Housepets / Tropes M to Z

Housepets! by Rick Griffin

Tropes: A to L | M to Z

Main Character Page | Cats | Dogs (Tarot) | Other Animals | Humans | Denizens of Heaven

---

M

• MacGuffin: Joel's "fate" takes the form of a stopwatch that drops in on King from Heaven when Pete tries to steal and meddle with it.
• MacGuffin Melee: When Cerberus catches Pete trying to steal King's fate, the two break into a brawl on Heaven's streets over it, which ends in the fate falling to Earth.
• Magnetic Plot Device: In the "Heaven's Not Enough" mega-story, the stopwatch runs out of power and King becomes Joel. After his visit with Bahamut in Part 2, he is able to remain King back on Earth in Part 3 as long as he has possession of the stopwatch. At the end, Kitsune gives him a choice of whether to live as Joel or King. Those lives are represented by Tarot's lantern and the stopwatch, respectively. He chooses the stopwatch, and permanently becomes King.
  Joel Robinson: You do a nice job making a simple choice complicated.^note  These are his last words as Joel.
  Great Kitsune: Sorry, that's kind of my thing~
• Magical Society: Tarot alludes to one existing, although we never get to see it. PsyCon is a convention for magic users across the cosmos Tarot runs a booth at, and she laments being excluded from them on the Astral Web because everyone thinks she's trying to use time travel to Kill Hitler.
• Magick: The term is always, without fail, spelled 'Magic(k)'. The significance of this spelling (and pronunciation) are never stated.
• Mama Bear: This exchange between Bailey and Gale shows the former in a very protective state regarding her babies, made all the more impressive given that the former is a husky dog and the latter is a cougar:
  Bailey: [having grabbed Gale by the throat] Touch my pups and you'll be wearing your digestive tract like a Mardis Gras necklace!
  Gale: Noted
• Marshmallow Dream: Inverted by Tiger when he has a dream about eating his pillow, on a night when he's sleeping on top of a sheet of uncut Peep marshmallow:
  Tiger: Okay so funny story, I had a dream I was eating my pillow.
• Massage of Love: Combined with Miserable Massage, one of the experiences Breel gives Keene in Heaven is a massage that involves rolling him up like taffy.
• Mass Transformation: In the "Heckraiser" arc Steward makes a Deal with the Devil to become a demon with the power to transform the city’s humans into animals. After he's defeated his earlier victims, having realized how cruel their world is to sapient animals, he makes a Bargain with Heaven to transform 80% of all politicians into animals.
• The Matchmaker: If Pete is to be believed, Spirit Dragon is responsible for Grape/Maxwell, Peanut/Tarot, and Fido/Sabrina. Here's the thing. She only hooked them up as part of her gambit to screw over Pete in their game of Universes and Unrealities, though all three couples don't seem any less happy for it.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Brown dog and purple cat? Peanut Butter and Grape Jelly are very appropriate names, especially as their surname is "Sandwich."
  • The mouse, often known to squick people out, is named Squeak.
  • Herman Stewart, who usually goes by his last name, was specifically hired as a Stewart for sake of the joke.
  • Invoked by Pete, who explicitly gives Joel his new name of King after the chesspiece on his collar.
• Meat-Sack Robot: In the universe of the Superdog comics, The Cyborg may be a robot, but his transformation doesn't at all involve his becoming metallic. Lampshaded in the Alt Text.
  maybe I should put my fake skin back on before someone notices
• Mêlée à Trois: Temple Crashers 2. By the final battle, we have seven factions duking it out around the Mana Pool;
  • Peanut, Max, Grape, Mungo, Fox, and Res, who were initially with Tarot and Sabrina until they abandoned them. Peanut now feels betrayed as a result, driving the rest of his team to win first. Max technically wins, but is forcibly kicked out by Keene's trick summoning spell.
  • Tarot and Sabrina, who understand the deeper gravitas of the situtation and split For the Greater Good to ensure Keene doesn't activate the Pool.
  • Joey's group of nerds, who still think they're playing a LARP.
  • The angels (Spring, Summer, and Rufus) who are trying to ensure that no mortals activate the Pool.
  • Keene, who rigged the game to make sure he activates the Pool first.
  • Breel, who is trying to protect Keene.
  • And Karishad, who's motives are dubious beyond the fact that he lives here.
• Meta Twist: Grape oversleeps because Peanut doesn't wake her, violating the long Running Gag.
