PawNotes 🐾

Welcome to our first comic strip! Each strip will come with “Pawnotes” (like footnotes, but for cats & dogs) which will give additional context for topics covered each day (sometimes serious, sometimes fun, sometimes both). We have several things to mention to you today, but this section will usually be much shorter.

• The Shepherd family is moving to Washington, D.C. (“Washington Dog Cat” in the context of our comic strip) for a new job for Winnie in the White House. You can find out more about the Shepherds and their new neighbors, the Pawlucks, on our Characters Page. 

• Regarding the political makeup of Washington, D.C.: Our curious readers might be interested to know that the District of Columbia has a population of over 700,000 people and over 70% of the voters there are registered with the Democratic Party. Our comic strip aims, among other things, to explore the dynamics of life, politics and associated issues through the fun—and hopefully unifying—perspective of neighborly cats and dogs living in Washington, D.C. 

• Lastly, on a personal note, our family came up with the original idea for this comic strip in June 2020 when we lived near Portland, Oregon. This was during the COVID-19 pandemic and protests for George Floyd and against racial injustice generally. This was a hard time for our country and the world in general. We thought of this idea then and have decided to follow through and create it with the intent to find the good, the good intent, and the humor on both sides of the political aisle and to be whatever force we can for bringing people together in mutual understanding. We are proud to launch it today on 9/11/2023, the anniversary of another dark hour through which our country really came together.