Walkersville, New Market cats made famous in syndicated cartoon

 Posted: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 

By Patti Borda Mullins and Kelsi Loos 

 

The nationally syndicated “Kit ’n’ Carlyle” cartoon recently featured the antics of two Frederick County cats. The May 16 strip featured the fraternal feline rivalry of Nancy Franck’s Walkersville cats, and Saturday’s edition covered the odd eating habits of New Market resident Alisa Deacon’s pet, Mai-Tai.

Franck, who follows Larry Wright’s cartoon avidly, responded several months ago to the published invitation to send a story idea for consideration. Every Saturday, the cartoon’s namesake, Carlyle the cat, has a dream, and readers are invited to “send kitty dreams” for the story panel.

Franck emailed an idea, based on the daily scuffle between two of her four sibling cats: 7-year-old Mew and Boots. Boots, who is black and white, reminds her of the mischievous Carlyle.

“I said in my email I have to check on Carlyle every day,” she said.

Boots’ and Mew’s other two siblings, Midas and Mini, are tiger- striped.

The four cats were abandoned as a litter six years ago in Franck’s backyard barn by a mother who apparently had hunted while caring for them, she said. Several squirrel tails were found near the kittens’ nesting place, Franck said.

She took a picnic basket out, filled it with the kittens, and has kept them all, despite a brief attempt to find other homes for two of them.

She considers them a divine gift, she said, because instead of her seeking them out, they came to her.

Mini, the smallest and only female, can box any of them to keep them in line, Franck said.

“Kit ’n’ Carlyle” follows Carlyle’s life with Kit, a single working woman, whose social life, meals and rest the cat often interrupts.

Wright’s May 16 cartoon pictured Carlyle dreaming of two cats, both depicted with tiger stripes, butting heads. Franck chuckled at the notoriety the cartoon has brought, with friends and businesses commenting on it.

The cartoon, syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association Inc., stated that Franck’s cats play like fighting bulls, which is not how Franck characterized them.

“The cartoonist changed the story,” she said.

She had not heard whether her submission would be considered. The day the cartoon referred to her cats, she was busy with a yard sale and did not see it until there was a lull in business.

“I was surprised,” she said.

The cartoon about Deacon’s cat Mai-Tai illustrates the pet’s love of pizza and habit of crawling into the box.

The story dates back to Deacon’s first day with the 18-year-old cat, which her husband got her as a gift when they were dating.

The day she got Mai-Tai, Deacon said, it jumped into a box of pizza they had bought for dinner, knocking over a bottle of soda.

“She absolutely loves pizza, and she eats crazy food all of the time,” Deacon said in a phone interview.

Mai-Tai also has a taste for beef taquitos, cheese, broccoli and ravioli.

Deacon also submitted to Kit ’n’ Carlyle a story about Mai-Tai crawling into a guinea pig cage to eat the guinea pig food.

She sent the pizza story about a year ago and was delighted when she saw it made it into the cartoon.

“I laughed,” she said. “I was excited. I thought it was funny.”

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