• Micro Monarchy: Feraga, a micro-nation in Africa ruled by the family of Jata. According to Sabrina, it was founded and remains run entirely by animals. Humans are allowed in, but the practice of owning pets is forbidden, so Sabrina is a free citizen during her stay.
• Milking the Giant Cow: Although it's happened at least once before with Bino doing a variant here, having the characters raise their paws palm up and skyward occurs a lot more often with the late-2012 art shift. It's done by Fox here, Fido here and here, Maxwell here, and Bruce here.
• Miserable Massage: During "The Four Animals you Meet in Heaven" arc, Keene visits a weasel massage parlor where they cartoonishly stretch him out, twist him up and release, then flatten him with a rolling pin. Oddly he seems to enjoy it.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Inexplicably, at some point a Zebra moved into Wolf House. Possibly averted, as it may be the same zebra from an early zoo strip, but the tags never confirm this.
• Mistaken for Pregnant:
  • Bailey's expressing a desire for a cherry and pickle milkshake prompts a brief freakout from King. It turns out to be something she acquired a taste for as a pup though.
  • In this comic, King suggests Grape may be pregnant after Max points out that she ate a lot of ice cream during an Imaginate play. Max, after trying to assure King that he would know if she was, asks her anyway. She body slams him to the floor in response.
• Mixed Animal Species Team: Many, many of these show up in one form or another owing to the comic's nature. Of note is the demon-hunting team loosely assembled by Kitsune in Heckraiser, comprised of a dog, a red panda, a bobcat, an aardvark, and a squirrel. Granted, all but the first is a transformed human.
• Monochrome to Color: Switched at the end of the first year.
• Mood Whiplash: This strip is a rare example in one in the webcomic's early days that's not humor-based, surrounded by entries that are more lighthearted. Here, Max is seen floating through a Nightmare Sequence while on his back.
• Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls: Of the Pridelands' sizable fandom, only Grape's fanfic is ever mentioned, and repeatedly made fun of.
• Motive Rant: For Joel, its his backstory of being kidnapped by pets to explain his joining PETA. For Stewart, its his mistreatment by Keene prior to his transformation.
• Mouse World: Mentioned by name in the alt-text of this comic. A whole tiny universe nestled within the human scaled world is shown, populated by — mice, naturally.
• Mrs. Robinson: Sabrina is hinted to be much, much older than her sweetheart Fido.
• MST3K Mantra: Invoked when Marion asks about Kitsune during the investigation of the transformation matter. Keene says it's just easier to let things go and not worry about irrelevant details:
  Breel: So good to see you! You should really come over more often!
  Great Kitsune: Oh I would, but you know how things are, when you have an infinite amount of time, the office expects an infinite amount of work put in
  Marion: But if you have infinite time—
  Keene: Don't, it's easier to just pretend it makes sense.
• The Multiverse: Pete offhandedly mentions that Earth is one of many 'low-end' universes, essentially a stomping ground for their U&U session.
• Mundane Fantastic: Talking animals and telepathic dolphins. It also doesn't take much for people to believe in other Psychic Powers. Lampshaded within a guest comic in which Peanut decides to draw a comic starring them, only to dismiss the idea as being "too mundane" after saying the hijinks they've been through out loud.
• Mundane Made Awesome: The comic "Sweet Deal" advertises ordinary sugar as if it's a new fad, the joke being that the sugar rush one gets from eating it too much is "super awesome".
• Mundane Solution: Upon hearing about Peanut's dilemma over what to do with Bino's shock collar, Grape simply elects to break it in half.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Grape’s default reaction when she’s angry at another character is resorting to physical violence, often taking the form of doing a wrestling style body-slam or takedown of the offender or striking them on the head with a broom, frying pan, or something similar.
• Musical Episode: Or musical strip, in this case. These are Fiddler and Keys' specialty, seen here and here. The first is a Song Parody of the "Irish Washerwoman" jig, while the second is a sailing song, lyrics provided in both cases.
• Mutual Kill: Played for Laughs. The ninjas in an early strip are said to have killed themselves by running at their swords at the same time.
• My Biological Clock Is Ticking: Played strictly for laughs when female characters act out toward crushes:
  • Sasha begs to have Fido's puppies when he returns from K-9 school.
  • Grape writes a fan letter to one of the actors who played in an adaptation of Pridelands, and begs to have his kittens.
