Once upon a time there was a puppy who, at 3 months old, suddenly found himself riding in a car on the lap of a stranger, far away from all his brothers and sisters. He lay quiet and still, only shifting his eyes to take in his surroundings. A stark contrast from the lively puppy who was running around at the breeders just an hour before.

He was about to start his new life.

It only took a couple of days for the new puppy to become accustomed to his new family. He saw snow for the first time, bit the ear of his new “dad” in excitement, not knowing the strength of his new little teeth, and started to spend his days with his new family at their job. Soon enough he was a part of the family, and could not be separated from them.

The years went on and the little dog went everywhere with his family. On vacations, to work, and on road trips. He rode on planes and in motorhomes and traveled to many places. He met many new people and loved everyone. He even turned those most scared of dogs into dog lovers. He loved to lick peoples ears, and gently bite people’s toes - all signs of his love. He was a dog who knew nothing but love, and had only love to give to everyone he met.

At ten years he lost his best friend, his “dad,” and was never the same again. He aged after that, leaving much of the puppy he once was behind him. He still loved to run and play, but not with the same gusto as before. He was, after all, entering his senior years.

At the end of his life, disease swooped in and took him away quickly, allowing hm to suffer for as little a time as possible. At thirteen he’d lived a full and happy life. And now it was time for him to go be with his best friend again. He’s left behind many who have loved him, and whose lives he’s touched. He’ll never be forgotten, and we’ll all always be grateful to have had him in our lives for those 13 years.

R.I.P. Pookie baby. I love you and miss you so very much.

Drawn in my moleskine with pencil and then inked with micron pens 01 & 02.

A little over a week ago I posted five of my Screaming Animal illos, which were inspired by a little Twitter meme a cartoonist started. Well, turns out drawing screaming animals is addicting! So here are five more!

Clumsy is the perfect word to describe my husband and my adventure out onto the ice today. (how’s that for a grammatically weird sentence?) Maybe it wasn’t that bad, but how would we know? We know nothing about walking on ice. We did it once 4 years ago, the last time the waters around Stockholm froze. It was snow covered and there were plenty of other people walking. Then we did it for a second time last week. Once again, it was snow covered and there were others on the ice. So we planned it again for this week. The plan was a long walk on the ice, as long as we could go, and come back.

Well…

Let me just preface this with a couple of thing: One, It has been below freezing here for more than a month. The ice is probably a couple of decimeters thick, which is more than recommended when you’re going to walk on it. Two, there were people on the ice already, but most were cross country skiers.

We were on the ice for a few minutes when we started to hear some light cracking. We paused and looked at each other. Daniel figured it was safe. I wasn’t so sure. I asked him if he was nervous, he said yes and we quickly made our way back to shore. We stood there, on the dock, for about 5 minutes while we watched a couple walk right past us and continue on. So we figured we were being silly. The ice is THICK and has been for a while. So back on the ice we went. We were calmer and walked for a a little while. We went about 10 minutes, taking pictures and filming along the way when we started hearing the cracking again. We paused and decided it was time to go back. So we walked back, slightly nervous but pretty confident anyway. To be safe, we didn’t walk right next to each other to avoid putting too much weight on any one spot.

About halfway back Daniel stopped for a second to turn around and say something to me, and right at that moment, right below out feet, we heard a big CRACK, and we both swear we felt the ice start to buckle below us. Maybe it didn’t move. Maybe it was our imagination. But it was loud enough to scare the bejeezus out of us. I ran off to the side, around where we were, and hurried on. The last few minutes of trying to get to the shore felt like hours. But we made it there safe & dry. I was shaking, so we decided to take a nice long walk along the walking paths there to calm ourselves.

Who knows, really? We don’t know anything about walking on ice, so maybe it was safer than we thought, and it’s supposed to make those noises. But we weren’t going to take any more chances than we did. Especially since we didn’t have those ice pick thingies you’re supposed to have to help drag you out of the water if you fall through.

Goodness, I get sick to my stomach just thinking about it!

But I can promise you that we won’t ever be that clumsy again!

It all started on Twitter.

I have a twitter account, which you can find right here, and just a few days ago one of the people I follow changed their avatar to a screaming bunny and posted about it with the trending topic #screamingrabbitavatar. I was instantly intrigued when I saw others were following suit. I wanted in. So I drew my own Screaming bunny and put it up.

When some friends saw it they started to suggest some other screaming animals for fun which started my obsession. I had to draw more and more screaming animals!

Why are they screaming? Why not? It’s just too much fun! And I can’t promise that I’ll stop here. I’m sure I’ll come up with more of them soon!

Right. Um. Hi! Yeah… You know I’m busy with my comic, so I shouldn’t have to write anything more about why my last post was in August.

But, gosh, 2009 was a crazy year. Most of it was pretty awesome. Went to fifteen concerts, got kissed by a rock star, went to and had my own table at my first comic-con, put out a bunch of merchandise, did a pretty damn good job with my comic all year long, met a comic idol of mine, met and shook hands with Jack White, finally got a telescope (!!!!), spent 3 weeks in the US where I saw my mom for the first time in 2 years, and did a road trip to the Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame and Amish country (hey… it was pretty cool). I’m sure there’s more if I think about it, but I can’t right now. But reading all of that back to myself makes me realize how kickass 2009 really was.

So what’s in store for 2010? I guess we’ll see I don’t like to plan too much. I like to just see where things go. I have 4 concerts booked already for the year (plus a spoken word show with Henry Rollins! woo!). I have to see my mom again at some point. She’ll be 70 this year (even though she looks about 20 years younger and is as active as someone 30 years younger)! I do plan on doing the SPX (comic con) again at the end of April.

Oh yeah. And at some point this year I’m going to turn 30. But I’m trying not to think about that too much.

So, bring it on twenty-ten! (that’s fun to say!)

I’m not sure if any kisses from rock stars will be in the schedule for 2010, but who knows, right?

I love Facebook. I really do. It’s helped me get back in touch with people in a way I never would have been able to before - especially considering I live thousands of miles away from most of them. I’m so thankful I’m able to have the contact through facebook that I do with my sisters and my niece. It allows me to keep track of their lives, filling that hole in my heart that comes with living so far from those you love.

But it’s also gotten me back in touch with some old high school friends who are so worth keeping in touch with. One being my friend, Diba. We’ve been friends since middle school. I think, however, that we got closer AFTER high school ended. And then, of course, I had to pick up and move to Sweden. Bah! Shame, because she’s the type of person you want to have as a friend forever. But, anyway, I’m back in touch with her on FB, which is so great! She’ll be visiting me though (as soon as I give her the go ahead), and that’s going to be AWESOME. I can’t wait to see her! And she just recently asked me to draw a cartoon version of her. So I used my time this evening to do just that, which you can see above.

Fortunately, she loves it! Which is a huge relief. I always get nervous when I’m going to draw likenesses of people. Usually, though, it tends to work out.