally extremely timid around humans. In North America most of the (very few) recorded wolf attacks involve either rabies or children being attacked by wolves being kept as pets. In attacks on adults wolves often come off distinctly second best; for an example, consider Ben Cochrum, who killed eleven, and probably injured an unknown number, when attacked by wolves - shooting seven dead and clubbing four to death with his rifle stock before being overwhelmed. Healthy north american wolves normally only attack humans when starving. European and Asian wolves aren't as timid, but - for example - there are currently plenty of wolves who have regular routes through Paris at night, where they scavenge trash, before retreating to the nature preserves to hide during the day.
Note: Wolves living in human houses is apparently seriously odd. The police, however, have enough sense of realpolitik not to gratatiously argue with the extremely wealthy ferrets.
27) Miles either got his license card while Bill (the policeman) was on his way over, was allowed to go back into the house to get his pet license while confronting Bill (which seems unlikely), or somehow was carrying it with him.
Inference: Since Bill seems to recognize the card readily, it's probably an official standard, and laminated.
Speculation: Presuming the wolves do want to carry their licenses - which would be sensible - a simple bit of string, "dog tag" style chain, or a small velcro pouch would suffice to keep such licenses handy without them showing while nestled in all the fur.
Note: I, personally, get the distinct impression that Miles rather likes humans in general. This is, however, just an impression.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/ ... y-officer/
Note: There's nothing much here but a joke about pants.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/ ... han-human/
28) Miles has at least two brothers, and least one of whom is named Daryl.
29) Either the rest of the pack is not as familar with human customs as Miles is, or Daryl is a practical joker.
30) Daryl is weaing a cap with ear holes. Again, probably custom clothing for canines.
Inference: The wolves have no actual objection to clothing and such. They just don't need it at home.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/ ... mily-tree/
31) Miles has at least three children. He may or may not have more - either so far unseen, adult and moved out, or deceased.
Inference: Miles has been pack leader for at least a year, and probably for two or more.
Inference: Since Peanut feels that the three cubs seen so far constitute a “lotâ€, while they - judging from the variation in size - might represent more than one years worth of offspring - pets and wolves in the Housepets universe probably do not tend to have large litters. I find this preferable to the next most likely explanation - “many of the cubs are already dead†- in any case.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/21/puppy-power/
32) Miles apparently took Peanuts advice to "hide all his relatives" except Lucretia.
33) The housewarming party apparently went pretty well.
34) Miles has apparently settled on a shirt to try and fit in with the humans and put Bill at ease.
35) Wolves apparently move in with humans fairly often, although this is at least reputed to lead to violence, drugs, gambling, and a lack of pants.
36) Miles and Lucretia forgot to actually cook the steaks.
Inference: The wolves - and likely the other ferals - know a lot less about humans and human society than they think they do, and Miles evidently did not learn that lesson from his first encounter with human speciesism in the city. I'd suspect he's an optimist.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/ ... eing-bill/
37) The housewarming party visitors apparently did not meet the Wolf Cubs.
38) The Wolf Cubs have learned how to play chess. In contrast to Peanut and Grapes toy collection, however, the few other apparent toys in view are for physical games - a bat and a ball. I'm unsure as to what the green thing is, but the room is otherwise rather barren except for a wooden chest.
Inference: The wolves aren't nearly as into "things" as humans or pets. It also seem likely that Miles and Lucretia wish to encourage demanding physical and intellectual activities rather than time-wasting games.
Note: Peanut intends to introduce the cubs to video games, presumably the next time he comes over.
Inference: the wolves do have a television, but don't have a video game setup.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/26/how-terrible/
39) Fido apparently didn't call on the wolves to help search for Zach.
Inference: This is fairly thin, since we simply might not have seen them - but it's also possible that Fido is reluctant to ask wolves to go out searching for a rabbit that he wants to get back safely. That draws some minor support from the fact that one of Fido’s noted activities in Bino’s speech was “fighting feralsâ€.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/ ... oth-start/
40) The wolves don't seem to be at the Good Ol Dogs Club Christmas party. This doesn't actually tell us much, although I suspect that Peanut would have invited at least the cubs - but it may simply be because the wolves are trying to fit in with the humans, rather than with the pets. It might also be that the cubs are reluctant to leave their “denâ€.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/12/ ... hed-socks/
41) The cubs are familar with, and enjoy, the noise-making tradition around new years, but are unclear as to what it's really about.
Inference: Given the lack of depth, this smacks of superficial information acquired from the television.
Inference: Given that Grape is attracted by the noise, despite fireworks elsewhere, the wolves probably live very close to the Sandwiches - at least presuming that the cubs are in their own yard, which seems likely.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/01/01/gregory-who/
- The wolves are not wearing collars. This is presumably fine as long as they’re in their own yard - but in the Housepets universe it seems that the collars serve as (1) a place to carry things, (2) support for identification tags, (3) apparently some sort of legal requirement (thus Grape’s worry about being picked up by animal control and sent to the pound when Earl removed her collar at the convenience store), and 4) a quick and easy visual indicator that “this animal belongs to someone and has a place in societyâ€. All of those would seem likely to apply – especially because the Ferrets wanted them to be careful to obey all the rules, the better to take advantage of the loopholes.
