One sticky summer night in '87 (yes, the '80s were real, I was there), I tried drawing the family cat. I intended a serious piece of art, but there were obvious limits to my so-called talent. I ended up with a half-serious, half-toonish drawing that I grew quite fond of.

This drawing would launch a cat character of mine. And even though the cat in this drawing is female, I would invent a male cat character based on this work.