Backstage Pass #15 (Patreon)

On this week’s edition of Backstage Pass, I’ll be talking about…

Getting my cats. Yes, this is tonally a very weird Backstage Pass. But these segments aren’t supposed to just be about comic stuff, they’re meant to include more backstage-y stuff! And also I want an excuse to talk about my (now not so) new cats. You can skip this one if you’re not into animal talk!

This, is Chowder.

I like to tell strangers that he’s a Birman Manx mix, but the reality is that he’s a stinky lil mutt and I have no idea who his dad is. This guy maybe??

Or maybe this cryptid I saw 3 minutes later:

Neither pay child support, so it matters not. What does matter is that he’s the first cat I’ve taken care of living on my own, and he makes for good company.

Born a few days away from my birthday, Chowder is part of a litter of seven, queened by my mom’s Manx mutt! Shortly after he was born was the peak of the devastating wildfire season in Oregon last year, and I was worried him and his littermates would develop breathing problems as a result of all the ash in the sky. They thankfully have been happy and healthy, and I got the opportunity to bond with the litter very early on and spend a lot of time with them before making my selection.

Going in, I was confident I would choose his sister (the other point-marking cat) over him, based on one factor alone:
His butt was smooth, and it weirded me out.

Manx cats are a unique breed in that they’re born with bobtails! Sometimes though, they don’t even have that much, and have a completely smooth butt. Chowder fell into this category. My mom, however, was convinced I’d end up choosing him. My sister thought the same.

And… He grew on me.

Look at that. You can’t look at that handsome face and not be immediately smitten.

Joking aside, I liked his personality. He was very mellow compared to the other kittens, and enjoyed the company of humans. Once he hit eight weeks, I started taking him over to my house for an occasional sleepover before he found permanent residence when he was around ten weeks old!

Since then he’s been my drawing buddy...

Walking buddy…

Backpacking buddy…

Driving buddy…

… And all around adventuring buddy!

He’s sometimes too high energy for me to focus on drawing, but he also helps me remember to take a break once in a while and jangle a feather toy.

Some time later, I accidentally adopted his younger brother, the runt of the litter! There’s always been, uh, a bit of the size difference between the two, considering the fact that Chowder was the largest of the litter.

I had intended to only hold onto the runt while we got all of the kittens sterilized for their new homes (he and Chowder were the only boys in the litter, and we wanted to keep them separated for obvious reasons)- but Chowder decided he didn’t want his precious baby brother to live anywhere else.

So ours, he became. My girlfriend wanted to name this one, so his name is Pepsi. Not for any real reason other than it’s a dumb name for a dumb little boy.

Compared to Chowder, Pepsi tends to be a bit more of a neurotic mess. He hates strangers, hates loud noises, and generally hates being outside. That said, I still take him with us on walks because he needs to get out of the house once in a while.

I guess you can call the boys night and day, in terms of personality.

That said, they do both love to visit their mom anytime I go to my mom’s for dinner. They have fun playdates together, and it didn’t take long for them to outgrow their mom’s size.

Between the two of them, they make a goofy but well balanced duo!