2019/10/09 - Pet Pat Pot

Post by **D-Rock** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:04 am

[2019/10/09 - Pet Pat Pot]
Title Text: this means NOTHING, lower please

Wolves and putty have similar traits; they work great with gentle hands.

dr_eirik · Post by **dr_eirik** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:06 am

Did Lois just guess on that reaction or did she have a talk with some of the cubs at the school? And I guess Marion is jealous. I'll bet she hasn't scratched him under the chin yet!

Nobody · Post by **Nobody** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:07 am

Marion will remember this . . .

fenrirblack · Post by **fenrirblack** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:08 am

Are we jealous Marion? Jealous that Lois doesn't scratch you under the chin like that?

Feral, undomesticated? Dude, you work at the zoo in a exhibit. You've been living in a house for ten years. Get over yourself.

Oh, Poncho. You think he would have learned. Well at least this time turned out better than the last

Lois isn't wearing gloves this time. Someone's living dangerously.

Now they know Thomas's name. Progress!

leinglo · Post by **leinglo** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:10 am

Seems like scritches and petting are horrifyingly effective interrogation techniques for dogs.

LunarFox · Post by **LunarFox** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:12 am

Nobody wrote:Marion will remember this . . .

Why does it feel like that's from a choose your own adventure game or something like that? Anyways, here's another poem!

Still a third wheel, Marion?
Well, that just goes to show
That Lois sure is wittier
Than you could ever know.

Poncho seems a good boy,
He's got hearts in his eyes,
Marion, use some patience, please,
Just try it on for size.

Just because you're feral, Poncho,
Doesn't mean you're not cute,
She's got the info, now we'll know
Where Thomas stashed the loot.

Pit, pat, pot,
it's only a means to an end,
But Marion's having none of it,
He wants his journey to end.

Well, Marion, at least we're nearly there,
Or so it seems to me,
So soon we'll get our answers,
And leave Thomas be.

EDIT: [In other words, we have another poem!]

dr_eirik · Post by **dr_eirik** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:13 am

leinglo wrote:Seems like scritches and petting are horrifyingly effective interrogation techniques for dogs.

Never known a canine that couldn't be tamed by a good scratch.

Now, will that work on camels?

Welsh Halfwit · Post by **Welsh Halfwit** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:15 am

LunarFox wrote: [In other words, we have TWO poets on the forums now!]

Thought you'd been here a few weeks?(!)

She’s found his Achilles chin
and scritches for all she’s worth;
ignoring the murderous Squirrel,
who’s watching without any mirth.
She knows how to get her way -
and Poncho doesn’t really care -
he’ll fight her all the w…
No, don’t stop. That’s it. Right there.
The hunt for Thomas proceeds
and, now, they know how he looks;
but will the grump agree to help
or tell them to sling their hooks?

fenrirblack · Post by **fenrirblack** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:16 am

dr_eirik wrote:
leinglo wrote:Seems like scritches and petting are horrifyingly effective interrogation techniques for dogs.
Never known a canine that couldn't be tamed by a good scratch.

Now, will that work on camels?

Okay, she has to have a pet of her own. I don't know if its a cast member or not but she has to have someone to practice on.

LunarFox · Post by **LunarFox** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:16 am

dr_eirik wrote:
leinglo wrote:Seems like scritches and petting are horrifyingly effective interrogation techniques for dogs.
Never known a canine that couldn't be tamed by a good scratch.

Now, will that work on camels?

No idea, but I hope so!

Yeah, Welsh, I have been. Nice to see another poem of yours!

Ash Greytree · Post by **Ash Greytree** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:22 am

Nobody wrote:Marion will remember this . . .

Dangit! I wanted to make the Telltale Games joke!

Anyways, yeah, as most people called, Lois used flattery and the power of pets and chin skritches to aid Marion. Poncho was very much just there to tell them they duo to get back to school, rather than to stop them from meeting up with Thomas. My thoughts of Keene and Lana having a possible conspiracy to keep Marion a squirrel and use him to their own ends in the ECP have been quelled. It occurred to me as well that a lot of folks in Babylon Gardens would in fact benefit from any info that could get goaded out of Thomas, and that there’d be no big harm in trying. Definitely excited to see how this conversation/interrogation goes...

Elwood Blutarsky · Post by **Elwood Blutarsky** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:23 am

How much you want to bet Lois has a dog? She knows all the right moves.

dr_eirik · Post by **dr_eirik** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:25 am

fenrirblack wrote:
dr_eirik wrote:
leinglo wrote:Seems like scritches and petting are horrifyingly effective interrogation techniques for dogs.
Never known a canine that couldn't be tamed by a good scratch.

