Housepets! by Rick Griffin
Main Character Page | Cats | Dogs (Tarot) | Other Animals | Humans | Denizens of Heaven
This page lists both current Humans, as well as Humans that have been transformed into Animals via curse, in the webcomic Housepets!
Warning: Due to the relative importance of animals to humans in this comic, many of the humans who are important are heavily Spoileriffic.
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Joel Zechariah Robinson
See Housepets! — Dogs.
Thomas Milton
Thomas Milton (Camel)
Click here for his spoiler appearance
A nephew of Henry Milton, he was not written into his uncle's will. He would spend his time trying to take the Milton fortune for himself. Eventually, this led to him being turned into a camel when he tried to pilfer the cursed gold in Pete's temple.
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: Barely a year after collecting his earnings from his uncle's death, he ends up back at zero, which is implied to be the result of his own poor actions.
- All for Nothing:
- Despite all the complications, he succeeds in stealing the Milton's treasure map, which leads him to Saudi Arabia and Pete's Temple. When he finally makes it, he hears offhandedly that said temple was moved to Babylon Gardens, only a short distance from where he had initially stolen the map.
- When he finally gets the gold he's been chasing after for so long, he gets subjected to a Karmic Transformation and the temple begins collapsing before he can reverse it.
- Ambiguous Criminal History: He mentions that his burglary of the Milton mansion is not his first.
- Asshole Victim: A thief who tries to steal the ferrets' fortune eventually gets turned into a camel by Pete.
- Attractive Bent Species: Sofia finds him incredibly attractive after he becomes her species.
- Bad Liar: Attempting to convince Marion that the Miltons are evil doesn't go well, but by sheer chance happens to occur shortly before Lois transforms, which sways Marion to his side.
- Bald of Evil: His head is hairless.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: In Pete's Temple he discovers the existence of a real life Healing Potion, which he acknowledges could revolutionize the medical industry. He then ignores it anyway and keeps looking for his uncle's gold.
- The Faceless: A very loose rule. Sometimes, like at the bar with Celia, his face is shown plainly, but other times the comic goes to great length to make sure it's hidden. When he comes back after the massive time gap between appearances, humans have become more prevalent in the comic and this rule is no longer upheld at all.
- Fingore: After crushing a glass in his hand out of anger, he noticably wears a bandage wrapped around it while disguised in front of Pit.
- Forced Transformation: Another victim of Pete's who gets turned into a camel.
- Gentleman Thief: He looks the part with his mustache but he subverts it for two reasons. One, he's kind of a jerk and two, he's not a great thief.
- Gilligan Cut: Subverted hard. Thomas tells Celia that he will get the map and tempts fate by saying "nothing could possibly go wrong" verbatim. The very next panel, he has the map. While he does get caught, he gets a picture of it and sends it to himself via email. Once he gets out on bail, he flees the country with no issues. The comic's title "Huh" even lampshades it.
- Good Hair, Evil Hair: Thomas has a short, well-trimmed moustache, clearly communicating his evil.
- Greed: His life over, things continue to get worse and worse for him as a result of his limitless greed. He starts off as a rich man, before ending the comic's run as a literal animal living in a zoo with nothing to his name.
- Honor Among Thieves: Subverted. Celia backstabs him at an inopportune time and while it does get him caught, she screws up her chances at the treasure as Thomas manages to flee the country while on bail with a picture of the map. Fortunately for her, he's just incompetent enough to still need her help.
- Inadequate Inheritor: A relative of Mr. Milton, but, like Celia, he was given mostly worthless real estate. The ferrets were only given 40% of the inheritance so no one could sue under the premise that Mr. Milton had been irrational when he made his will. The catch was that he left a map to a third of his wealth in the ferrets' possession so as long as they could find it, they would get almost 3/4ths of his wealth.
- Inheritance Backlash: A non-malicious example on the part of the giver. Thomas isn't entirely scammed out of his rewards, earning quite a bit a bit of real estate and all possessions from Henry Milton, but only cares about getting the money earnings.
- Interspecies Romance: By the end of the comic, he's implied to be in a relationship with his pack animal Sofia.
