A REAL LIFE CARTOON CAT
Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow is riding out the pandemic in N.Y.C. with his new cat named — what else? — Felix
Like many others, Dan Perkins has been feeling out of sorts during the coronavirus lockdown, isolated and anxious. “You know the old New Yorker cartoons, with the guy crawling across the desert? That’s kind of how I feel right now, endless and pointless,” said the acclaimed cartoonist, a former Hamden resident who goes by the moniker “Tom Tomorrow” in his creative career.
Perkins now has a fellow traveler on that endless journey over the barren expanse.
Enter Felix the cat.
A political satirist and humorist with a finely tuned sense of the absurd, Perkins decided it was time for some furry companionship during his life in quarantine, and his new roommate on the Upper West Side of Manhattan has been spreading feline good cheer and mischievous antics for the past two weeks.
He’s black and white, a “tuxedo” in the parlance of cat lovers. His new name seemed obvious.
“It had to be Felix, given the coloration and my profession,” said Perkins, referring to the “Felix the Cat” cartoon series that dates to the silentfilm era. Perkins adopted the cat from an informal rescue organization operating in New York.
It was an unusual first encounter. The cat was delivered by an acquaintance to his doorstep with special precautions in place. “He was the first person to come to my apartment in two months, and he had a mask and gloves on,” recalled Perkins, author of the long-running “This Modern World” cartoon strip. The two have hit it off ever since.
Perkins went through a divorce two years ago and moved from southern Connecticut to Manhattan, and he still has fond memories of the New Haven area. “I’m kind of missing the big house and yard,” he mused, “a great place to ride out the corona.”
Living in Manhattan and starting a new chapter of his life — and publishing the latest collection of his work — was energizing until it was derailed by the public health crisis.
“I work alone, so I’m used to a lot of isolation. The way I’ve balanced that out in my life, up until March, was to go out at night — see friends, go out on dates. Suddenly all of that is done, and I’m alone 24/7. The city went from a place of infinite possibility to a place of no possibility,” said the cartoonist, a native of the Midwest. “And it’s very tiring — it takes me a long time to do what I used to do more efficiently. The lack of balance, outside life, and the constant daily onslaught of incredibly bad news, the sense we are adrift, not a lot of cause for hope it’s going to get better anytime soon — everyone reading this can probably relate: It’s exhausting.”
Felix would also like a word on the strange new world: hello, friend. He jumped into Perkins’ lap as he spoke by phone this week.
“There’s something incredibly comforting about having another individual in the apartment,” observed Perkins, who has owned dogs and cats before. “It’s this delightful little guy who wanders over and says ‘hello.’ ”