  • When Jata arrives in Babylon Gardens, all the female cats mob him, initially believing him to be an actor from Pridelands. At least one instance in the resulting Wall of Text is "I WANT YOUR", but cuts off on the edge of the panel. Probably not difficult to guess where that's going.
  • Played With in the arc "Be Mine", with an awkward misunderstanding between King and Sasha. When Sasha tells King "I want your puppies," it's not a come on — she means that she likes his youngsters so much that she'd love to take them home with her.
    King: Okay, Sasha, for anything else we need to find a comfortable middle. You know I'm a married dog!
    Sasha: Of course, Silly!
    King: Good! Keeping that in mind, what else can I do for you?
    Sasha: I want your puppies!
    King: (face turns red) WHAT?! (faints)
    Sasha: (picking up Rook) Your puppies are so cute! I could just take them with me! EEEE!
• My Future Self and Me: In a guest strip, Draig encounters her past self Dragon in a dream some time after reincarnating. She's forced here to say goodbye to the life she knew and greet her current one, implied to have accepted defeat entirely (although in canon, she continues to bear a grudge against Kitsune for reincarnating her as his son).
• My Girl Is a Slut:
  • Sasha has always been laissez-faire about relationships, throwing herself at other dogs frequently — especially Fido when she was Bino's girlfriend. But her present boyfriend Kevin seems aware of her promiscuous nature, and doesn't mind as long as the other guy doesn't get any ideas of something more. That seems to be how Sasha approaches it as well: snuggling with others is okay, but Kevin is her boyfriend. Perfect example: they seemed perfectly okay with Sasha smooching Fox until Fox revealed he had a crush on her:
    Fox: Okay, you know what? It's been really hard not to just say something, and I'm tired of bottling it up! I wanna date Sasha and I have for eons!
    Kevin: Woah, hey, wait, I thought you were just kissing her.
    Sasha: Yeah, me too! That sounds like commitment!
  • Grape, Peanut, Tarot, and Max all fit this trope in a strange pseudo-poly way. Grape/Max and Tarot/Peanut are the Official Couple(s), but Peanut and Grape crush heavily on each other and are said to do unspecified 'mushy' activities with each other offscreen. Tarot is aware of this and okay with it, and Maxwell was oblivious, but quickly comes around when its explained to him.
• Myth Arc: The mystery of Pete and his freeing (When Grape and Peanut are the primary focus), the Cosmic Game (When King is introduced), its end, and its aftershocks (When Marion is introduced) tie into each other to form one grand storyline.

N

• The Nameless: In the tags, the Aztec Ghost briefly seen in this comic is only named '???' in his first appearance.
• Naming Ceremony: Among wolves. When they come of age, cubs decide their own names, which leads to an intense inter-family Aerith and Bob (ie; Miles being the father of Rockstar Hawk.)
• Naked People Are Funny:
  • Averted within the strips themselves. While housepets are naked all the time, the fact is only occasionally pointed out, such as when Grape couldn't believe that Peanut didn't know she's a girl, or "The Arc Specifically About Being Naked" (aka losing one's collar).
  • Played straight within the Alt Text in which the mention of the animals technically being naked (save for their collars) is a Running Gag.
  • Invoked when Great Kitsune visits the Gardens during Keene's spa day:
    King: You don’t have to draw attention to the naked part.
    Great Kitsune: Oh, this place is so silly. You’re walking around naked all the time and suddenly it gets a little awkward just cause someone can see your neck.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: In this strip, Tarot is asked why King wasn't along for their adventure in the Housepets 5000 BC storyline. She replies with a comment that his emphatically negative response to being invited to join the adventuring group ended with "a crescendo of creative profanities."
• Near-Death Experience:
  • Sabrina experiences one at her wedding to Jata, kicked into the pool and nearly drowning. This one in particular was foretold by Tarot a year prior, which Sabrina recalls angrily as it happens.
  • In "The Four Animals you Meet in Heaven" Keene finds himself in Heaven with no explanation given. Then just when he's accepted being dead he wakes up half-drowned.
• Never Say "Die":
  • Parodied here by Rufus on Uncle Reuben's farm, who uses all sorts of euphemisms for dying in their literal, non-euphemism sense.
  • A Lampshade Hanging is seen when Heavenly denizen Breel shows up to visit Keene on Earth.
    Keene: Aren't you... you know...