- Karma Houdini: Got off on bail for breaking into the Ferrets' home, but got a picture of their map before he fled the country to head to Arabia and then to North Africa to get Mr. Milton's treasure. Subverted when he runs into Pete.
- Karmic Transformation: He's turned into a camel, a beast of burden, having been convinced his whole life that he was an honest working man, oblivious to his own privilege. Only shortly before this he told Sofia, his actual camel, that he expected her to carry all of Henry Milton's gold out by herself.
- Llama Loogie: While he never spits as an attack after becoming a camel, he does spread the curse to Steward by launching Pete's coin at him; which, without hands, he needs to do by storing said coin in his cheek and spitting it.
- Morphic Resonance: As a camel, the dark brown patches on Thomas' snout resemble the mustache that he had as a human.
- Never My Fault: He blames Steward first for his own transformation, then claims to Marion that the Milton Ferrets are the ones who cursed him, all the while ignoring the part his own obsession had.
- Obliviously Evil: Despite how plainly evil he is, Thomas continues to think of himself as a working man conned out of his money by his uncle idiocy.
- The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: Despite despising Henry Milton for not passing any money onto him, he acknowledges the man's genius in how he avoided a potential inheritance crisis by making sure everyone had at least a small portion before hiding much of the rest.
- Only Cares About Inheritance: Along with Celia, he appears impatient with the Estate Attorney who informs him of his uncle's passing, only caring about the money he could gain.
- Passed-Over Inheritance: His primary motivation is the loss of any money passed down to him from Henry Milton, given instead to the Milton ferrets.
- Put on a Bus: Fell out of the story for 2 years before he came back wandering the desert for one comic strip. After that comic, he left again for 5 years before he became a regular again. That's better than Celia got, though you do see him talking to her over the phone.
- Shady Real Estate Agent: Used his real estate to try to start up a company, but turned out to be a terrible investor (partly due to the ferrets pulling millions out of stocks and tanking them). He had to foreclose several orphanages. Unlike most landlord villains, he seems upset about this.
- Stupid Crooks: Almost averted. He gets into the Milton Manor and steals the map with no complications. Getting out raises issues when the guard changes and Celia double-crosses him, which leads to him making a few stupid mistakes that get him caught.
- Sunk Cost Fallacy: After spending years trying to get his uncle's inheritance, he passes up several chances to stop on a slightly more paltry amount, obsessed with getting what he feels is deserved.
- Suspicious Ski Mask: He wears one while robbing the Miltons.
- Taking You with Me: Furious at Steward for his perceived failure, Thomas carries a single gold coin in his mouth all the way out of the temple and back to the Milton Manor to spit it at him, spreading the curse.
Herman Steward (SPOILERS)
Herman Steward (Badger)
Click here for his spoiler appearance
The executor of Henry Milton's estate. Secretly in league with Thomas to divert the estate's assets. But when Thomas's invasion of the temple went awry, he ended up in possession of a single cursed gold coin, and was turned into a badger.
- Acrophobic Bird: Somewhat justified. His demonic form does have wings that allow him to fly, however since they're located on his sides, rather than his shoulders, using them to flying puts him in a stupid-looking position so he doesn't bother.
- Affably Evil: Steward is never nothing but polite and professional, even to those he's conspiring with or backstabbing. This completely collapses, however, when he's fired, and he begins to grow more and more enraged at Keene and the rest of the Miltons.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He returns to the Milton household after the Heckraiser arc, explicitly to beg for his old position back from the ferrets. He immediately takes an offer for the position at one-percent of his original pay.
- Arc Villain: He's the instigator of Marion and Lois' animal transformations in "My Life as a Teenage Squirrel", as part of a larger gambit to bankrupt the Milton Ferrets via an influx of potential ECP members.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: His plan for Keene, as the ferret points out, is to give him everything he wants. More specifically, he intends to point out the short-sightedness of Keene's plan by straining his resources with more and more people who need to be protected under the ECP, until they physically and financially cannot support anymore.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: The person guarding Keene's money, one of his closest right hand men, turns out to have been secretly plotting his betrayal.
- Brought Down to Normal: Kitsune eventually manages to beat the demonic energy out of him, which turns both him and Trinket back to normal animals.
