History YMMV / Housepets

** As it turns out, Rufus and Maxwell had some sort of history together. Although it's not revealed as to what the nature of their 'relationship' was, the reveal of this connection was ended with Rufus giving Max a smooch on the cheek before heading back to heaven.

* ArcFatigue: The Temple Crashers II arc has been going on for almost all of 2017, and still hasn't ended yet.

** Lifespans are a confusing detail in the comic. It's insinuated that animals don't actually have that different of lifespans than they do in the real world, but this isn't actually said outright. Not only that, but when [[spoiler:Pete and Dragon are sentenced to no less than 70 years of mortality for both losing the Cosmic Game, Kitsune considered reincarnating them as King and Bailey's puppies, who should realistically have lifespans much shorter than 70 years. Then again, no one ever said the 70 mortal years had to be served consecutively in a single lifetime. Later though, when Breel is allowed to come back to life as a boon from heaven, he states his expected lifespan will be around 40-50 years in spite of the fact he's a pine marten, a species that typically has a lifespan of around 15 years (domesticated). Then again, there's no way to know if Breel was a pine marten before he died, as Keene's adopted human father Mr. Milton elected to become a ferret in the afterlife, and even if he was it's been established Breel is rather ignorant of how mortals live since he's been dead for over 200 years.]]

** Lifespans are a confusing detail in the comic. It's insinuated that animals don't actually have that different of lifespans than they do in the real world, but this isn't actually said outright. Not only that, but when [[spoiler:Pete and Dragon are sentenced to no less than 70 years of mortality for both losing the Cosmic Game, Kitsune considered reincarnating them as King and Bailey's puppies, who should realistically have lifespans much shorter than 70 years. Then again, no one ever said the 70 mortal years had to be served consecutively in a single lifetime. Later though, when Breel is allowed to come back to life as a boon from heaven, he states his expected lifespan will be around 40-50 years in spite of the fact he's a pine marten, a species that typically has a lifespan of around 15 years (domesticated). Then again, there's no way to know if Breel was a pine marten before he died, as Keene's adopted human father Mr. Milton elected to become a ferret in the afterlife.]]

** Lifespans are a confusing detail in the comic. It's insinuated that animals don't actually have that different of lifespans than they do in the real world, but this isn't actually said outright. Not only that, but when [[spoiler:Pete and Dragon are sentenced to no less than 70 years of mortality for both losing the Cosmic Game, Kitsune considered reincarnating them as King and Bailey's puppies, who should realistically have lifespans much shorter than 70 years. Then again, no one ever said the 70 mortal years had to be served consecutively in a single lifetime.]]

** When Keene Milton briefly gets sent to heaven, he immediately befriends a male pine marten masseur named Breel. In the next page, though Breel is merely suggesting he get a massage, it [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything definitely sounds more like he's hitting on Keene.]] It only gets more suggestive from there, with Breel holding Keene in his lap as they eat and being the only one besides Keene's mother and (adoptive) father to see him off when he heads back to earth.

* ArcFatigue: The Temple Crashers II are has been going on for almost all of 2017, and still hasn't ended yet.

* BrokenBase: The supernatural and magical elements that become central to the story through King's arc were either the comic GrowingTheBeard and becoming more dynamic than the SliceOfLife silly fun it started as, or when the comic officially started JumpingTheShark and declined in quality. There also those who were the latter but have slowly started coming around, since its obvious the supernatural shenanigans are not going anywhere and are now a reoccurring element of the comic.

** When Keene Milton briefly gets sent to heaven, he immediately befriends a male, otter masseur named Breel. In the next page, though Breel is merely suggesting he get a massage, it [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything definitely sounds more like he's hitting on Keene.]] It only gets more suggestive from there, with Breel holding Keene in his lap as they eat and being the only one besides Keene's mother and (adoptive) father to see him off when he heads back to earth.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Joel was a fairly undeveloped character who seemed to just play the role of a PETA lackey. [[KarmicTransformation King]], on the other hand, quickly gained a disproportionate number of fans. Part of that might come from his being absolutely adorable. The author has taken note of this; when he allowed members of the comic's forum to vote on the plot for the next major story arc following "Imaginate, Too!", he ''specifically excluded King from the running'' because he knew everyone would vote for him, and a future King arc was already forthcoming.

** Daisy is also a big hit on the forums, especially after she opened her mouth and said something besides "Hi, I'm Daisy".
** Tiger Arbelt also became rather well-liked after he got his own arc as a mentally unstable kids' show host.
** Breel is quickly becoming a fan favorite due to his adorable design, sweet personality, shipping with Keene and the fact that he's shaping up to be quite TheWoobie lately after revealing that he died by [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2017/10/09/eat-drink-and-be-merry/ getting hit by a train]] and Keene [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2017/12/15/double-hockey/ making him cry.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: All the well-meaning things Pete says to King [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2009/12/25/so-this-is-christmas/ here]] seem somewhat harsher once it becomes apparent that teaching King a lesson was more of a side effect than the actual plan.
** Pete's first appearance in the comic is also this, as he appears to be a big friendly griffin who lets Grape and Peanut ride on him. Later, he admits that he was trying to make Grape or Peanut into his host.