    Breel: Dead. You can say dead.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Here in Peanut's strip "The Adventures of Spot (Superdog)," the hero suddenly acquires the ability to impose Super-hypnosis on Stripe, allowing him to wipe her memory when she figures out his secret identity. Spot even Lampshades this in the last line.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Grape fears she may have put the whole Pridelands series continuation in jeopardy after accusing the human "author" of exploiting the work of her cat (who is the actual author of the series). She didn't.
  • Keene breaking Breel's heart in Temple Crashers 2. Breel's tears in the mana pool opened a portal to what Cerberus would later refer to as "the bad place".
    Tarot: For the record, I called it.
  • In this strip, Kitsune explains that demons wish to steal spiritual energy from Earth in order to conquer it and thus give them enough power to go to war with Heaven. Normally, this would be impossible as there isn't enough energy on Earth to do so. Except, as Tarot is quick to point out, while Pete's temple has been destroyed, Spirit Dragon's temple in Egypt is still standing with a large mana pool which would give the demons the power they need... and Eudonant is on his way there... and the temple only exists in the first place because Kitsune decided to use Earth as the setting for his, Pete's and Spirit Dragon's role-playing game and never removed it once the game was over. Oops. (Kitsune's reply of "Medangit... " to Tarot is an Oh, Crap! moment.)
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: The character aptly named "what chicken" within the tags exists only to act as a Visual Pun when someone uses the word "chicken" in a figurative sense.
• No Longer with Us:
  • Rufus single-handedly makes this a Dead Horse Trope^note Seriously. The horse, named Made of Win, is not amused. It's the trope page image. when he keeps joking about the previous owner of Uncle Reuben's farm who happened to be his previous owner. Each time that it appears Rufus is using a euphemism for his former owner dying, it turns out he's referring to a literal occurrence (for example, when he says the man "joined the choir invisible," he's referring to a barbershop quartet with that name). It got so bad that, when Rufus actually showed up dead much later, Grape kept thinking he was still using death pun jokes.
  • Played with when Kix uses a less-jokey analogy of this variety at one point:
    Kix: I was a pet fox for half my life before my owner bought the farm! A fur farm, to be specific.
• No More for Me: Marion pours away his intoxicating orange soda when the hostile phone operator he's speaking to is replaced by a more heavenly one.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: The comic started with female animals being given only a few Tertiary Sexual Characteristics to distinguish them from males. Several years later, the author began giving his female animals an upper torso with curves suggestive of human-style breasts — though they're still drawn with Barbie Doll Anatomy given the comic's self-imposed rating. Of note is Dragon, a reptilian cosmic deity who develops somewhat pronounced curves on her 'chest'.
• No OSHA Compliance: The way to Heaven is apparently a giant golden staircase without any railings. Luckily there's an equally giant three headed dog-god standing by to catch you in her paw if you trip and fall.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*:
  • After King takes a tumble down the stairs, he woozily greets Fox with this nonsensical statement:
    King: Oh, hello Mr. Elephant, let's take a walk down to the gumdrop lake.
  • When Camel Thomas is pulled from the rubble of the collapsed temple by Sofia, he groggily and irrationally describes himself this way:
    Camel Thomas: Mommy look, I'm a Bactrian elephant.
  • After Tarot reminds the various passengers on the plane to Cairo how they were convinced to come along, Lois wonders why everyone seems to have forgotten. Tarot muses that the oxygen levels on board might be low... and promptly passes out, but not before saying this:
    Tarot: By the way, did you frumble my corn husk? I haven't flibbergap- *faints*
• No Social Skills: Downplayed with the wolves. They're very cordial and polite to those around them, be they human, pet, or otherwise. However, due to recently coming out of the woods and still enjoying hunting and fighting, as well as being wolves living in human society, they have a tendency to forget what is socially acceptable.
• Not Blood Siblings: While Peanut and Grape treat each other as siblings, this apparently doesn’t preclude their engaging in “mushy stuff” with each other sometimes. Not only are they not related, they're not even the same species.
• Not Quite Back to Normal: Some of the powers gained from entering Pete's temple seem to linger after leaving, including after its destruction. Zach continues to demonstrate the ability to light up his feet he gained as a White Mage inside, and Res still possesses a weretiger form he accidentally shifts into a few times after the fact.
• Not Where They Thought: Keene spends a good chunk of The Four Animals You Meet In Heaven convinced that he's in a luxury resort which just happens to have the artsy name of "Heaven". When he finds out he's actually dead, he's rather shocked.

