Since Grape and Peanut featured in the initial arcs, their early adventures established a lot of the background material for the Housepets universe - such as the pets:
- *Being bipedal, sapient, tool-using, and talkative - qualities they share with many wild animals.
*Learning at a fabulous rate. Despite being less than six years old, both Grape and Peanut have a remarkable vocabulary, have studied several subjects at least casually, and demonstrate a wealth of background knowledge including many obscure references. It's unclear as to whether "judgement" or "common sense" ever catch up with their other mental attributes in most pets.
*Tending to refer to their owners as if they were their parents.
*Tending to see other pets in the same household as semi-siblings.
*Tending to be treated - as least by the more considerate owners who aren't running farms or pet shops - as surrogate children.
*Tending to be fairly obliging - and domesticated.
*Being generally free to wander around the neighborhood, visit friends, watch television, and play video games.
*Being legally property. They can be subjected to medical treatments without their consent, bred, and their children sold or given away, at their owners discretion. Pets have few legal rights, and Ferals have none.
*There is a mention or two from the forums that animals have a brief education in being pets at a sort of "boot camp". The extent of this is unknown.
*Being subject to "strip reality"; their sexes mostly aren't immediately apparent (this is lampshaded or used as a gag in several strips), Joey’s silly disguises apparently usually work, slices of pumpkin bend like meat, and so on.
*Being in a clearly human-dominated world, with enough similarities to reality to make it immediately familiar to the readers.
*The reasons for human domination have never been explained. Given that the animals sapience has been stated to be natural, yet various human-manipulated breeds are apparent, we wind up with either (1) the world is a relatively recent creation or was transformed somehow (and this presumably falls under being "natural"), (2) the "animals" have some fairly drastic physical or mental limitations that kept them from competing effectively with early humans, (3) humans are very ruthless, somewhat cruel, and have some natural method of enforcing their dominance, (4) early humans were really lucky - scenarios such as the early domestication of dogs and breeding them into a legion of ruthlessly loyal enforcers come to mind (this makes a certain amount of sense, and gains some support from the large numbers of police dogs and Fox's military tags - as well as Fox’s recently apparent ability to easily beat up Bino while acquiring no apparent injuries himself - but I don't think that the resulting vision of legions of heavily-armed miltary three-year-old-pups really fits in with the Housepets universe), (5) this is a comic strip and it's one of the background assumptions, and thus does not need an explanation any more than the other laws of nature do, or (6) anything else you can dream up.
So on to Grape in particular...
1) Grape's tag is a fish (while Peanut's is a bone). These are more directly species-related than any other tags yet shown.
2) Grape likes to sleep - and to play "lets pretend" or informal RPG's (if there's any difference). Inference: Judging by the presence of prepared paper hats, this is a common occurrence.
3) Grape has a short temper.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/06/ ... m-strikes/
4) Grape often does not think ahead - and may be a bit too imaginative.
5) Grape has no objections to showering herself with water as part of a game. She’s probably used to regular, mandatory, baths.
Inference: Grape and Peanut are normally trusted to behave themselves on their own in the house. They may not be so trusted again for a week or so after this though.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/06/ ... eanliness/
6) Grape's naps apparently get disturbed a lot; this is probably pretty routine whenever Peanut gets bored or upset and/or their “parents†aren’t around.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/06/ ... me-i-mean/
7) Grape is either a fairly sophisticated logician or has examined published material on The Game enough to be easily able to quote arguments about it.
Note: This is possible evidence for the pets being very quick to memorize information, for Grape being exceptional, or for both.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/06/23/no-escape/
8) Grape seems to think that a lot of the local dogs are crazy - or at least the ones that hang out with Bino are - and concludes that she is foolish to keep trying to reason with them anyway. In at least this case, she’s probably right.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/06/ ... annot-win/
9) Grape is apparently reluctant to eat squirrels. Of course, given the “I regret nothing!†line - followed by a casual escape - in the next strip, the “trapped in a tree†routine is probably either simply to taunt Bino or for her own amusement.
Note: Someone trusts Bino with access to power tools. Humans in this world may be quite mad.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/06/ ... no-escape/
10) Grape and Peanut have a wide variety of games and toys, as well as what is apparently their own playroom.
Inference: their owners are quite indulgent and presumably have a comfortable lifestyle themselves.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/07/ ... -at-age-8/
11) Grape can safely consume chocolate-covered espresso beans (and gets the standard cartoon high-speed vibration from doing so). Evidently animals in the Housepets universe have fewer biophysical differences from humans than real animals - indicating greater compatibility with humans, and each other, than is normally the case.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/07/11/a-real-buzz/
12) Grape subscribes to at least some of the local pet community prejudices about interspecies relationships.