- Deal with the Devil: Steward makes a deal with Eudoant to gain a fraction of demonic power, which will allow him to bring about a Mass Transformation to bankrupt the ECP once and for all.
- Demon of Human Origin: Is transformed into a demon by Eudoant by fusing him with Trinket and embuing him with power.
- Drunk On Power: After a continuous Sanity Slippage, his transformation into Demon Steward seems to completely override his morals. He gloats and monologues like a true and complete villain to Tarot's crew, even when it's clear he knows nothing about demons or the Bad Place.
- Forced to Feel Empathy: After his One-Winged Angel form is destroyed, he and Trinket are overloaded with empathy for the actions they've committed. This ultimately leads to his more permanent Heel–Face Turn.
- Forced Transformation: Is turned into a badger when Thomas angrily spits the cursed coin into his hands.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Steward's glasses serve to dehumanize him, especially earlier on when his eyes weren't visible through them.
- Fusion Dance: His One-Winged Angel form is actually the result of one between him and Trinket, though her only real contribution is the wings.
- Heel–Face Turn: By the end of Heckraiser, he's come to regret how far he went for his own goals, and comes to talk out his problems with Keene personally. Ultimately, he returns to working under the ferret.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: Internally. His conspiring with Thomas reveals to the reader that he hates Keene, but to drive the nail in deeper, Keene doesn't even seem to care when he finds out and just fires Steward without a second thought.
- Inside Job: Thomas' attempted theft of the gold inside Pete's temple is facilitated by Steward, who is fired when Keene finds out.
- Last-Name Basis: Is almost always referred to as 'Steward', his first name left out.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: From Steward's perspective. The ferrets were never malicious, but their childish natures and ludicrous spending habits pushed Steward until he began to consider Thomas as a more legitimate heir. When he's fired for collaboration, he comes to hate the ferrets for his perceived mistreatment.
- The Mole: Steward agrees to work for Thomas against Keene while still acting under Keene's orders.
- Not So Stoic: While he began as The Stoic, later developments reveal how deeply he repressed his resentment for Keene. Especially after turning into a badger, he begins to become much more emotional overall. He's clearly furious at Keene when the two meet again after his firing Steward, he gloats to Tarot's gang, and he breaks into tears upon turning back from his One-Winged Angel form.
- One-Winged Angel: Eudoant seems to have granted him the power to transform into a several-stories-tall, winged and horned demonic version of his normal badger self, as seen later on in the arc.
- Only Sane Man: Played tragically. The ferrets and their poor financial decisions continue to grate on Steward throughout the comic's early run, and he quickly comes to the logical conclusion that the money they have would be much better suited in someone else's hands. So he conspires with Thomas Milton, and when this goes wrong and Keene fires him, he snaps entirely.
- Perpetual Frowner: Under Keene, he's always stoically frowning. After he's fired, he's sneering instead, simmering with restrained rage.
- Pet the Dog: Whether or not he’s fully turned a new leaf remains to be seen, but after Tarot’s rant about how useless she feels after feeling unable to fulfil her role as a ”hero”, Steward takes time to comfort the girl when she starts crying and gives her a Cooldown Hug, knowing better than anyone else in the room what can happen when someone’s ambitions take over.Steward: Ambition can be cruel to us.
- Punny Name: Invoked. He was only hired at first for the sake of being a Steward named Steward, which the ferrets found hilarious.
- Sent Into Hiding: After his plot is revealed, Keene casually reveals he called the police, and suggests Steward get going. His transformation immediately after probably helped in this regard, as it allowed him to retreat into the woods and go Beneath Suspicion.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: His entire purpose of trying to bankrupt the Milton Ferrets and starting the entire incident is because he believes that not everyone in the world can get what they want and that it's folly to attempt to do so, and was attempting to bankrupt the family to teach what he saw as a harsh lesson. Now that he's aware that Heaven and Hell are real, however, he realizes this is a very stupid position to have when the afterlife has literally everything that anyone could ever want.
- The Smart One Turns Traitor: The man under the Milton ferrets with the most control over their finances and more sense than any of them undermines them to try and sell out to Thomas.