O

• Obfuscating Stupidity: Daisy, with her limited vocabulary consisting solely of introducing herself by name every time she speaks, is nowhere near as brainless as she appears initially. She finally drops the charade when Fox and Mungo come around to ask the members of the Good Ol' Dogs Club what they know about Sasha.
• Obviously Evil: One wizard at the Wizard Convention in the Spot universe, cloaked in red and with a demonic appearance, steadfastly denies his evilness.
• Obvious Rule Patch: A few for The Good Ol Dogs Club Annual Easter Egg Hunt, implying a Noodle Incident from last year involving Sasha. Namingly, you cannot eat eggs and you cannot reuse eggs from last year. As he reads these off, he very pointedly stares at Sasha and specifies her name.
• Ocular Gushers: Sasha's tears run in arc flows like a fountain after she is subjected to a series of intentionally bad dates. These are set up as a ploy by Bino to get back into Sasha's good graces after she dumped him on Valentine's Day.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Fox does some Spontaneous Choreography after getting a kiss from Sasha while singing a thinly veiled version of the Broadway song "Maria." When he realizes that, he stops with embarassment imagining how silly he must look.
    Fox: And I'm subconsciously projecting myself onto the lead of West Side Story for a reason, aren't I?
    Alt-text of that comic: Tony / I'll end up in a ditch just like Tony
  • In this comic, Jata's eyes widen in fear when he realizes he has badly underestimated elderly Uncle Deadeye's strength.
  • Grape and Peanut share the same feeling here, complete with Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises, when they realize something is up and look out the car window to see the Animal Clinic sign.
• Oh, My Gods!: Within the animals of the Babylon Gardens woods, 'Opener' is used exceedingly in place of 'God', befitting their Fantasy Counterpart Religion they practice. Tarot at one point uses 'The Dragon help us' early in the strip as well.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: On realizing he's been kidnapped and waking up in the back of a van, Fox crossly says this line verbatim with more annoyance than concern.
• Older Than They Look: It's been hinted that Sabrina is older than the other pet characters in the strip. Potentially much older. This would make her relationship with Fido a Mrs. Robinson situation.
  Grape: ...wait, how old are you?
  Sabrina: Not as old as you're going to feel when you're left eating wet Citty Cibble through a straw.
• Only Six Faces:
  • During the comic's first year, the characters' faces were pretty much interchangeable (especially for those who are the same species), though this mostly improved following the strip's visual style revision. It's not perfect, though; apart from a color shift and some differences in clothing, Peanut remains a dead ringer for Fido.
  • In the 2013 Halloween strip you need to look at Fox and Karishad's tails and eye colours to get the joke.
  • There's a reason the author doesn't often show humans from the neck-up in this comic; most of them tend to look very similar in his drawing style, best illustrated here.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Lampshaded and outright named in the comments here. For context King was accidentally called "Duke" within the tags at one stage.^note The mistake's since been corrected.
  • Subverted with Grape's list of all the Petes in town.
  • Inverted with the Biggleworths. There are loads of cats with this name living in the same household, often resulting in confusion.
  • Inverted given that Miles apparently has two brothers named Daryl.
• One-Word Title: And Species Title. The comic was initially about two housepets, so Housepets! stuck.
• Or Was It a Dream?: After Grape dreams she was riding on a flying gryphon (Pete), she wakes up holding one of his large feathers. Grape even Lampshades this, yet still acts surprised.
• Ouija Board: One of many psychic tools utilized by Tarot and Sabrina. Notable uses include checking the Haunted House Marvin stays in for a night to ensure no actual ghosts get in the way of their fake scare prank.
• Our Angels Are Different: When Breel shows up sporting a halo, he says he's like an angel, but that the term's a little overused now. In general, Angels take a very classical definition in this webcomic verse, being the souls of dead mortals who ocassionally carry out odd jobs for Heaven's higher forces, such as keeping an eye on powerful objects to make sure they don't fall into the wrong paws. Of course, it's revealed later on that an Angel is only half of a mortal soul; the soul is split into two upon death, all the good parts sent to Heaven, and all the bad parts manifesting as a demon in the Bad Place, losing memories of their mortal lives in the process. Breel is one such individual whose both halves we get to see. Several show up in different roles throughout the comic.