** Bino sometimes qualifies as well. Sure, he's a temperamental, speciest jerk who loves bullying others and playing cruel pranks but he's also had to deal with a concussion, getting punched in the face by Bailey and a shock collar to name a few things. It's rather difficult to tell if Bino is either this or LoveToHate. His new girlfriend Duchess most likely views him as disposable and somewhere down the line, will likely break his heart.
** King also qualifies, considering he's an ex member of PETA and as Bino put it has a [[TheNapoleon Napoleon Complex]] but the poor corgi just can't catch a break.

** "[[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros Hi! I'm Daisy!]]" Was not originally from ''Housepets!'', as some seem to believe.
* PortmanteauCoupleName
** Grapenut for the Grape[=/=]Peanut ship
** Kingley for King[=/=]Bailey

** King is a frequent target of shipping--[[FanPreferredCouple usually with Sasha]] [[HoYayShipping or Fox]]--and King himself gradually gets used to being a dog as the comic goes on. However, some fans still can't look away from the fact that King is [[spoiler:not a dog, but a ''human trapped in a dog's body'']]. It makes his [[spoiler:eventual marriage with Bailey]] still too weird to accept for some.

** JerkassWoobie: [[spoiler:Pete at the end of the Cosmic Game. He may be a jerk and some fans even feel he already crossed the MoralEventHorizon long ago, but seeing him driven to BrokenTears from losing the game and his comment about how mortals always get happy endings and gods don't can be a bit heartbreaking.]]
*** King himself also qualifies as a JerkassWoobie when you factor in the whole Peta thing.
*** Tiger Arbelt is another JerkassWoobie. He's threatened to kill others and is mentally unstable but he basically gets treated like trash simply because he's a dog with a feline name.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Pete, the Spirit Dragon, and Kitsune are supposed to represent [[BigBad Evil]], [[BigGood Good]], and [[TrueNeutral Neutral]], respectfully. However as the Comsic Game came to a close, Dragon seemed a lot more neutral (she didn't really care about mortals really, she was just playing the game) and Kitsune seems to more closely follow the idea of the BigGood (he goes out of his way to help the mortals and their LoopholeAbuse of the game). Of course, some readers also see the end of the game as a subversion of these labels, and show all three of them are really AboveGoodAndEvil (Dragon can be kind of a jerk, Pete can be sympathetic, and Kitsune is just a trickster).

** A number of commenters on [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/07/09/and-nothing-but/ this strip]] think that a many-tailed kitsune showing up means Rick has watched too much ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. Never mind, of course, that kitsunes show up in a lot of old Japanese folklore...

* {{Shipping}}: Hoo, boy. Just one of multiple examples: The AltText for [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/07/10/probably-taking-this-too-far/ this comic]] reads: "This is what YOU wanted. You dirty, dirty people."[[labelnote:*]]The previous comic had a commenter say he should "take a loooong cold bath in the nearest pond" in reaction to the barn cats' offer of a slow-motion pillow fight.[[/labelnote]]

** Adorable though King's new form is, when Pete informed him [[spoiler: that Pete has no intention of changing him back into a human]], there were plenty of horrified fans.

* FanficFuel: Tiger's backstory. All we know in the canon is that he's a mood-swinging, socially awkward, food-obsessed AxCrazy JerkassWoobie. What sort of traumatic incident or treatment caused him to be the way he is? Being a PG comic, we'll likely never get the answer. That being said, Tiger Arbelt is pretty much fertile soil for a HurtComfortFic or two.

** Tiger Arbelt. Despite being mainly portrayed as a secondary comic relief character, he has some serious psychological issues to work though. He's been a victim of bullying and is basically a social outcast among the dogs simply because he has a catlike name. This in turn has made him irritable, aggressive and temperamental to the point of being borderline AxCrazy at times while at the same time, struggling with binge eating and depression. Tiger may have a short fuse and a big mouth but he could also really use a big hug and a shoulder to cry on. As one forum member put it: "Tiger is an emotional wreck and responds to his problems by being a jerk."

** Despite only appearing in a few strips early on, Rufus was consiodfered such a fan favorite that he was brought back as in angel in the Temple Crashers 2 arc.

** The fat PETA guy (Joel's partner" crosses this when he attempts to smother Fox to death.

** Bino sometimes qualifies as well. Sure, he's a temperamental, speciest jerk who loves bullying others and playing cruel pranks but he's also had to deal with a concussion and a shock collar to name a couple of things.