- The Stoic: Early in the comic, Steward never smiled and responded to even Keene's most ludicrous of suggestions with a calm demeanor.
- Tears of Remorse: After Kitsune has him Brought Down to Normal, he tearfully hugs Marion and profusely apologizes for everything he's put him through, calling himself a monster in the process. Kitsune explains that this always happens as a side effect of removing demonic energy from a possessed individual. As Steward's reaction gets more... melodramatic, Kitsune then goes on to clarify that the state is temporary. Steward does undergo a genuine Heel–Face Turn afterwards, even willingly agreeing to work for the Milton Ferrets at 1% of his old salary in the epilogue.
- Two Beings, One Body: He seems to be in complete control of the demonic form he fuses with Trinket to create, as only her wings are added to his body, and he shows no traces of her personality during it.
- Villain Team-Up: Teams up with Eudoant in Heckraiser.
- Welcome Back, Traitor: After Heckraiser, he returns to work under the ECP with a fraction of his previous pay.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Steward's defining drive is a deep desire to show Keene how foolish his hopes and ideals are, pointing out logical problems the ferret is too short-sighted to see and trying to make sure the immense Milton fortune is put to good use. Unfortunately, he strays further and further from his ideals until he's willing to make a deal with Eudoant and become a demon to this end.
Marion Ward
Marion Ward (Squirrel)
I just want to go home back to how things used to be! I want my life back!
A senior in high school, he woke up one morning two weeks before graduation to find he had been turned into a squirrel. Much of the comic's final arcs revolve around him, becoming slowly wrapped up in the politics of Heaven and the ECP, and trying to keep a normal life and stable relationship through it all.
- Ambiguous Gender: As a human, he was male. When he texted his girlfriend with a picture of himself post-transformation, she thought the squirrel in the picture was female. This led him to a brief existential crisis, complete with a full comic of blushy awkwardness. Rick has stated Marion is still a guy, but that doesn't mean this won't become a Running Gag.
- Animal Goes to School: Marion is made to finish his last year of high school after being turned into a squirrel. Deconstructed by his attempts to find a college afterwards, as none will allow him in for fear of what may happen to him surrounded by larger humans.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Despite wearing a full outfit otherwise, Marion never wears shoes.
- Ear Ache: Inflicts this on a formerly-human camel to get his cooperation. Those rodent-incisors would hurt.
- Forced Transformation: He woke up one morning to discover he was turned into a squirrel.
- Fantastic Romance: With Lois; Both were former humans, transformed into different species and genders and staying together in spite of it.
- First Law of Gender Bending: Marion turns down a potential opportunity to turn male again in the form of Cerberus' boon, giving it to The Needs of the Many instead.
- Forced from Their Home: Firstly because his mom mistakes him for a feral animal, and then because she refuses to take him back after she learns the truth. We don't even learn if he ever got to get his belongings back from his room.
- From Zero to Hero: From a down on his luck high school student to a crucial piece in the defeat of a demon, and rewarded by Heaven as a result.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Though others try to encourage him to go bottomless (that is, no pants), Marion insists he's used to wearing pants. So he is perhaps the only fully-dressed animal in the comic so far.
- Gender Bender: From a male human to a female squirrel, although he still seems to identify as male.
- Genre Savvy: Searching for answers includes checking his ID photo to make sure this isn't a Cosmic Retcon, considering the possibility of being cursed, and cracking open The Metamorphosis.
- Giving the Sword to a Noob: Because Tarot is briefly indisposed during the battle against Eudoant, Marion has to make an attempt at fighting him. He dies, of course, but distracts him for long enough that Tarot can get back up.
- Going Native: By the end of the comic, Marion has more animal friends than he does human, and seems content to not change back even if he gets the chance.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He dies in the battle against Eudoant, saved by the fact that Death Is Cheap in Dragon's temple.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Devolves into ugly-crying when no one believes that he used to be a human, not even his girlfriend, despite him even pulling Something Only They Would Say.
- I Choose to Stay: After defeating Eudoant and getting a chance to turn back from Cerberus, he chooses a different option; To make society easier for people like him to live in, rather than to go normal.
