I feel sorry for him.

I agree with Cot, Roy DID have it comin' I mean, he was bullying Cot for too long, and he finally got is.
In a violent way but he still got his

Bullies who shows no signs of humanity or humility deserves a punch to the face.

Amen brotha

He is right, he had that coming. And his mother has no right to preach to him.

Maybe she doesn't want him to be a bad person. It can happen.

She wasn’t helping him lately.

:(

Cot's not a bad kid, he just had so much anger inside to the point to where he snapped

Sorry, but I can’t blame him for being mad at them, and for feeding a bit callas to the situation. His family ignores him, his father slapped him, and Misty, Yeah, I understand she her being shocked, but she went way over the top.

I think one of the problems is that she took Cot’s previously non-violent actions for granted.

It’s a shame that she’s realizing now that it led to this, but I can understand that she doesn’t want him to resort to violence all the time.

Technically, being his legal guardian, she has more right then anyone, especially in a western country.
In fact, I believe shes legally obligated to press her right to 'preach to him but thats beside the point.
Cot's parents may be emotionally neglectful, but it could be much MUCH worse.

Like his father hitting him?

Yes, being out of line then talking back is usually grounds for a full on lashing instead of weak hits like his father gave. Thats coming from a culture that glorifies this(Dammit Tyler Perry). Im not condoning what Cot's parents do, but its a step better than continuing to ignore the poor boy until his craving for attention really gets out of hand.
This family's biggest problem is a lack in communication and if this keeps up, Cot will end up worse than his parents. Its a vicious cycle from what I read.

Still, they really need to listen to him. And his father shouldn’t call the kettle black about his uncle.

Got that right.
If Lyle is making sense, they should know they screwed up. I cant wait to see their face when they realize it.

Especially Bill’s.

Having been there before, & did kinda that same thing, I learned an important lesson with the bully issues: They NEVER see all the bullying, or what provokes the anger/rage/fight, they only ever see what happens when they've failed to do anything about it, & they see what YOU do in retaliation".

I served 4 years in JV for it when I finally snapped & beat the hell out of someone that was bullying me from the 3rd grade up.

Wow...
I'm interested in hearing more of this story if you're keen on discussing this via DM.

whats a DM?

Direct message, or in FA’s case, sending private notes.

ah, okies. Yeah, shoot me a line when you want to. No rush.

Last panel, Cot is going to rage bigger than shit at his mom o-o

Every neglected kid reaches that point eventually...and it's never pretty.

As someone who got bullied, I can relate to the crap Cot is going through. If you let the gang of bullies wail on you, you're repeatedly asked "why didn't you defend yourself?" but the INSTANT you swing a real punch, the whole world collapses on you like you've just committed a fucking WAR CRIME.

"..Nope! Roy's dead!..well he's on life support at the moment but he's essentially a vegetable at this point, man, you really fucked him up good! but you're definitely going to juvy now kid." <this is what I might have considered saying at first if I didn't know any better ..I do admit that I tend to have a horribly sadistic sense of humor


Seriously though, isn't this just what cats do, cats being cats ..I mean I've seen mine fight worse than that half of the time and they're siblings for crying out loud.


Okay on an actual serious note, though I feel bad for what Cot is going through, it can't be denied that he has admittedly been a bit on the selfish side about some things, it was most certainly uncalled for that his father reacted the way he did by slapping him earlier, but Cot shouldn't have been constantly badgering him and testing his patience knowing full well the stressful job life he deals with. It also has come to my attention that half the reason Cot even likes hanging with his uncle so much is because he is becoming sexually attracted (appearing to be in early stages of puberty) to this uncle's dead best friend's widow, and that is admittedly a bit problematic if not somewhat icky.

I also understand that Bill is a "workaholic" but he could spend more leisure time with his children and maybe do a better job of keeping them at bay from the admittedly lesser elements of Lyle's own flawed nature.

As much as I like and relate to Lyle's character most out of nearly everyone in this comic I do think that he needs to learn how to be a more rounded adult in his life, I think the only way that might ever happen is if either he eventually impregnates some random female character (would probably have to be a fellow cat considering the apparent laws of this universe) or adopt (I have serious doubts he'll end up taking custody of Cot, or would want to be burdened with the responsibility at this point) and end up with a kid of his own at some point in time in order to have a better understanding of parental responsibilities before lecturing his sister or others on how to raise their own kids. I know Lyle is more in the right in this particular situation, but it would help give him some better foundation and standing.