Note: As demonstrated in the “Farm†arc, this is not a universal prejudice. This is probably because the pets do - of course - want to have close personal relationships, but probably do not want human intervention or population control measures being applied to their personal lives. Interspecies relationships are safe.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/07/ ... od-artist/
13) Grape apparently has accepted Joey’s “cat†identity, and his catsuit, as the real thing up until this point.
Inference: either Joey is very good at this sort of thing, or the strips "reality" follows it's artwork - most likely the latter considering the pets inability to determine each others gender easily.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/07/30/hey-dude/
14) Grape really is good friends with Peanut; she’s willing to give his artwork another chance despite her bias.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/08/ ... -for-dogs/
15) Grape is female.
Note: At this point, “comic book recognition†is pretty much proven - wherein disguises that would not fool a five-year-old for thirty seconds are nigh-impenetrable because actually making it hard for the reader to recognize the characters fouls up the jokes and makes the storyline hard to follow.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/08/ ... a-nowhere/
16) Housepets cats are evidently far more individualist than Housepets dogs.
17) Grape and Peanut have free access to the refrigerator, the soda, and the ice cream. They evidently have very indulgent owners - who have gotten over the “flooding the living room†incident.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/08/ ... -platonic/
18) Grape is at least on even physical terms with feral raccoons.
19) Grape’s nightsight may not be all that good, otherwise she might not have turned on the light - especially since if her nightsight was very good, that would temporarily blind her. More evidence that the Pets resemble humans on quite a lot of levels.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/08/11/dont-shoot/
20) Grape is both willing, and able, to run off multiple feral opponents to protect her home.
Inference: Housepets Cats are more formidable in terms of their relationships to other animals than real-world cats are. This may be a result of selective breeding if some of the more violent world-origin speculations are accurate.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/08/13/stick-em-up/
21) Grape is - at least for comedic effect - smarter than her owners, and capable of working with locks.
22) Grape is also quite obliging; she cleaned up the mess, rather than leaving it for the silly humans who installed pet flaps to take care of.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/08/15/a-minor-flaw/
23) Grape apparently likes dog biscuits.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/09/ ... ve-of-him/
24) Grape is quick to resort to casual violence. This may be fairly common among cats.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/09/ ... -violence/
25) Grape has no qualms about eating annoying sapient mice and other small animals. This seems to be common to Cats, since Sabrina is later noted as an exception.
Inference: Housepets Cats make much better house-guardians than real-world cats do.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/10/ ... o-get-off/
26) Grape - unsurprisingly - objects to leash ordinances.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/10/ ... ll-travel/
27) Grape likes to visit the big cats in the zoo.
Note: Despite the (apparent) weight listed for the Tiger, he doesn’t look much larger than a normal human.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/10/ ... thy-brain/
27) Grape and Peanut are friends with numerous Zoo animals, and visit fairly regularly.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/10/ ... p-paddock/
28) Grape is not entirely clear on human anatomy. Apparently such details are not commonly shared with Pets.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/10/ ... rathustra/
29) Grape is substantially more competent than Peanut.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/11/ ... e-animals/
30) Grape gets a "meager" allowance. Judging by their toy collection and general treatment it may actually be quite generous by pet standards.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/11/ ... -literate/
31) This strip necessarily takes place AFTER this strip from the "about" section (which establishes that Grape and Peanut can collude, and manipulate, as well as most human children). Unfortunately, that strip doesn't provide enough information to be placed more precisely in the normal chronology. It does establish that Grape and Peanut get a relatively small allowance and that Grape dislikes Bino.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/wp-conte ... 11/003.jpg
- This isn’t related to Grape, but could be read to provide some support for the human-dominance through the use of legions of cats-and-dogs theory.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/10/ ... er-whales/
Note: This strip establishes that birds are sapient and can either talk or effectively communicate with humans in some other fashion in the Housepets universe.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/10/ ... et-buffet/
33) Grape has little respect for human modesty. Hardly surprising when all you normally wear is a collar.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/11/ ... -business/
34) Grape is aware of telepathy in dolphins, but does not believe in magical griffins.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/11/ ... cal-value/
35) Grape is at least somewhat genre-savvy.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/11/ ... as-an-emu/
36) Grape is something of a cynic, at least judging by her opinions about Santa Claus.