Now, will that work on camels?
Okay, she has to have a pet of her own. I don't know if its a cast member or not but she has to have someone to practice on.

She doesn't have to. She might just have good instincts.

The thought occured to me: Does Poncho have a crush on Lois now? Will he follow her around like a puppy if they run into each other in the neighborhood?

I realize that, most likely, this is his cue to fade away for now. But I would love to see him interact with her later.

LunarFox · Post by **LunarFox** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:25 am

Ash Greytree wrote:
Nobody wrote:Marion will remember this . . .
Dangit! I wanted to make the Telltale Games joke!

Anyways, yeah, as most people called, Lois used flattery and the power of pets and chin skritches to aid Marion. Poncho was very much just there to tell them they duo to get back to school, rather than to stop them from meeting up with Thomas. My thoughts of Keene and Lana having a possible conspiracy to keep Marion a squirrel and use him to their own ends in the ECP have been quelled. It occurred to me as well that a lot of folks in Babylon Gardens would in fact benefit from any info that could get goaded out of Thomas, and that there’d be no big harm in trying. Definitely excited to see how this conversation/interrogation goes...

Me too! Thanks for reminding me where that line came from!

Random question: Does anyone know what the Google bot is on the forums for?

Champion Wallace · Post by **Champion Wallace** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:34 am

Xane wrote:"WHAT!!! I'VE BEEN PET!!!"

For everyone else's benefit so you don't have to look it up like me, In the game Undertale near the start is a stoic guard dog named Doggo blocking your path. The way to get past non-violently is to pet him, making him super excited. The first words out of his mouth are "WHAT!!! I'VE BEEN PET!!!", the next ten-ish words out of his mouth are "PET?", "PAT?", and "POT?" in a random order.

LunarFox · Post by **LunarFox** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:42 am

Champion Wallace wrote:
Xane wrote:"WHAT!!! I'VE BEEN PET!!!"
For everyone else's benefit so you don't have to look it up like me, In the game Undertale near the start is a stoic guard dog named Doggo blocking your path. The way to get past non-violently is to pet him, making him super excited. The first words out of his mouth are "WHAT!!! I'VE BEEN PET!!!", the next ten-ish words out of his mouth are "PET?", "PAT?", and "POT?" in a random order.

I love it when Rick slips in references like these!

Elwood Blutarsky wrote:How much you want to bet Lois has a dog? She knows all the right moves.

How much you want to bet she'll be one by the end of this?

IceKitsune · Post by **IceKitsune** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:46 am

Putty Wolf! He fell pretty quick

TheSilverFox51 · Post by **TheSilverFox51** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:01 am

Dogs are still dogs. :/

Gbr23 · Post by **Gbr23** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:04 am

And that’s a history lesson on how ancient humans domesticated wolves

HundKatzeMaus · Post by **HundKatzeMaus** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:14 am

I don't know if Lois has a pet or not, but she sure knows how to handle one.
My cat likes being petted like that too. I think most pets do.
Poor Poncho didn't had a chance

fenrirblack · Post by **fenrirblack** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:14 am

There has always been something that's bothered me when it comes to the HPU or any work that deals with anthropomorphic animals and that is the feral versus tame dynamic? How does one begin to define what it means to be "feral?" In the HPU, it seems that feral just means wild and without an owner or master. Poncho calls himself a wild, undomesticated animal and while it is a joke and completely untrue, it is possible that he does still see himself as a "wild animal" like it is something he is proud of. Can he technically be a "wild" animal when he works for the zoo, lives in a home provided by the Miltons, eats food bought at a store, and so on. The answer really is no. But what of the other animals who are "feral?" How are they feral besides the fact they live on their own in the woods and have little or no contact with the civilization? They in their own way are tame in the sense they are intelligent enough to be able to function in society but choose not too. Lois's question about being "tame" now is odd. In a sense of the word, they were always tame. I find it hard to believe (mostly because we have not seen it) that an animal would attack a human unprovoked or see a human as a source of food like in the real world. If a "wild" wolf attacked it would be like any other animal in that they perceive the human as a threat but in the HPU they are smart enough to judge the situation and make a intelligent call to defend or flee or even talk like any human could. Neither feral or tame can really apply to them or any of the animals because they know better than to attack a human or commit a crime. They hunt for food just like any human and live in their own version of civilization. So how are the animals any different or any lesser than the humans other than they choose to remain separate? If this speech had a point (they usually don't but I have thoughts that need to be expressed) it would be this: It facilitates me that their is this divide on both sides where while humans are resistant to seeing animals as more than mindless beasts, the animals resist the idea that they can be equal to humans or even begin to coexist. Poncho's wording is strange to me. Someone who has lived with and among, and for humans for so many years still can't admit that maybe they are more similar than they want to admit. Feral and tame don't apply because those words are meant for real animals in the real world. Humans see animals with fear especially predators but why? I'm sure there are those animals who would just like there are humans who hurt and kill each other for pleasure but would there be enough to establish a norm or a stereotype especially in these modern times? If that is the case, then it is more important then they realize that a universal norm has to be established that there are certain things you don't do no matter if you are human, animal, domesticated, or wild.
Domesticated would be a better word than tame because it more implied that the animal in question is reliant on the society for survival. Tame implies that the animal was a savage beast that submitted to the whims of man through force or coercion.

