What MUTTS Means to You: Guard Dog's Message, Remembering 'Peanuts,' and More

To celebrate 25 years of MUTTS, we asked readers to tell us what the strip means to them, and to share some of their best memories of Mooch, Earl, and the rest of the crew.

We are so appreciative and touched by the messages we’ve received, and last month we shared just a few of our favorites. We will continue posting your responses in the coming months, so please comment below if you have additional stories or memories to share. Thank you for your love and support!

Published on February 7, 2016

“My all-time favorite comics are Peanuts and MUTTS. Many MUTTS strips have decorated my office bulletin board or home refrigerator over the years because Mooch ‘spoke’ for my cats. One strip gracing the refrigerator right now is Mooch kicking the football: ‘That’s for you Charlie Brown.’ How perfect.” — Dina

Published on October 18, 2014

“This one [with Guard Dog] is on my refrigerator as a constant reminder that how society treats its animals, children, elderly, and vulnerable, is an indicator of their humanity. We have much work to do.” — Cynthia

Published on April 29, 2005

“My favorite was one of the Shelter Stories. A dog has just awakened, and still has his eyes shut tight. He’s thinking ‘I’m going to open my eyes to see it was all a dream and I’m back on the floor in the shelter.’ Finally he opens his eyes, and sees that he’s in a big comfy bed with his new person.” — Darren

Published on June 3, 2016

“When my mom was alive, her newspaper didn’t carry MUTTS, but mine did, so each day I’d cut out the strip and set it aside. The next time I went to see her, or she’d come to visit me, we spent a good long time reading all those MUTTS strips, one after the other, in order, until we finished them all. She loved Mooch so much. She always remarked on how wonderfully expressive the faces of the animals were. So it’s not an individual strip that’s meaningful for me; it’s the whole concept. I think of my mom and smile because of the joy Mooch and Earl, et al. brought to her.” — Stella

Have your own MUTTS story to tell? Let us know in the comments or email us at [email protected].

Want to read more stories from MUTTS lovers? Stay tuned for more posts like this throughout 2019 and 2020, because we’re celebrating 25 years of MUTTS for a full 12 months!

— Team MUTTS
Tagged: Books & Art, News & Events

Comments (31)

“One Regret” This print brought out such strong emotions of Love and Sadness. Our fur-kids are never with us long enough and we need to make every moment count. Any death brings with it regrets of what we should have done more of for our loved one. I lost my beloved Cleo (chihuahua) December 2018 and my beloved Bronco(Chi/Dachshund))June 2019. I loved them with all my heart and soul. I have one fur-kid now Brutus the baby of the family. When I saw this print I bought 2 one for me and one for my BFF. We are both animal lovers. I love all the MUTTS strips they always evoke great emotions of love and happiness.

Kathleen Trevino

When I lived in Tualatin, OR I read my Oregonian every morning at the local Starbucks and cut out the Mutts message of the day to paste in my journal. Now that I live back of beyond and have no paper I thank my stars that my Mutts friends appear on my computer

Nona Ross

In these times of reading all the atrocities to the animals worldwide it fills my heart with pure warm joy to see and feel a loving MUTTS community. It reminds people daily to be a voice for the voiceless …. thank you Patrick and Team Mutts♥️🐾♥️🐾♥️🙏🏻☮️🌱

Valerie Jenkins

Not quite sure when I found Mutts, but am so thankful that I did. The Shelter Stories are so touching, the kindness shown in caring for Guard Dog, and especially the Thanksgiving strips are precious.
Your stories show the importance of showing kindness to our fellow travelers.
May you have many more years to share your stories of hope.

Nancy Rosengren

we could all take a lesson from the friendship between Earl & Mooch, a dog and a cat, which in our culture, has long been shown as enemies.

Diane

What Mutts means to me is the start of my day. I get the daily strip in my inbox (it usually shows up around 5:30 AM) and it’s the first thing Iook at when I open up my laptop. It starts my day with a beautiful dose of love, friendship, humor and a respect for all living things. We have 5 dogs and 5 cats (almost all are rescues) and although Iove all the Mutts characters, my last name (Mucha… pronounced Moo-cha) has had me called “Mooch” for most of my 67 years.

John

When I first saw Frank and Mooch doing their “Cats are better than dogs” dance in front of the living room window while poor Ozzie and Mooch were outside in the snowstorm, well that did it for me. Mutts forever!

LB Stanley

The Shelter Stories moved me to begin volunteering with CatAdopTionService—we rescue individual cats and cat families off the streets or that are on the euthanasia list at a high kill shelter. It is so wonderful to see a kitty I have grown fond of, move from unwanted to a loving home…happy for them, but I remember and miss each one.

Randy Slinkard

There are three strips that I particularly love. I carry a sheet of paper on which I copied all three, and I’ve shown them to friends and family and to any cat and dog lovers I meet. One shows Earl playing with a polka-dotted rubber bone and wondering how he ever lived without it. Another one shows Mooch’s mom telling his father she can’t do ANYthing because she has a cat on her lap, and his father yelling “Stop the world! A cat is napping!!” (Any cat owner will not move for anything (except maybe for an emergency.) The third shows Mooch holding up the phone, and his mom saying “We are NOT doing take-out!” I pull out the paper whenever I need and lift, and the strips always bring a smile to my face.

Elaine Rimbach

Belly rubs for world peace! A kitty purr-in for world peace! The beach vacations are also great.

Barbara Bush