The Great Ham Caper

My wife, Stacy, wrote a poem way back in Christmas 2006. It's about us and our cats, Rufus and Sam.

Her poem was got some serious Web traffic, and it's been rerun annually since. Since we moved we have adopted a few more cats.

For auld lang syne, here is the poem again, starring our two cats from Brooklyn, Rufus and Sam:

The Great Ham Caper
Words by Stacy Lynch
Pictures by Mike Lynch

’Twas the week before Christmas
When Rufus and Sam
Hatched a devious scheme
To make off with the ham!

The ham that would grace
The holiday table!
Roo was the brains.
Sam, wiry and able.


They devised a plan
Of Goldbergian proportions
With pulleys and weights
And kitty contortions.

And on Christmas day
They’d eat until stuffed
(The very idea
Made their tails slightly puffed!)

’Til then, they’d lay low,
Little angels to see.
But that made us suspicious –
Wouldn’t you be?


So we snooped and we sleuthed
And uncovered their caper -
“The Ham-Stealing Plan”
Diagrammed on a paper!

“No silly cat’s gonna
Steal my roast beast,”
Exclaimed Mike. “Just watch,
I’ll ruin their feast!”So he countered their scheming
With mad plans all his own
And all I could do
Was inwardly groan!

Who’d win this contest
Of wits they were planning?
Would Mike, Roo or Sam -
Be last man or cat standing?

As Christmas day dawned
The four of us waited
For the ham to be served
With breaths that were bated.

But before the main course
Could even be plated
Their plans took a turn.
Some say it was fated...

What happened to stop them
So cold in their tracks?
Why, cat-nip and husb-nip
(in big canvas sacks)Was all that it took
To stop their foul warring.
And they rolled and purred
And drooled on the flooring.And as long as I kept
My fingers and toes
Away from a hubby and two cats
In nip’s throes -
My own Christmas day
Turned out merry and calm;
The ham moist and succulent,
The champagne, a balm.

When they “awoke”,
hostilities abated,
We all ate some ham
And went to bed sated.

And such peace we wish
To you and to yours:
An end to fighting;
An end to wars.

Happy Holidays!

Mike and Stacy and Rufus and Sam


UPDATE: and Dexter and Dropcloth and Fergus.

Happy Holidays, everyone. It's snowing here, so I gotta get more wood in and then, fire up the snowblower. Such is winter! This here blog will be quiet for a short time. I'll see you soon.

The Great Ham Caper

My wife, Stacy, wrote a poem way back in Christmas 2006. The poem is about us and our cats, Rufus and Sam.

Her poem was got some serious traffic, and it's been rerun annually since. Since we moved we have adopted a few more.

For auld lang syne, here is the poem again, starring our two cats from Brooklyn, Rufus and Sam:

The Great Ham Caper
Words by Stacy Lynch
Pictures by Mike Lynch

’Twas the week before Christmas
When Rufus and Sam
Hatched a devious scheme
To make off with the ham!

The ham that would grace
The holiday table!
Roo was the brains.
Sam, wiry and able.


They devised a plan
Of Goldbergian proportions
With pulleys and weights
And kitty contortions.

And on Christmas day
They’d eat until stuffed
(The very idea
Made their tails slightly puffed!)

’Til then, they’d lay low,
Little angels to see.
But that made us suspicious –
Wouldn’t you be?


So we snooped and we sleuthed
And uncovered their caper -
“The Ham-Stealing Plan”
Diagrammed on a paper!

“No silly cat’s gonna
Steal my roast beast,”
Exclaimed Mike. “Just watch,
I’ll ruin their feast!”So he countered their scheming
With mad plans all his own
And all I could do
Was inwardly groan!

Who’d win this contest
Of wits they were planning?
Would Mike, Roo or Sam -
Be last man or cat standing?

As Christmas day dawned
The four of us waited
For the ham to be served
With breaths that were bated.

But before the main course
Could even be plated
Their plans took a turn.
Some say it was fated...

What happened to stop them
So cold in their tracks?
Why, cat-nip and husb-nip
(in big canvas sacks)Was all that it took
To stop their foul warring.
And they rolled and purred
And drooled on the flooring.And as long as I kept
My fingers and toes
Away from a hubby and two cats
In nip’s throes -
My own Christmas day
Turned out merry and calm;
The ham moist and succulent,
The champagne, a balm.

When they “awoke”,
hostilities abated,
We all ate some ham
And went to bed sated.

And such peace we wish
To you and to yours:
An end to fighting;
An end to wars.

Happy Holidays!