Post by **Obbl** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:28 am

But it isn't really that surprising, because people make similar distinctions and hierarchies among themselves for even more arbitrary reasons, and those shunted into the lower levels of the hierarchy also buy into it with alarming frequency. Like, if we want to actually get deep into the psychological rationale for a lot of the setup in Housepets!, we'll end up far down a dark road really quickly

But everything I'm reading in your post has parallels in the way humans have treated (and continue to treat) other humans.
Also, I like the possibility that feral animals have hunted humans they way they hunt other animals until fairly recently (especially out away from major hubs), so the stereotypes and views of "wild and dangerous creatures" still linger in everyone's minds

NHWestoN · Post by **NHWestoN** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:40 am

Nobody wrote:Marion will remember this . . .

Remember which - the technique or the disgust?

Oxymoronic_Gryphon · Post by **Oxymoronic_Gryphon** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:50 am

Okay, this is clearly why humans retain social and societal dominance, even with however many other equally-intelligent species on the planet. That extra finger allows for far better scritches.

Makes me wonder about other great apes, do they have the fourth finger of humans? If they do, how far down the primate tree do you have to go before it's no longer there? Or if they don't, is it only homo sapiens that have the fourth finger of scritching, or did other homonids bear it as well? Neanderthals were in all likelihood smarter than us, but couldn't handle as large social groups - does that mean they didn't have the fourth finger?

If modern humans are truly the only species that ever sported the fifth digit on all four limbs in HPU, how many human supremacist groups latched onto that as evidence of us being 'above the beasts'/'chosen by (the) god(s)', and how many other loons latched onto it as it being evidence that our species originated from another planet? If all homonids did, well for one thing that makes the Neanderthal and Denisovian DNA that most humans have from interbreeding not mean they might be born without the fifth digit, so that would be good, and for another it would provide a sharp divide between homonids and other great apes, which iirc irl we've only sort of got, and mostly only by tacit agreement rather than any specific features that mark us out as different.

Saturn381 · Post by **Saturn381** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 2:14 am

I guess you're not feral after all, Poncho.

VeryAngryDeer · Post by **VeryAngryDeer** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 5:06 am

Marion deserves scritches on the next page.

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 5:44 am

WH-B-D-LADY .. what words was he suppressing there?

Gbr23 wrote:And that’s a history lesson on how ancient humans domesticated wolves

Technically, they domesticated each other...

fenrirblack wrote:Domesticated would be a better word than tame because it more implied that the animal in question is reliant on the society for survival. Tame implies that the animal was a savage beast that submitted to the whims of man through force or coercion.

Domestication is the wrong word. Domestication is an inherited trait. A wild species acclimatized to humans is tame. A domesticated animal not acclimatized to humans is feral.

The only carnivores that are domesticated are the dog (a subspecies of wolf), cat (derived from a North African wild cat), and ferret (domesticated polecat). There are other carnivores that are commonly tamed and put to work, like the miner's cat, or the otter in South Asia, but they are tame members of wild species.

Oxymoronic_Gryphon wrote:Makes me wonder about other great apes, do they have the fourth finger of humans?

I don't know, but in our world great apes have taken dogs and cats as pets and, well, petted them.

trekkie · Post by **trekkie** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 5:54 am

Marion does seem to be little jealous, I hope he gets some love in the coming panels. They did find out what they needed to know, though, looks like they’re talking to Thomas soon.

Post by **SeanWolf** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 7:20 am

So it was just a way for Lois to find out where the camel was.....Ah, I'll still her and Poncho

Nathan Kerbonaut · Post by **Nathan Kerbonaut** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 7:51 am

I'm jealous, too. I wish give scritches like that. Why do folks in the HPU get all the fun?