• Our Demons Are Different: Similar to angels, demons are also different than normally depicted. Specifically, they seem to be the negative and cruel aspects of someone that is cast off from themselves when they go to heaven, and are left to fester in hell … sort of. At least that seems to be the case with Demon Breel.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Spirit Dragon is a Celestial who, assuming Kitsune is to be believed when he says the same about himself, may only be assuming A Form You Are Comfortable With and copying human myths of dragons. She can shift between a serpentine and anthropomorphic forms, as well as a few other oddball shapes, alongside many of the same Reality Warper powers other Celestials possess. She's also embroiled in a Cosmic Chess Game with her brother that's guided the history of Earth for thousands of years now.
• Our Gargoyles Are Different: Gargoyles are a species found within Pete's temple. They seem to enjoy pretending to be statues and preying upon the unaware, although bright flashes of light can cause them to freeze into real stone. When Pete's temple is destroyed, they're released into the surrounding forests as an invasive species.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: While less common than angels, ghosts show up a few times in the comic as souls with unfinished business, most notably Teoxihuitl.
• Our Gryphons Are Different: Pete, a Celestial all-powerful being, takes on the form of a Gryphon who can switch between bipedal and quadrupedal as he desires.
• Our Kobolds Are Different: Kobolds appear in Pete's temple as Ugly Cute furred monsters with golden eyes. They appear to be somewhat intelligent, possibly luring Grape in with one and then attacking in a swarm.
• Our Nudity Is Different: Among pets, the collar is the only article of clothing, and the neck is the only body part they feel 'shame' about showing. Hot Springs arcs where they're explicitly described as being naked only involve them taking their collars off, and in the mall arc Grape comments on the absurdity she sees in covering one's entire body in clothing like humans do.
• Our Souls Are Different: A Soul is the complete being and personality of a mortal individual, containing within it a multitude of vices and virtues. When a person dies, they don't go to Heaven or Hell; instead, their soul is split, said virtues and vices manifesting as both a demon and an angel in Heaven and the Bad Place. With permission from Heaven, both of these can separately reincarnate.
• Out of Focus: When the comic began it was heavily focused on Peanut and Grape, but with the story lines swerving heavily towards the supernatural, they appear less and less often in the strip nowadays.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: Invoked. In the Pridelands Imaginate, and certain crossover comics, Spot somehow exists in the fantasy Warrior Cats-esque universe of Pridelands, powers and all, with no explanation.
• Outside Ride: Lois escapes from Demon-Steward here by running after a van, jumping onto the rear door, and hanging on for dear life.
  Lois: For a second I thought I might be cheating, but this is a lot harder than they make it seem in the movies.

P

• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • In this strip, Truck the raccoon wears a black cloth mask around his eyes to hide his identity. It only covers his naturally occurring one.
  • Grape pretends to be Sabrina's boyfriend here wearing a beard that some readers didn't even notice until it was pointed out to them.
• Parental Sexuality Squick:
  • Craig and Draig are thoroughly disgusted when they see their mother Kix kissing Great Kitsune. One covers their eyes, the other sticks out their tongue, and both yell "Ewwwww!"
  • Played with by Keene when Henry Milton and his mother kiss. Henry is his adoptive father, and his mother is biological, but the two never met in life and he knew the former as human and the latter as a ferret.
• Percussive Prevention: In this strip, Grape puts a stop to Bino's jealous and paranoid rant condemning Fido's hero status by whacking him over the head with a frying pan.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: 'Rambunctorium'- As in, a place to be rambunctious.
• Personalized Afterlife: Heaven is stated to be infinite, so while it does have public spaces, it's also shown to have private areas for a person to have whatever kind of afterlife they want. When Keene visits his deceased mother, she's living in a cozy dugout out in the wilderness and watching a Heaven-exclusive 10-season-long version of Firefly.
• Pest Episode: A comic version in Mouse Mouse Revolution, combining the trope with The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized by depicting a group of mice who wish to dispose of all humans and bell Grape to protect themselves from her. In the only onscreen depiction of predation in the comic, she ends it by stomping their leader to death and killing him in front of the rest of them.
• Pet Contest Episode: ''Show Business', which features King and Duchess entering one as a couple and competing.
• Pet Heir: The six now incredibly wealthy ferrets inherited their fortune from the late Henry Milton.