Mike and Stacy and Rufus and Sam


UPDATE: and Dexter and Dropcloth and Fergus.

The Great Ham Caper

My wife, Stacy, wrote a poem way back in Christmas 2006. The poem is about us and our cats, Rufus and Sam.

Her poem was well received, and it's been rerun annually since then. Hard to believe that since we moved we have adopted

• a stray kitten from the milk farm up the road (Trout) and
• rescued another 2 years ago (Dexter) and now
• brought in a tiger cat from our woods (Dropcloth).

Yes, that makes five.

For auld lang syne, here is the poem again, starring our two cats from Brooklyn, Rufus and Sam:

The Great Ham Caper
Words by Stacy Lynch
Pictures by Mike Lynch

’Twas the week before Christmas
When Rufus and Sam
Hatched a devious scheme
To make off with the ham!

The ham that would grace
The holiday table!
Roo was the brains.
Sam, wiry and able.


They devised a plan
Of Goldbergian proportions
With pulleys and weights
And kitty contortions.

And on Christmas day
They’d eat until stuffed
(The very idea
Made their tails slightly puffed!)

’Til then, they’d lay low,
Little angels to see.
But that made us suspicious –
Wouldn’t you be?


So we snooped and we sleuthed
And uncovered their caper -
“The Ham-Stealing Plan”
Diagrammed on a paper!

“No silly cat’s gonna
Steal my roast beast,”
Exclaimed Mike. “Just watch,
I’ll ruin their feast!”So he countered their scheming
With mad plans all his own
And all I could do
Was inwardly groan!

Who’d win this contest
Of wits they were planning?
Would Mike, Roo or Sam -
Be last man or cat standing?

As Christmas day dawned
The four of us waited
For the ham to be served
With breaths that were bated.

But before the main course
Could even be plated
Their plans took a turn.
Some say it was fated...

What happened to stop them
So cold in their tracks?
Why, cat-nip and husb-nip
(in big canvas sacks)Was all that it took
To stop their foul warring.
And they rolled and purred
And drooled on the flooring.And as long as I kept
My fingers and toes
Away from a hubby and two cats
In nip’s throes -
My own Christmas day
Turned out merry and calm;
The ham moist and succulent,
The champagne, a balm.

When they “awoke”,
hostilities abated,
We all ate some ham
And went to bed sated.

And such peace we wish
To you and to yours:
An end to fighting;
An end to wars.

Happy Holidays!

Mike and Stacy and Rufus and Sam


UPDATE: and Trout and Dexter and Dropcloth.

Cat Tail Computer Screen Cleaning

Above: Trout the cat. Yes, Trout is her name.

NEW for the Holidays! Cat-tail computer screen washer! It's safe, it frees up your valuable time and her breath smells like tuna. Hey, if you act now, we throw in the laser eyes absolutely for free!

Related: The cats show us "The Right Way to Sleep:"

An instructional series of photos featuring Sam (B&W), Rufus (orange) and Trout (tiger) demonstrating the correct ways to do things.

Today's lesson: the right way and wrong way for a cat to sleep.

Right way: Sam


Right way: Rufus


Wrong way!


I have no idea how Trout the cat can sleep like this, but it's obviously wrong, wrong, wrong.

This has part of an informative series of cat-related blog entries. Thank you for your kind attention.

Related: Introducing Trout.

The Great Ham Caper

My wife, Stacy, wrote a poem way back in Christmas 2006. The poem is about us and our cats, Rufus and Sam.

Stacy's poem got a lot of very nice emails, and I've rerun annually it since then. Hard to believe that since then we've moved and found a stray kitten at the milk farm up the road (or, rather, SHE adopted US) and then we rescued another stray just last month.

For auld lang syne, here is the poem again:


The Great Ham Caper
Words by Stacy Lynch
Pictures by Mike Lynch

’Twas the week before Christmas
When Rufus and Sam
Hatched a devious scheme
To make off with the ham!

The ham that would grace
The holiday table!
Roo was the brains.
Sam, wiry and able.


They devised a plan
Of Goldbergian proportions
With pulleys and weights
And kitty contortions.

And on Christmas day
They’d eat until stuffed
(The very idea
Made their tails slightly puffed!)

’Til then, they’d lay low,
Little angels to see.
But that made us suspicious –
Wouldn’t you be?


So we snooped and we sleuthed
And uncovered their caper -
“The Ham-Stealing Plan”
Diagrammed on a paper!

“No silly cat’s gonna
Steal my roast beast,”
Exclaimed Mike. “Just watch,
I’ll ruin their feast!”So he countered their scheming
With mad plans all his own
And all I could do
Was inwardly groan!