GameCobra · Post by **GameCobra** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 11:21 am

We need more of these in the comic. :3

dr_eirik · Post by **dr_eirik** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 11:37 am

Argent wrote:WH-B-D-LADY .. what words was he suppressing there?

I think the first two could be "What? But!"

I can't think of a "D" word other than Dang or some other phase used when blocking a river to create a reservoir.

So, next page is likely to be the meeting of the transformed (plus Lois). Wonder if Thomas is going to know what's going on? And will Poncho hang around as a... bodyguard. Yeah, that's the ticket...

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:03 pm

Oh hey look at that. Just what most of us have expected that Lois was only trying to charm Poncho to give up the location of Thomas. Of course it is gonna work, despite what he said back in "Call o' th' Wild", if any female species flirts with him, it is most likely gonna end with him falling for them. XD

Cesco · Post by **Cesco** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:07 pm

Ahahah, pets are so efficient!

And now you got the info you were looking for.

Aww, Poncho is so adorable, where did he hide his cuteness in all these years?

If here we have humans turned into animals, then we can well have domesticated wolves.

Alright, Marion, you want pets too, don't you?

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:08 pm

I think the reason why we haven't notice how totes adorb Poncho really is because we haven't seen him front and center on the comic for a while. He usually appeared with the rest of the Wolf Pack.

dr_eirik · Post by **dr_eirik** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:18 pm

Amazee Dayzee wrote:I think the reason why we haven't notice how totes adorb Poncho really is because we haven't seen him front and center on the comic for a while. He usually appeared with the rest of the Wolf Pack.

Also, this little quirk of his only really showed up in a big way with Gale, and there is felt like it was something of a childhood crush he never really grew out of. I think now it looks like he's susceptible to females of any species.

Come to think of it, that almost seems like a minor theme with some of the characters. Sabrina called Max out about that regarding Rufus.

Still thinking that Lois didn't just try this out of the blue since I doubt it would work as well on some of the other wolves. I'm going to believe she spoke with either one of the cubs or even Miles (who isn't exactly great at keeping secrets) and learned Ponchos kryptonite before she ever got to the zoo until proven otherwise.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:23 pm

Of course she didn't do it out of the blue. We really haven't gotten to know her much, but she does seem like she is calculating enough to only take a risk if it will pay off.

fenrirblack · Post by **fenrirblack** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 1:51 pm

Argent wrote:
fenrirblack wrote:Domesticated would be a better word than tame because it more implied that the animal in question is reliant on the society for survival. Tame implies that the animal was a savage beast that submitted to the whims of man through force or coercion.
Domestication is the wrong word. Domestication is an inherited trait. A wild species acclimatized to humans is tame. A domesticated animal not acclimatized to humans is feral.

Okay, so I didn't look up the technical definitions before. The definitions isn't nearly as important as the implications being implied by using the words. Lois shouldn't be asking if Poncho is "tame" because that implies that he was some wild savage beast before joining the ECP. In other words it's insensitive. It would be like saying a human who has lived the last ten years in a secluded cabin in the woods then comes back to live in the city is now "tame." It would imply that living alone in the woods makes one "feral" (in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication) which itself has negative connotations. What I'm trying to say is by asking if Poncho is now "tame" implies that he wasn't tame before. Now that I have take the time to google the word "tame" it technically means "not dangerous or frightened of people" so that means Lois is implying they (specially Poncho) were dangerous to people before joining the ECP which is wrong.

TendoTwo · Post by **TendoTwo** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 2:30 pm

Wow, they broke out the heart-eyes for this one.

dr_eirik · Post by **dr_eirik** » Wed Oct 09, 2019 2:38 pm

fenrirblack wrote: Okay, so I didn't look up the technical definitions before. The definitions isn't nearly as important as the implications being implied by using the words. Lois shouldn't be asking if Poncho is "tame" because that implies that he was some wild savage beast before joining the ECP. In other words it's insensitive. It would be like saying a human who has lived the last ten years in a secluded cabin in the woods then comes back to live in the city is now "tame." It would imply that living alone in the woods makes one "feral" (in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication) which itself has negative connotations. What I'm trying to say is by asking if Poncho is now "tame" implies that he wasn't tame before. Now that I have take the time to google the word "tame" it technically means "not dangerous or frightened of people" so that means Lois is implying they (specially Poncho) were dangerous to people before joining the ECP which is wrong.

There is one other factor to consider: Poncho specifically. Given that he, in his mind, is still a dangerous feral (even if he's really a pushover) then a word that we might find a bit off-putting would appeal to him. A word that implies that he was once (and perhaps is still) dangerous would be more likely to butter him up.

All ferals might not respond to that, but I suspect a young male wolf would.