Right now I'm more worried about how this is all gonna fall on Lyle and how Bill will react to this, my best guess would be that he will likely blame the whole thing on Lyle and indefinitely forbid his kids from seeing his brother in law.

I hope that older boy gets the punishment and that Cot isn't punished at all. Because I'll admit, if the bully ends up winning and Cot ends up being punished, I'm going to be P.O.ed.

If that really does happen, then that's reality for you.

Uh, no, that's not my reality, that's your reality rejecting how real life is. What you said is wrong. Something like that happens everyday in real life, and your way of telling people what they can think, say or do or how they can think, speak or live is wrong, everyone can think, say, do and live any other way they like and you have no right to tell them different. Sorry to burst your bubble but I'm not going to get drawn into an argument with someone whose a troll. I really will not.

I don't know about that being unrealistic. For all I know even if the bully gets punished who's to say Cot won't be punished as well? No matter how you shape it, Cot still committed assault whether he was in the right or wrong for doing it. I've often seen, or heard, from time to time that even when someone has the right to retaliating against his continuous aggressor, like Cot's bully, people seem to have this strange idea of concluding that you were the true aggressor in that confrontation instead of the actual one just because you were the first to raise a fist between each other and that the one you faced may look slightly more injured than you. Or that even though the bully cause you trouble it not right to solve the problem by using violence or saying there's a better way to go about this. I constantly learn that the world isn't all black and white, but a large grey area where you suddenly find yourself dealing with severe punishment while the true culprit is either given a slight punishment, a slap on the wrist, or just set free from any possible consequence. Hell, I would be suprise if Cot had to go to therapy for his "anger management problems" or some nonsense like that much less getting out with no punshment from this, you know if he's lucky. Now I might be wrong about this because I live in America where "violence is wrong" and that it "begets more violence", but, hey, the topic of bullying is an ongoing problem with multiple answers to possible outcomes good and/or bad.

Well, I will admit something, your at least being nice and level headed with this. Also, I too am living in America as I was born and raised in Texas, so? ( please don't make any southern jokes because I don't like those types of jokes, I'd rather leave it up to the comedians to make any jokes they want because from comedians, at least everything they say or most of what they say is funny ) also, if Cot was to go through therapy, I don't think therapy is a punishment, I think therapy is more of a seeking help for victims solution. As for the bully, well, we may not know what's next in the future pages of this comic as we can't predict the future like a psychic. And I live in America as well so please don't get all hard on me with it because truth is, I already know that the real world isn't as black and white like we've hoped and I already seen and heard the same thing you told me, I just happen to not always watch the news as it's too depressing for me to watch. I prefer to watch something funny to laugh away the stress, and I believe violence is only a last resort, regardless if we're in the right or wrong. Besides, we just got to wait and see what's next and we'll see where this story goes.

For as bad as this is probably going to turn out for Cot, it could have gone way worse. At least all he did was smash Roy's face with a rock that happened to be handy at the time, and from the sounds of things, he'll recover. If there'd been a gun involved, somebody would probably be dead right now.

Don't be like your father, Cot.

shes finally starting to see theres a problem "she can be taught!"

I don't know if Cot's going to explode on his mom at this point; but I won't be surprised if he does. The kid puts up with a lot at home and at school with no one in either location there to have his back or see his side of things. What happened with Roy was inevitable; the form it took and where it happened were the only X-factors.

And honestly lady; are you really that surprised your son has no sympathy for the jerkass who's been harassing him for who knows how long? You back someone into a corner long enough, you give them no signal that you have any intention of stopping, and you show no reason for them to see you as anything less than their enemy; how else would Cot react after finally snapping?

The same thing happened to me in elementary school. You spend every day dreading the sight of the one who victimizes you. You beg to not have to go to school, you invent reasons not to in hopes you'll get one day without having to put up with the bullshit. Every day you get angrier, and your patience wanes just a bit more; until they say or do the one thing that doesn't make you angry... no, it makes you feel cold. In my case, I can't remember what was said, but I remember walking up behind the guy and trying to choke the life out of him. Much like Cot, I didn't feel bad about doing what I did, was more worried about how this would come down on me. He might feel something about it later on; but now he's way too emotionally raw, too angry at everything going wrong for him.