Who’d win this contest
Of wits they were planning?
Would Mike, Roo or Sam -
Be last man or cat standing?

As Christmas day dawned
The four of us waited
For the ham to be served
With breaths that were bated.

But before the main course
Could even be plated
Their plans took a turn.
Some say it was fated...

What happened to stop them
So cold in their tracks?
Why, cat-nip and husb-nip
(in big canvas sacks)Was all that it took
To stop their foul warring.
And they rolled and purred
And drooled on the flooring.And as long as I kept
My fingers and toes
Away from a hubby and two cats
In nip’s throes -
My own Christmas day
Turned out merry and calm;
The ham moist and succulent,
The champagne, a balm.

When they “awoke”,
hostilities abated,
We all ate some ham
And went to bed sated.

And such peace we wish
To you and to yours:
An end to fighting;
An end to wars.

Happy Holidays!

Mike and Stacy and Rufus and Sam


UPDATE: and Trout and Dexter.

The Right Way to Sleep

An instructional series featuring Sam (B&W), Rufus (orange) and Trout (tiger) demonstrating the correct ways to do things. Today's lesson: the right way and wrong way for a cat to sleep.

Right way:


Right way:


Wrong way!


I have no idea how she can sleep like this, but it's obviously wrong, wrong, wrong.

SPX 2008 Photos

I left my assistant in charge of the studio while I was out of town for the Small Press Expo in North Bethesda, MD. That's him, Sam the cat, gazing all powerfully atop the old-style monitor and next to the Pooping Dog calendar!

I flew out of Boston to BWI. My thanks to a DC area editor friend who suggested that while BWI isn't on the Washington, DC Metro line, it is much less expensive to fly into coming into Dulles or Reagan. I caught a bus to the Metro for $3.10. It took a half hour for the bus to get to the Metro (end of the Greenbelt line; this was a direct bus from the airport terminal with no stops), and then maybe 15 minutes to get to Union Station on the Metro.


Above: the view from Mark Anderson's table at the Small Press Expo.

The room was huge -- and (as Mark pointed out) there were no big pillars anywhere -- just all unobstructed space. This room is the heart of the event, with most people spending hours here, browsing cartoon books that are either self-published, or published by small publishing companies.

Here are a few photos of a tiny slice of a large event.


Above: Jeff Lok, Mike Lynch, Trade Loeffler

It was great to meet Jeff Lok, a cartoonist I've emailed with over the years. He's graduated from the Center for Cartoon Studies and is living in Vermont. Jeff has already done it all: from gag cartoons to graphic novels. My pal Trade Loeffler, of "Zip & Li'l Bit" fame, from "the old neighborhood in Brooklyn," took the Amtrak down for the day.


Above: Mark Anderson, Richard Thompson and USA Today editor Casey Shaw.

It was great hanging out with Mark for most of the weekend. (Mark's account of the SPX is here, and he has a link to a trove of SPX photos on Flickr.) Richard gave a couple of signings on behalf of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. He also gave a talk, moderated by the affable Mike Rhode, about his career and his comic strip Cul de Sac.

I hope Richard doesn't mind if I share a small bit of his talk. I love behind the scenes stories and would like to share the warning he (Richard) got during the strip's development period about his character of Danders, the talking guinea pig. As you know, Cul de Sac is about the Otterloop kids and their parents. Danders is a supporting, minor character. The syndicate warned him: Talking animals are not your friends. He was further admonished: A talking animal could take over the strip, ala Snoopy, and Cul de Sac would meets its demise, and morph into the Danders the Talking Hamster strip.

Not that that would be a bad thing, but I would miss the Otterloop family, you betcha.

Above: Mike Lynch and Raina Telgemeier

I first met Raina back when she was a School of Visual Arts major. Now she's married to Dave Roman and doing her own comics, as well as a series of Babysitter's Club graphic novels with Ann M. Martin.

Factoid: Ann Martin's Dad is the New Yorker magazine cartoonist Henry Martin.



Abve: Most of the books I bought after Day One of the 2 day event, strewn out over my Marriott bedspread. Lots of good stuff that I still am catching up to read.


Above: Mark Anderson and John Kovaleski.

"Another customer, ripe for the plucking! Bwah ha ha ha!"

This is my favorite photo.


Just look. That's evil. Pure evil.



Above: Saturday dinner: Mike Lynch, Mark Anderson, Brian Moore and son.

I'm telling Brian's son to look at the camera to no avail. Brian's lovely wife Meghan is taking the photo and she's a professional photographer.

More anon.