• Physical Heaven: Heaven is, in the Housepets multiverse, a physical realm that alive animals can visit and walk around in with the approval of Cerberus or someone of similar power. This despite Heaven being said to be partially imperceivable by mortal flesh (As upon reincarnating, Breel finds he cannot recall the exact experience of Heaven with the limitations of a physical brain), implying the visitors somehow ascend on the way there.
• Physical Hell: The same is true of Pandemonium, a location visited by Breel and Keene in Temple Crashers 2.
• Pie-Eyed: The cardboard Keene cutout in Theme Park World has these, lampshaded by the AltText, which calls them 'Pac Man Eyes'.
• Planet of Steves: There are at least eleven Siamese cats named Mr. Bigglesworth (yes, even the girls), all owned by one Crazy Cat Lady. They're not Inexplicably Identical Individuals, but even the Bigglesworths can't always tell one another apart, or tell each other's genders.
• Playing Possum:
  • Jessica, who actually is an opossum, keels over playing dead when she sees a scary gargoyle in this strip. She collapses onto Zach in the process.
    Zach: Nice one, Jess! Who's the dead weight now?!
  • Jessica also collapses from fright when she discovers her friends have thrown a surprise birthday party here.
    Zach: I told you this was a bad plan.
• Polyamory:
  • Fox hooks up with two angel huskies named Spring and Summer while visiting Heaven, and even refers to them as his girlfriends on a later visit.
  • It's eventually seen that Peanut and Grape have been doing plenty of casual "mushy" stuff while dating Tarot and Max. Tarot knew about it, though Max was pretty oblivious.
• Power Outage Plot: This comic has two separate arcs where a blizzard knocks out the neighborhood's power: Snowed In and The Hot Springs Episode (the latter so named because Keene ordered a portable onsen and invited all the neighborhood pets over).
• Power Perversion Potential: Played with here, complete with an added Luminescent Blush, about Tarot's "imagination made real" ability combined with a suggestion of indecent exposure for Grape. It's never clarified what actually happened.
• The Pollyanna: Sasha. No matter how badly her owner treats her, she still loves him and maintains a happy disposition (possibly verging on Cloud Cuckoolander at times).
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Spoken swear words blocked by a "Censored" sign occur here, here, and here. All are said by King, who seemingly is the only character allowed to use profanity on-screen.
  • An off-screen example of cursing is alluded to as well, apparently happening after King steps on a Lego. We see him with a bar of soap in his mouth afterwards while his wife scolds him.
    Bailey: And where did you learn such language!?
• Predation Is Natural: The conveniently off-screen version. Predation is constantly alluded to as a nagging threat for prey animals (The title of one book is 'Housepets! Hope They Don't Get Eaten'), but outside Grape eating a mouse onscreen in some Early-Installment Weirdness, we never get to witness it. Also discussed by Steward towards Keene; Part of the reason his belief in Keene's attempts to obtain true animal equality wavered is the simple fact that prey animals are constantly threatened by predator animals, which will never go away even if they can (and do) live amicably together, which he especially realizes now that he's become a predatory animal himself.
• Predator-Prey Friendship:
  • The mouse character Spo is introduced initially by Sabrina deciding to spare him from her appetite and handing him off to Fido, upon which they become close friends. Another mouse, Squeak, develops a relationship with Joey, a dog.
  • Despite eating their leader in an earlier arc, Grape the cat introduces a group of mice to her and Peanut's theatre troupe for a performance with no bad blood.
  • Trinket, a bluejay, works briefly with Stewart, a badger. Granted, given that Stewart used to be human, the idea of eating birds may not be as appetizing to him.
• Prequel: An In-Universe one in Peanut's Superdog comic, as explicitly stated. As the strip is recounting their first date, Peanut feels the need to add a line of dialogue that explicitly says 'This is a prequel', regardless of how much sense it makes in the scene.
• Present Company Excluded: Said by Fox during his rant against PETA, though the usual intent of this trope is inverted, as he's saying he likes humans except for the ones he's talking to.
• Profound by Pop Song: The Demigods occasionally quote lyrics when talking to mortals, which underlines the disdain they have for the concerns of those mortals.
  • Pete tells King / Joel Robinson that when he decides whether he wants to become human again or stay a dog he should get down on his knees and call him. "Heaven holds a place for those who pray. Hey, hey, hey."
  • When Tarot goes to Kitsune to complain about his making her look like a fool in the Temple he doesn't even bother disguising his Mick Jagger impression.