Inference: Unlike many comics, Santa Claus is probably not real in the Housepets universe.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/12/ ... abor-laws/
37) Grape knows Maxwell and Sabrina, knows of Marvin, and doesn't know too many other cats.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/12/ ... hats-a-no/
38) Grape meets some other cats - and discovers that Joey is indeed more integrated with the neighborhood cats than she is. This is probably embarrassing, not least because the fact that she now knows his secret allows her to recognize him easily while before she apparently could not.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/12/ ... more-cats/
39) Grape occasionally uses Catnip.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/01/ ... t-a-crime/
40) Grape does NOT like going to the vets - to the point where her owners mislead her about it.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/01/ ... tatistics/
41) Grape was adopted from an animal shelter as a Kitten, and was originally named Princess Periwinkle - a name she now does not like and finds embarrassing.
Inference: At this point Grape is only a year - or perhaps two (depending on whether the "yearly checkup" implied is bi-yearly to match the pets increased lifespans) - out of kittenhood and - given the implied growth rate - was probably well under a year old at that time. Ergo, Grape is quite young, although she could be anything form not too far past one (presuming that she was a few months old when adopted and yearly checkups) to nearly four (presuming almost two when adopted and bi-yearly checkups).
Inference: While physical maturity is probably slowed compared to actual cats and dogs, reproductive maturity is delayed a good deal longer in comparison, and the pets reproduction rate is probably a great deal slower than it is with actual cats and dogs. This is good. It eliminates a lot of nightmare scenarios.
Deduction: Pets acquire language, basic tool and motor skills, and background knowledge, with incredible speed. Why humans seem to dominate the world is an open question - although it may hinge upon elements such as mass cooperation, superior judgement (subverted for comic effect occasionally), and doing better with more technical subjects; the pets rarely seem to be much for organized knowledge or research.
Observation: The pets seem to have basically human-child level strength (if that) judging from the ease with which Earl Sandwich holds onto Grapes leash despite her pulling with both hands. Since a normal animal their size could be expected to be substantially stronger than that, evidently animals in the Housepets universe share humanities neotonous characteristics as well as intelligence. If this general relationship extends to other physical characteristics, it may be a reason WHY humans are so dominant; they develop more slowly, but - in the end - they may actually be substantially tougher. On the other hand, we also have the police dogs being expected to take down humans, which argues against such a theory. Oh well.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/01/ ... ough-pain/
42) Grape has bad childhood memories of her last visit to the vet, and was much smaller than. Observation: physical growth and maturity for pets must be very rapid indeed.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/01/ ... -memories/
43) Grape doesn't like shots either.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/01/ ... -medicine/
44) Grape also does not like clothing - or at least not "cute" clothing.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/ ... -stitches/
45) Grape is a practical problem-solver - if, perhaps, unconcerned with the ethics of her solutions.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/ ... over-then/
46) Grape is enjoying reading "The Pridelands" - and considers large posters of lions in tribal dress "eye candy".
47) Grape has been reading the series - now on it's third volume - "since she was a kitten". Evidently the movie is a recent development.
Inference: Enough people are indulgent of their pets to pay for the production of pet-specific books, movies, and other big-budget entertainment products. Treating them as surrogate children - or possibly as highly-valued aides and servants - is evidently not uncommon.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/16/book-smarts/
48) Peanut reads much more quickly than Grape - and may have a near-eidetic memory. If this is a common thing in pets, it might explain the common combination of extensive background knowledge coupled with - apparently - poor judgement; they acquire facts quickly and easily, but are poor at using them and subject to powerful instincts (such as the Dogs "Zoning" behavior).
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/03/ ... -mistress/
49) Grape and Peanut are inclined to celebrate outings - even though some of them turn out to be to the vet.
Inference: Grape and Peanut are not fully acquainted with all the details of their extended human “familyâ€.
Inference: Pets are commonly left to pick up many details on their own, which may help explain their eclectic educations.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/06/08/no-excuses/
50) Grape feels naked without her collar - and is genre savvy enough to recognize the incongruity.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/06/ ... ternative/
Note: People can "call the pound" on pets without their collars.
51) Grape has abandonment issues, and reacts quite emotionally to any suggestion that her "parents" might not want her. She also doesn't like having her reassurance interrupted.
Inference: Grape hated the animal shelter, and does not like to even consider the possibility of being returned there.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/06/ ... lled-milk/
52) Grape writes fan-fiction. It's likely that "Gapre" - and her instant romance - is a self-insert given her embarrassment about having Peanut see what she's writing.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/06/ ... nd-taking/
53) Grape is not above harassing cows about the fact that they're going to be eaten. While cows are apparently sapient and talkative enough to understand, they apparently don't care much - according to the alt text due to a mixture of obliviousness and indifference. This might also indicate that Grape is a cat, a predator, and a little mean, fitting in nicely with the earlier "revolutionary mice" episode.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/07/ ... your-food/
54) Grape likes slow-motion pillow-fighting. She may or may not be aware of the effect this has on Peanut.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/07/ ... s-too-far/
55) Grape does NOT want to consider herself a dog-lover, or to be seen that way - although the farm cats apparently see nothing wrong with it.