- I Have No Son!: Somewhat tragically, his mother refuses to take him back in post-transformation, leaving him to live with Lois' family and eventually Wolf House.
- Insecure Love Interest: Admits to Lois that one of the main reason he's still hung up over being a squirrel, even after a six-month Time Skip at the end of the "My Life as a Teenage Squirrel" arc, is that he feels inadequate for her, though she quickly states that she's not bothered by it at all.
- Interspecies Romance: Has not expressed interest in breaking up with his girlfriend, Lois, aside from one quip while depressed about abandoning human life entirely to start a squirrel dynasty.
- Ironic Allergy: A squirrel with an allergy to nuts, as he embarrassedly reveals to Truck and Falstaff.
- Just Woke Up That Way: Played so straight, one of Marion's first associations is The Metamorphosis. He wakes up in his bed, notices his hands, and immediately begins screaming.
- Knee-High Perspective: More than a few scenes in My Life As A Teenage Squirrel, since the arc is primarily about him. Afterwards he becomes a Shoulder Teammate to Lois, and the trope becomes less prelevant.
- Miss Fanservice: As he becomes more comfortable with his body, Marion occasionally dresses in skimpier outfits. Most of these are regulated to supplemental art, but taking off his jacket in one strip reveals short shorts and something resembling a swimsuit under it.
- Must Have Caffeine: Likes energy drinks. This bites him in the tail as a squirrel when he cracks one open while trying to research a cause for his transformation.Marion: Okay, I have Yellow Pages, Google, and my secret weapon—CAFFEINE! LET'S SOLVE THIS SQUIRREL THING!
(three hours later, his mother walks in to find a squirrel curled in a fetal position on the computer desk)
Marion: I have nothing and my heart's about to explooooode... - Nervous Wreck: While he has very good reasons, Marion is much more prone to stress attacks than Lois is, and often needs to be calmed down by her. Even his valentines day card features him heavily panicked.
- Noodle Incident: It is not yet known how Marion got turned into a squirrel while sleeping in his own bed at home, save that it involved Steward, and potentially Trinket as well.
- Obsessed with Perfect Attendance: Despite having been turned into a squirrel, Marion still makes an effort to drag his bag out of the house and get to school. Once things calm down, he resumes attendance for his last two weeks, and grows even more miserable as a result.
- Otaku: His interest in comics comes up once or twice and reveals he knows quite a bit about them; He has fierce opinions on Garfield, and when given the chance to transform into anything in Dragon's temple he tries 'Pre-Crisis Superman'.
- Outside-Context Problem: Part of why his overnight transformation is so hard for him to deal with is that he has no precedent for it, not being familiar with the previous in-universe cases.
- Shoulder Teammate: He frequently rides on Lois' shoulder to get around faster, and in one instance in her hoodie.
- Something Only They Would Say: Deconstructed. When Marion's girlfriend understandably doesn't belive the squirrel girl (no pun intended) is Marion, she asks him to say something only they would know. He tells an embarassing story... And she still doesn't belive him, since Marion could've just as well told the story to a random squirrel.
- Taunting the Transformed: After Lois becomes a bobcat, Marion immediately pushes it by turning around her Something Only They Would Say from earlier. From then on the two frequently jab the other about the Gender Bender and Predator-Prey Friendship they now share.
- This Is No Time to Panic: He responds impressively well to his transformation, taking things one at a time after an initial freak out and trying to rationally find a solution.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: As a squirrel, he easily fits into the hood of his girlfriend Lois' hoodie.
- Tiny Schoolboy: The smallest student in school due to his unfortunate transformation.
- Tragic Keepsake: He wears a bracelet as a necklace. It has small blocks with the initials of himself and his girlfriend, Lois. Zig-zagged; He considers it tragic in the early days because he thinks he can never be with her now, but once it becomes clear she still loves him, he continues wearing it.
- Trans Tribulations: Despite not quite fitting the bill, he experiences a few of these. Being in a new body stresses him and makes him uncomfortable, schools reject him because they don't feel they can accommodate his needs, and he needs to constantly correct people on his pronouns initially.