If I were Miles, having observed the human reaction to random “Ferals†during his first visit to the city, I’d want to make sure that the pups were clearly identifiable at a glance as “part of civilization†and not “dangerous stray ferals who have wandered out of the woodsâ€. They might not like collars – but Daryl was already wearing a hat, so there’s evidently no fundamental objection to using something. Carry-packs, shoulder bags, safety vests, coats (as per Fox) and hats all come to mind. They shouldn’t be in danger of impoundment as long as they can produce their pet licences (wherever they wind up keeping them), but there are more direct dangers. Until quite recently in many areas in the US wolves were classified as an endangered species and were protected by some rather tough federal laws - and that didn’t keep people from shooting, trapping, and poisoning them. I doubt that we’ll actually see anything nearly so grim in Housepets – but there was the fate of Karl-Lenin Faust to show the readers that it’s possible. If those were my cubs I’d certainly consider it, just like warning them about crossing the street without looking.
Inference: Miles learned to read, and became familiar with both some Latin words and Ancient Rome, before reaching maturity and choosing his own name. Alternatively, the wolves could be passing down information about Ancient Rome through their own culture, or that information could have been provided in some other fashion (perhaps via Pete’s dreamsending) - but there’s nothing to support either hypothesis.
43) The cubs are definitely immature.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/01/ ... -nor-face/
- This bit is repeated from my commentary on the comic: ergo, it’s been marked here for easy skipping:
There are a few areas where it is or was traditional not to give children a name until they’re around two, mostly because – at least historically – the infant mortality rate was so high. If childhood mortality rate for wolf cubs in the Housepets universe bears any resemblance to the real-world rate, the same might apply here.
Fortunately for the cubs, Miles and Lucretia have already done one of the few things that will vastly increase their chance of survival – moving into human civilization. Moving into a zoo would offer similar benefits, which might help explain why the zookeepers would let Grape and Peanut persuade them to let the animals out for a scrabble tournament; the animals are all smart enough to know when they’re well off – and so can be relied on to go back “home†to their enclosures after the party is over.
Of course, virtually every human culture assigns at least a childhood use-name pretty much as soon as a child learns to talk and walk. That’s simple practicality; humans communicate so much information vocally that not being able to immediately indicate who you are addressing, calling, or (especially) warning of some danger, is a severe difficulty. Could you see trying to manage an elementary school without names of some sort?
Quite a few tribal cultures let people choose a name, or be given a new one, when they become officially adults. This becomes increasingly impractical as the society increases in size and as record-keeping becomes more important. It’s rather awkward to rely on the reputation you’ve built up, advertise your services, or refer people to your past performance when they have no way of being even reasonably sure that you’re actually referring to your own record.
In the cubs case, I’d bet that they have some sort of use-names (quite possibly the ones they just gave), no matter how traditionalist Miles is. After all, if they’re living with humans, they’ll need to have been given pet licences, rabies vaccines and such – and the vets and bureaucrats will need a name of some sort to file the records under, even if – like “Princess Periwinkle†– that name is subject to change later.
Possible Backstory for Miles and the Pack:
Miles was an exceptional cub. While all wolves are aware from an early age that the humans dominated their world, Miles wanted to know why - and so he made a habit of watching the hikers and picnickers who visited the woods near Babylon Gardens and even of poking around in the outskirts of human settlements.
He was seen a few times of course, but the forest visitors were expecting to see wildlife, and he carefully avoided contact with either humans, or their pets, when he ventured closer. Inevitably though he eventually bumped straight into a human.
Fortunately for him, that human was friendly - and was interested enough in a wolf that wanted to find out about people to talk to him several times. Inquiries eventually led to said human passing Miles a book or two on some of the topics he asked about - and then a few pointers on the alphabet and some reading glasses. Miles still had to do most of the work of learning to read on his own - but a few pointers certainly made it a lot easier. Miles lost touch with “his†human relatively quickly, but he had enough pointers already.
When he reached adulthood, and chose his name, he and several of the young packmates he’d talked about human culture to took names from that culture.
Eventually Miles and several other young wolves left their original pack - their interest in human culture already made them misfits - and moved into the unoccupied areas on the fringes of human territory; none of the other packs wanted to claim lands that close to humanity anyway.
Shortly thereafter, Miles became a father - and Lucretia started to think about what her children’s prospects were going to be like.
They weren’t all that good - but she was familiar enough with human civilization to recognize that joining it would be a vast improvement. She didn’t want to become a pet or zoo animal however; she’d like to join human civilization on equal terms to the humans.
That’s likely to be a great deal harder than the wolves naively thought - but hooking up with the ferrets was a very lucky start indeed.
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