Cat's Cradle Trivia Quiz

Answer: On the meeting room table

Having expressed his opinion of an Employee Wellness Program to a group including Dilbert, Wally and Asok, Catbert abruptly announces "I feel a nap coming on" and makes himself comfortable on the table, on his back with feet in the air.

Catbert usually appears with reddish brown fur, with stripes on his back and very few whiskers.

Answer: Riding a surfboard

Created as early as 1919, Felix the Cat has enjoyed a long run of popularity, including a TV series in the late 1950s, and the "Twisted Tales" series in the 1990s. He is a black cat and the theme song of the earlier series had him carrying a "bag of tricks" which he used to help him out of scrapes.

In the episode in the question ("Felix in Nightdrop Land") Felix slips himself through the video nightdrop slot and falls asleep in a boxful of returned video tapes. An anthropomorphic video player declares itself to be hungry and feeds on some of the tapes, ingesting the sleeping Felix in the process. Felix appears superimposed in scenes from a number of old movies, the first of these being a black and white surfer film during which we see Felix asleep on a surfboard. Subsequent snacking by the hungry machine propels him into a spaghetti western, a monster movie and various comedy spots.

Answer: A huge ball of twine

Garfield tugs a loose end of a ball of twine labelled "the world's largest", and it proceeds to unravel and chase him down a hill, all the way home into the arms of Jon who vows to protect him from the nasty string. By this time the ball has completely unravelled, and Garfield thinks uncomplimentary thoughts about Jon. The "cat's cradle" reference is to the game played with string in which two people attempt to pass the loop of string back and forth whilst making prescribed patterns with it, one of which is called "cat's cradle".

Star of the "Garfield" comic strip, by Jim Davis, as well as the TV show "Garfield and Friends", Garfield is an orange cat with black stripes and attitude.

Answer: Why we dream

We first see Calvin waking up his toy/pet tiger, Hobbes, to tell him it is time for bed. They then talk about why we dream, and Hobbes surmises that it is so they can spend more time together. "We can play together all night" he says, and Calvin agrees.

Calvin is a little blond haired boy, and Hobbes is his toy tiger come to life. As a tiger, Hobbes is orange with black stripes, but with a white face and chest. They feature in their own comic strip, created by Bill Watterson.

Answer: Mouse

For whatever reason, Krazy Kat adores Ignatz the mouse, who usually responds to any wooing by throwing bricks at the feline. Krazy Kat chooses to interpret this as an expression of love, and in later comic strips and cartoons this appears to be the case.

The newspaper strip was in existence until 1944, with the Sunday strip being printed in colour starting in 1935. Krazy Kat is usually dark blue in colour, with a pink face. Additionally, Krazy Kat appeared in a number of short films between 1916 and 1940.

Answer: Mooch may be allergic to wool.

In reply to the question "What are you doing...?", Mooch replies "Shleeping in the shweater drawer" (he lisps). Earl opines that this in NOT right and Mooch says "Yesh. I think I'm allergic to wool."

Mooch is a tuxedo cat, and Earl is a mutt (of course). Patrick McDonnell created the strip in 1994, and as well as the daily strip a number of books have been published. A feature of the strip is "Shelter Stories" which from time to time spotlight a true story of an animal that has been fostered or adopted from a shelter.

Answer: Kitten

The kitten is a new, not especially welcomed, arrival in the home, and Simon's cat is chased from his own cosy bed by the kitten's desire to cuddle. Simon's cat moves to the kitten's smaller bed, but eventually the little one returns there for an even tighter fit.

The star cat is all white with a fluffy tail, and a very insistent "Meow" when desiring to be fed. Tofield bases the character and mannerisms of his cat on his real-life feline friends and gets just about everything right!

Answer: Snowball I

In the first episode of season 3, "Stark Raving Dad", Lisa reads her poem to Homer, lamenting the death of her first cat, Snowball I and saying that Marge (her mom) had lied when she said the cat was only sleeping. Snuffy the hamster is mentioned at the beginning of the second verse, but Homer stops her before we hear about that pet's fate. Later seasons of "The Simpsons" introduce other cats named Snowball, most of whom meet an early demise. Snowball V (aka the new improved Snowball II) doesn't appear until season 15, and Santa's Little Helper, the dog, is not mentioned in the poem.

Snowball I is usually depicted as a white cat (hence the name), though later Snowballs have been black cats.

Answer: The little girl of the house is treating him as her baby.

The film is "Baby Puss", produced by Fred Quimby and directed by Joseph Barbera and William Hanna. The little girl has dressed Tom the cat up in diapers and a bonnet and puts him to bed in the cradle whilst she goes off on an errand. She gives him a bottle of milk, and he's quite happy to stay where she wants him to, until Jerry the mouse begins to taunt him. Later three of Tom's feline acquaintances also join in the fun, only to scamper away when the little girl returns. Tom is punished with a big spoonful of castor oil.

Tom is usually seen as a grey and white house cat, and Jerry is a little brown mouse. They first appear in 1940 and have gone on to have a number of TV series bearing their names well into the 21st century.

Answer: In a garbage can

TC, as his friends may call him (according to the theme song) is an alley cat, and the leader of a gang of such cats. As such, he has no human staff upon whose feet to sleep or who might provide a cat bed for him. Under the hood of a car would be a warm, though dangerous choice, and it is not for TC. The ending shows him in his can in the alley, putting on his pyjamas, brushing his teeth and donning a sleep mask before putting his hat back on and pulling the lid of the can shut for privacy.

The TV show ran from 1961-62 for thirty episodes, which surprises me. I was a (young) fan at the time, and thought there must have been more. Top Cat usually appears as a yellowish-orange cat wearing a purple hat and vest and voiced by Arnold Stang.