Well done, Carol. RIP, Jolie.

A masterpiece. You're very special. Don't listen to simple minds.

Keep on going your way.

I love kitties. So full of personality and fun. The symbiotic connection that humans have made with cats (and dogs) still amazes me whenever I think about it. We're two totally different species who happened to evolve into a mutually beneficial relationship. If humans hadn't become tool-using, agriculture-based animals, we never would have become friends with cats. We kept storehouses full of grain, attracting mice, and when smaller cats started coming around to take advantage of the mice-based food source, we tolerated them. Soon we worshipped them and taught each other to be nice to them so they'd keep reducing the mouse population. What a great relationship! Now we have tupperware and refirgerators and we keep the cats around anyway, just because they're so sweet and weird and fun. (And if you don't think so, well, get a dog.) I can't have a cat because I am allergic, but I always enjoy the cats of friends, and my neighbors have several outdoor cats who like to hang out on my doorstep. I always take an opportunity to pet them and let them know that I want them around.

Though I have never owned a cat, I have had other pets over the course of my life, and I found this to be a very affecting strip. One of the best WayLay strips I've read.

To those who criticize it for not being "funny", all I can say is that they have a very myopic view of comics and their potential as a story-telling medium. Go out and read some of the best graphic novels out there (Maus, for example) and perhaps that will expand your mind a bit and you'll see how a comic can be more than a means for simply delivering a punchline. If not, stick to the dreck of Garfield, Hagar the Horrible and Family Circus. They're nice, comfy strips which will never offend, throw a curve ball at you with original ideas or attempt to challenge your intellect.

Having owned many wonderful cats in my life, I can relate to your story of Jolie. Until one owns a cat (or any pet for that matter) one cannot possibly relate to the love, joy and incredible companionship they bring to our lives.

The best thing an owner can do for its pet when it nears the end of its life, is to euthanize it so it does not have to endure unnecessary discomfort or pain. Animals, unlike humans, are far more sophisticated and accept death as a part of life and know when its time to go - and if they are not owned, they go off to die alone. At least we can help them go with less suffering.

Jolie appears to have been a semi-long-hair, and she reminded me of the last cat I lost, 2 1/2 years ago now. She was a long-hair tortoise-shell, and the prettiest cat who ever lived, as you all know perfectly well. She was a little shy, but loved people she knew. She was very playful when the spirit moved her, and perfectly mannered in every way, to the day she died.

She lived a shorter life than I thought fair, finally becoming so sick with an intestinal disorder that I had to euthanize her. That was one terrible day.

A day or two before she spiraled down for the last time, she recovered a little, and sometime in the middle of the night climbed on my chest, as she used to do so often, and purred very hard, looking at me all the while.

I am quite certain she was saying goodbye the only way she could, and the memory of it brings the tears even now.

Thanks for a good story. I have no cats now, but they are still the best, every one.

about the special bond of people and pets in general. Pets comfort and heal us in a way that other humans can't, exactly, and it's to our credit that we recognize this. I haven't lived with a cat in a few years, but plan to get one, and besides my wife, my dog is my most beloved companion, full of character and good cheer. The dog's getting old, and I can tell you we will be crushed the day we lose her. Anyone who know us knows we won't be in to work that day.

Waylay often isn't funny in the way that "cris" and "Anonymous" seem to expect of it. Just because it's told with pictures doesn't oblige it to be funny, as a look at any stack of graphic novels will tell you. Kudos to Carol Lay for recognizing her freedom to fill her panels with much broader content than many, many other authors would, whether it's funny, ironic, sad or sickening. Don't think of it as a gag panel, think of it as an essay. If you can't do that, I refer you to the hudreds of papers that carry Beetle Bailey and the Family Circus.

It's not just this one. WaLay is never funny. Cary Tennis is sometimes funny (not a coic), The Fix is often funny (not a comic), I sometimes even get a laugh out of the Daou Report (not comic). WayLay IS a comic though. An incredibly bad comic.

I didn't think today's comic was very funny.

I am now working at I had an abnormal EKG at a doctor visit. The follow up tests would have cost more than I could ever have been able to afford, so I had to wait three months for the benefits from my new job to kick in, and in the meantime was very depressed because I thought I must be dying. Every day I would come home from work and sit in a chair and watch t.v. and feel bleak and very sorry for myself. The one nice thing that happened was that whenever I did this my cat Spud would climb up on my chest and lie down and look me in the eyes and purr. He had never done this before. We would just stay there and blink at each other, because that is cat language for "I think you are very cool." When I finally got my benefits and had the tests, it turned out I was all right, and my mood improved and Spud decided I would be okay on my own, so he stopped comforting me. We are still the best of friends though. I know he will be there for me when I need him, and I am always there for him. He is a very handsome black and brown tabby but not at all vain. He is seventeen years old, and his whiskers are starting to droop and he is developing cataracts. He is otherwise in excellent health and can jump as high as he ever could, though, since his vision is impaired, he sometimes misses. He still likes to be chased around the house. I think he is very cool.