- Trying Not to Cry: During the initial days of his transformation, he has a few moments of clearly holding back tears, including during school and when kicked out of the house by his mother.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When he returns to school, very few people treat the news that a student has become a squirrel strangely. This actually works to his disadvantage; because they treat him like a human, he has a great deal of trouble getting by a tiny fraction of his original size.
- Wall Crawl: He manages to crawl up a tree in seconds to get away from a dog, surprising even himself. Later in Heckraiser he manages to crawl all the way to the top of a radio tower in a manner of minutes.
- Welcomed to the Masquerade: A few months before it becomes public, Marion is allowed with Lois to become aware of Magic(k) and the existence of Celestials like Kitsune.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: His transformation into a squirrel seems to have come with an instinctual fear of barking dogs. He finds himself up in a tree every time, looking utterly terrified.
- Your Size May Vary: Depending on the panel, he may come up to Lois' stomach, chest, or be small enough to fit in her hoodie. The first time they meet face to face post-transformation, he's the size of her hand.
Lois (SPOILERS)
Lois (Bobcat)
Click here to see her as a human
Marion Ward's girlfriend. Went looking for him after he didn't show up for school after being turned into a squirrel. She's turned into a male lynx while Marion was talking with Thomas at the zoo.
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Lois is never seen without a bandana and glasses.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: In the finale of the "My Life as a Teenage Squirrel" arc, she's wearing full winter attire aside from bare paws.
- Consuming Passion: A lot of her flirts/affectionate insults towards Marion relates to her their differences in size and the food chain. She calls him 'Nugget' and 'Little Snack' as an Affectionate Nickname, and a running gag is made of Sasha mistaking their affection for her trying to eat him.
- Deadpan Snarker: Shows shades of this.
- First-Episode Twist: Lois barely shows up for a handful of pages before her transformation occurs, which she spends the rest of the arc adjusting to.
- Forced Transformation: Is transformed roughly midway through Marion's investigation concerning his own transformation.
- Freaky Is Cool: Unlike Marion, who's quite intimidated by Kitsune's more god-like form when they come to him for advice, she's fascinated by it.
- Gender Bender: Is "of the masculine persuasion" as a lynx. Though considering everything else, Lois is taking it in stride.
- Interspecies Romance: Despite what she and Marion go through, including Lois' own transformation, they still love each other.
- No Full Name Given: Her last name is never revealed in the comic, despite Marion's being freely tossed around.
- No Periods, Period: Averted; she mentions that no longer having to worry about "that time of the month" is a possible advantage of her transformation, though it causes the now-female-bodied Marion to add yet another problem to his list.
- Taunting the Transformed: Initially after her boyfriend is turned into a squirrel, Lois is polite enough to not do this. Once she turns into a bobcat, however, it becomes much more common as Romantic Ribbing; Marion immediately pushes it by turning around her Something Only They Would Say from earlier, and from then on the two frequently jab the other about the Gender Bender and Predator-Prey Friendship they now share.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Though most characters would be huge in comparison to squirrel-sized Marion.
- Unseen No More: Throughout My Life As A Teenage Squirrel, Lois' presence is ocassionally alluded to (Including Marion texting her post-transformation), but she herself does not show up physically until the beginning of Part 3.
- Women Are Wiser: Due to Marion's freaking out, Lois has to become the sensible and calm one throughout their introductory arc, tracking down Marion, calming him down, and adjusting quickly to her own transformed state.
Larry "Todd" Kravitz
Larry "Todd" Kravitz (Red Panda)
A former, presumably teen to young-adult human, he's recently been transformed into a red panda. He winds up moving into the ECP's boarding house where he is introduced to the other residents.
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: He trades his jacket out quickly to become a Walking Shirtless Scene, leaving only the pants and necklace.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: His mother shows up at the boarding house after being asked to wait in the car just to drop off some snacks shaped like red panda faces.
- Ambiguously Bi: He’s shown making out with the unnamed aardvark in the back of the car they’re trapped in, though it’s unclear if it’s because he finds him attractive or because he’s desperate to make out with anyone in their situation.
- Become a Real Boy: He expresses his desire early on to become a human again, only going on Kitsune's mission back to Earth for the reward at the end which he plans to use in this way. Averted by the end, where he turns out to not really care so much.
