Get Fuzzy

It features Boston advertising executive Rob Wilco and his two anthropomorphic pets, a dog, Satchel Pooch, and a cat, Bucky Katt.

Sweet, trusting, naïve Satchel is routinely subjected to the exploitation of cruel, self-centered Bucky, who is always torturing the poor canine.

[1][2][3][4] The unusual title of the strip comes from a concert poster that Conley once created for his brother's band, the Fuzzy Sprouts.

The lack of new content caused a decline in the popularity of Get Fuzzy, and in some cases reader feedback polls were conducted as to whether to keep the strip.

Rob is portrayed as a bit of an everyman: a mediocre performer in a job he dislikes, not successful romantically, and an all-around relatively quiet guy with a poor haircut and chronic lower back pain.

His passions, which often border on obsessions, include sports (particularly the Boston Red Sox and the New Zealand All Blacks), video games, books, and guitarist Leo Kottke.

His ears are nearly always drawn laid back flat on his head, a feline sign of defiance, aggressiveness, and he is missing an upper canine tooth.

The Humane Society found Bucky huddled on a trash can, while the cat was only a few weeks old, in Hackensack, New Jersey, later to be adopted by Rob.

[citation needed] Bucky lives in a dresser located in the hall closet of Rob's apartment because he refuses to share a room with Satchel.

On most outdoor excursions, when Rob is present, Bucky is carried in a strap-on "Bundle-O-Joy" baby carrier, referenced as a way of keeping the cat out of trouble.

Three obsessions dominate Bucky's life: his hatred of a neighborhood ferret named Fungo Squiggly; his desire to stop the "monkey invasion"; and wanting to film a movie or TV show about himself.

Bucky has been shown to hold extremely reactionary political viewpoints throughout the strip, but these may not stem from actual convictions as much as a desire to antagonize Rob and Satchel, both tolerant in their views.

His father, named Copernicus, a Labrador Retriever and retired guide dog, and his mother, a Shar Pei, live in Chéticamp, Nova Scotia.

It is suggested by Rob's friend Joe Doman, that he is named after the Baseball Hall of Fame player Satchel Paige.

Satchel is also proud of his Canadian and European heritage, taking the time to watch Queen Elizabeth II whenever the royal figure is on television.

Satchel holds to a very liberal political viewpoint and is an animal rights supporter; occasionally asking Rob for money to donate to PETA or Greenpeace.

Fungo does not have any audible speaking lines throughout the entire strip, but is able to communicate by writing out his thoughts (although Satchel can apparently understand ferret-speak).

Chubby Huggs, a portly, interminably cheerful cat who believes positive reinforcement (mostly through hugging) solves all problems.

Conley received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 2002 for his work on Get Fuzzy.