Note: This was already discussed earlier.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/07/ ... g-reasons/
56) Grape makes a date with Max - and is apparently quite unaware the Peanut seems to have a crush on her.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/07/ ... t-nothing/
57) Grape does apparently consider Peanut her best friend ever.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/ ... t-it-much/
58) Peanut is apparently also somewhat genre-savvy, as well as something of a changeover artist.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/ ... -fabulous/
59) Genre-rules on display again. Combing out Grapes eyelashes is enough to take her from "gender indeterminate" to "definitely female".
60) Grape still does not like Bino, and is pleased to see him injured. Again, “cattishâ€.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/ ... on-parade/
Note: The pets apparently do raid the trash for food - on a semi-formal or formal basis.
Deduction: the pets in Babylon Gardens do not have much of an independent culture; they're apparently adopted fairly early and raised by their owners - and thus tend to reflect human cultural norms and oddities.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/ ... kill-cafe/
61) Grape still likes dog biscuits - or at least uses that for an excuse to hang out with dogs.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/ ... -smooches/
62) Grape is genre savvy again - and knows that pets pick up excess baggage while trying to emulate their human owners. .
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/08/ ... e-corners/
63) Grape apparently distrusts psychic abilities (or the pretense thereof, since she wasn't looking out of the closet when a physical effect was demonstrated, and thus may not have realized that Tarot was probably for real) - at least in dogs - and would prefer that Tarot go away.
64) Grape does accept Tarot’s presence quite quickly after she observes Tarot's prediction coming true.
65) Grape is now definitely informed that Peanut has - or at least had - a crush on her.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/09/ ... otherwise/
66) Grapes patience with "The Adventures of Spot" does NOT extend to what are apparently hundreds of pages of supplementary material.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/09/ ... -probably/
67) Grape at least attempts to write embarrassing fan-mail to the actors who appear in The Pridelands movies.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/09/25/dear-tabby/
68) Grape is not too worried about wolves moving into the neighborhood. Evidently she feels pretty secure.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/09/ ... n-my-room/
69) Grape recognizes chess gambits on sight, from across the room.
Inference: Grape has very good eyes - and we have more evidence for an eidetic memory and faulty judgement.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/10/26/how-terrible/
70) Grape has at least partial recall of her dream about Pete.
Note: As demonstrated later, it seems to be very good recall indeed; perhaps pets have problems telling the difference between dreams and reality to go with superb memories? That could be quite awkward.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/ ... -favorite/
71) Grape is - again - larger and more threatening than the feral raccoons.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/ ... hall-pass/
72) Grape either cannot receive telepathic messages from Tarot (possibly because Pete got to her first) or Tarot is incapable of sending them to her - perhaps due to distance coupled with the lack of an emotional bond or to Grapes possible active dislike/distrust of Tarot.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/11/23/so-cool/
73) Grape - upset about Pete's release - has compiled a comprehensive list of "Petes" in the area, and is quite suspicious. She may now be placing more credence in Tarot’s dire-sounding prophecies.
https://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/12/ ... christmas/
Oddly enough, while we have more observations on Grape and Peanut than on any other characters in the strip, they’ve also revealed relatively little of their histories.
Probable historical basics for Grape:
Grape was previously owned by someone who named her Princess Periwinkle and then abandoned her as a kitten - whether by dropping her off at an animal shelter or simply by dumping her somewhere. Understandably, she found this quite traumatic, and continues to have major issues with being without her collar (and thus vulnerable to being returned to the pound or an animal shelter) or with any suggestion of abandonment.
Grape is apparently somewhat exceptional - whether due to her upbringing by the Sandwiches or due to natural talent. She is remarkably bright and logical for an animal who is (even now) only about four years old. She learned to read at a remarkably young age, and has been a fan of the Prideland series since kittenhood - although she may not have been introduced to the series until after the Sandwiches adopted her.
Grape was taken to the vets at least once before after the Sandwiches adopted her, but retains only vague and distorted memories of the trip, during which she was apparently terrified. She still has problems with vets, shots, and such trips due to this old trauma - and tended to assume that the same must apply to Peanut (and was rather offended that it did not).
Having lived with the Sandwiches for at least one year, and possibly for two, Grape has become quite familiar with Peanut’s habits and routine, but is still willing to tolerate them - and has been joining in, or leading, impromptu role-playing sessions since very early on in their association. Oddly enough, however, the fact that she was female apparently never came up in that time...
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