- Casanova Wannabe: He's so bad at it, and lacks the self-awareness to acknowledge it, that he borders on parodying the trope. Lois flat-out asks if his goal is actually to get everyone to hate him by acting the way he does.
- Cool Shades: Keeps a pair on him and is often seen wearing them.
- Establishing Character Moment: He enters the stage wearing Cool Shades, instantly complaining and womanizing.
- Food as Bribe: For whatever reason, Tarot felt the need to bring him to Egypt, and did so by promising fruit roll-ups.
- Forced Transformation: Describes being turned into an animal as "throwing off my game."
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Like most ex-humans, he wears a full outfit fitted to his panda form initially, although sheds this quickly.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: By the end, he considers himself a celebrity for saving the Earth, but unintentionally points out the problem with that; It's only 'Among the people who actually know anything', which means only a handful of people know how brave he was at the time.
- Grew a Spine: After toddling around doing nothing for all of Heckraiser, he stands up at the end and demonstrates remarkable bravery by performing a Rousing Speech in front of everyone that motivates them to fight Eudoant. And dies, but still.
- Guys are Slobs: He kicks up his feet in Kix's house and relaxes on her furtniture without asking, but quickly bends to her will when she tells him to stop.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Tends to go around without a shirt to express his manliness.
- Jumped at the Call: He's among the first to volunteer for Kitsune's mission to rescue Earth from an army of demons, regardless of how competent he would be at said job.
- My Beloved Smother: His mom treats him like he's six-years-old (not helped by the fact that he still lives with her as a young adult) and doesn't tolerate his protests against the treatment, and when a couple (who have been turned into regular pandas) dress him up in a bonnet and pacifier, he considers it a lateral move compared to his home-life. However, he does succeed in moving out and into the Wildside Learning Center, although only because his father wanted to start charging him rent.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Everyone only calls him 'Todd', which is neither his first nor last name and seems to be a Self-Applied Nickname.
- Sedgwick Speech: He rallies the troops at Dragon's Temple with a rousing speech, before instantly getting vaporized.
- Self-Applied Nickname: Insists his name is Todd, yet his mother's insistence proves it's only a nickname.
- Testosterone Poisoning: Todd is an obvious satire of masculinity, looking down on women and considering himself an alpha despite living with his mother as an adult. When confronted with Kitsune, an Aggressive Submissive, he questions how someone could have that much power over their wife and not use it.
- Too Dumb to Live: Decides it's a good idea to eat potato salad that was
seven months spoiled even after Tarot warned him against it. Needless to say, it takes only one page before he starts to regret that decision.
Aardvark
Aardvark (Aardvark)
A random man who was transformed into an aardvark while commuting to work, and tags along with Tarot & the ECP residents while they find away to fix it.
- all lowercase letters: Inexplicably, he's tagged as 'aardvark' on the Housepets website.
- Ambiguously Gay: He suggests he make out with Todd while they're trapped inside a car, though as with Todd it's not clear if it's because of any sort of attraction or just because of the situation they're in.
- Become a Real Boy: Averted. He raises a stink for a while about wanting to become human again, but when things calm down he's shown to enjoy the newfound freedom and popularity his species gives him. When Kitsune asks his Mental World what he thinks, he's completely in favor.
- Bit Character: Aardvark shows up, says a few lines, lingers with the protagonists for a while, and dips before the final battle. Still, he was popular enough to get a minor denouement comic.
- Dissonant Serenity: After being drooled on by a demon and slammed into a wall, he comments that he's ready to die with the same detached calmness he says everything else in.
- The Everyman: Meant to be one of these, and quite literally so generic he's never given a name.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Averted in that nobody refers to him by name. Readers and the site, however, just call him Aardvark. In An Aard Decision, he actually starts to refer to himself as 'Aa-' before stopping, although it may just be his internet handle.
- Failed a Spot Check: He didn't even notice his transformation until Lois pointed it out to him.
- Fetishes Are Weird: After the comic ends, quite a few gags are made about people being attracted to his Overly-Long Tongue (He blushes when seeing a comment about it on his feed, holds it out to take a photo in supplementary art, and refuses to discuss it on his Valentine's Day Card), which may be a case of Take That, Audience!.
- Forced Transformation: Just like most transformed humans, he views his predicament as an inconvenience at least.
- Mental World: He's shown to have one Kitsune enters to ask a question, depicted as a Cast of Personifications in a fleshy pink room, each being part of his subconscious.
- Mind Rape: Kitsune briefly reaches into his mind to console with his inner thoughts, which causes Aardvark to scream and go loopy as soon as the hand is removed. Kitsune simply assumes He's Okay.
- No Name Given: He's just tagged as "Aardvark" since his human identity hasn't been stated yet.
- Overly-Long Tongue: Naturally, although it's only shown in full after the comic ends.
- Put on a Bus: Literally. He leaves on a bus to go sightseeing in Egypt. The comic where he leaves is even called "Put On A Bus." However, he reappears in a follow-up comic that shows that he's become a travel vlogger and has achieved some success (with some of his fans finding him quite appealing). One of his vlogs is interrupted by Kitsune, who invades his mind in order to determine if he is actually okay with being an aardvark, to a resounding yes.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Tarot winds herself running all the way down a building's many flights of stairs only to find that he somehow beat her down. He just rode the elevator.
- Unfazed Everyman: Between turning into an aardvark and witnessing what he believes to be The End of the World as We Know It, he's remarkably calm.
- Unlucky Everydude: Sheer coincidence leads to Lois pulling up to him on a street full of people and pulling him out of his everyday life. From there, he's dragged halfway across the world in a plot to stop a Mad God, although it doesn't seem to get him down much.
Other Humans
Earl and Jill Sandwich
Peanut and Grape's parents.- The Faceless: As with many other humans, their eyes are never seen. Well, almost never.
- Happily Married: They're not shown together all that much, but when they are there's no sign of any significant conflicts or unhappiness between them.
- Shout-Out:
- One of these days Earl will tell Jill why he snickers at her married name.
- Earl's name is based on that of the (alleged, anyway) inventor of the sandwich, The 4th Earl of Sandwich.note
- Troll: Earl has some subtle elements of this.
Jeeves
The butler for the Milton ferrets.- The Jeeves: Classic Loyal human butler to the Milton Ferrets, always answering 'yessuh' to any task required of him - be it putting one of his employers in the corner so they can do their business or being told by Jata that 'you're a credit to your species'.
Stanley D'Angelo
Sabrina's father, a tenured archaeologist.- Adventurer Archaeologist: Sabrina's Dad's occupation.
- The Unseen: Sabrina's Dad's adventures keep him from Babylon Gardens months at a time.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Mr D'Angelo shows signs of this, although he knows he can depend on Sabrina to handle emergencies, as his voice message directs people to contact his cat in such instances. Sabrina even wrote this phrase on a stone tablet while in the past hoping he'd find it.
Crazy Old Man Who Only Speaks In Limericks
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He’s a crazy old man who only speaks in limericks. ‘Nuff said.
- Flat Character: Only exists to tell anyone who knocks on his door something in the form of limericks.
- The Hermit: He appears to live alone in the woods in a small shack.
- Rhymes on a Dime: All of his sentences rhyme, due to him speaking in limericks
PETA
- Animal Wrongs Group: In a world where animals are fully capable of saying they enjoy being owned, PETA is even more despised then ever.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Their kidnapping of Fox ultimately led to the end of the Celestials’ Cosmic Chess Game.
The Host
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"/No Name Given: Out of universe he's only listed in the tags as "Host" and twice in universe he begins a broadcast without mentioning his name.
- The Host: of a magazine show with the initials ET.
- Kent Brockman News: His specialty. So far he's brought us the hard hitting stories of a Royal Wedding, and the breakup of Allan and the Groundsquirrels.
- Stepford Smiler: Bordering on exceedingly creepy as would be normal for an Entertainment Tonight host.
Kate Gelato
Host of Repackaged News, who was transformed into some kind of mustelid off-panel during the events of Heavenraiser.- Eyes Always Shut: In both her forms, with one exception.
- Strawman News Media: Hosts the sort of news program that specialises in ambush interviews and "balanced" panel discussions in which one side has the facts and the other can shout really loud.