• "Psycho" Shower Murder Parody: In this comic, King escapes Sasha's unwanted attentions by sneaking off to take a shower. She finds him, though, and "attacks" him with a scrub brush, teasingly scolding him for sneaking off to take a shower without her.
  King: Do I hear violin stings?^note It's "stings" in the original, not "strings"
• Punny Name: Grape pretends to be Sabrina's boyfriend Concord in this strip.^note A concord is a type of grape.
• Purgatory and Limbo: One certainly exists, which Sabrina warns King may enter if he dies without deciding which species he wants to stick to.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: This comic shows Fido visualizing his feline girlfriend Sabrina making huge, shining, sympathetic eyes at him as he's rescuing the drowning cat.
• Puppy Love: After the Jurassic Park Imaginate, Olive develops a schoolgirl-style crush on Pueblo.
  Olive: Everybody, Pueblo is now my official boyfriend!
  Pueblo: [distressed] Mom help!

Q-R

• Quirky Town: Babylon Gardens is owned by ferrets (through a human estate trust), and has among other "oddball" characters two housepets who are servants of celestial beings playing a Universes and Unrealities with the subdivision.
• Rage Breaking Point: Tarot snaps and becomes furious when the group she's in ends up several millennia back in the past and Max asks (again) if they could just tell Spirit Dragon what happened. Losing her ability to "think in four dimensions" and being unable to solve the problem at-hand has clearly stressed Tarot out. Maxwell just proves to be the final straw.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": In this strip, Peanut nervously tries to keep Grape from discovering the three sexy barn cats who just invited him to join them in a slow-motion pillow fight (and immediately withdrew the offer when he was too tongue-tied to respond), saying multiple fast "no" iterations in the process. Grape decides to go in and join them anyway.
  Grape: Hey Peanut, is something happening?
  Peanut: What?! No, no no no no nothing's happening!
• Ready for Lovemaking: When King goes back to his room after a dog pageant in this strip, Duchess appears on his bed — lying in a suggestive pose with a whip and a set of pink cuffs, asking King to snuggle with her.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Quoted by the author in the comments section when a reader complained that the feline fangs were too far forward in the new art style, and he responded with a Wikipedia link.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Invoked. After the first comic in what looked to be an amusing plot arc, the author's computer broke, triggering a two-week stretch of guest strips... after which the last comic in said plot arc appeared (as if the action had continued in the absence of the author). Except the characters acknowledged that no one had actually seen any of it happen and determined to recreate it for their benefit (well, Bino did). If the author's computer hadn't broken, presumably the arc would have taken a very different course.
• Reality Warper: Tarot is shown to be able to (ab)use her power to alter reality in the Pridelands pretend arc. When the next Imaginate takes place fully in reality, it's explained in the end that Tarot stopped agreeing to it because Grape did something unmentionable in a previous play.
• Real Men Cook:
  • Rex, a big and manly bulldog, is seen baking Christmas cookies here.
  • In this guest strip, male cat Max is shown in the kitchen taking an active role in baking bread with Grape.
  • Here, male pine marten Breel is shown offering guests a plate of cookies he just prepared, and here, he has just finished baking a large batch of muffins (apparently at Max's suggestion). He's not always so successful in the kitchen, though, as seen here, where he burned dinner and has already ordered a pizza.
• "The Reason I Suck" Speech: Alongside her speech to Kitsune, she herself is not immune to her own criticism. Despite being the supposed Only Sane Woman in the cast and a knowledgeable practitioner of Magic(k), Tarot has been outstaged more than once by other heroes saving the day in her stead. This has given her feelings of inadequacy, not helped by the sense of responsibility she got from having been an avatar for a celestial being. When demons from Pandemonium threaten the world and Kitsune refuses Tarot's help, she loses all stoicism and has a full-on breakdown.
  Marion: You've been extremely adamant that you want to save the world yourself, so how can we be sure that this isn't just for your glory?
  Tarot: Yeah, everyone says that. 'Oh, Tarot, you just want to save the world so you feel better about yourself' well you know what? Dragon raised me to be the savior of the universe. And I know it doesn't matter who does it in the end, all that really matters is that the universe gets saved. I know I sound spoiled and everyone's just laughing at me for my unrealistic expectations! So yeah, okay! Maybe I'm wrong! Maybe he doesn't need us, or maybe it doesn't even matter. I should just give up because I want it too much! No matter how much work I put in, I'm just not good enough!
  [Awkward silence as Tarot cries...]
  Steward: Ambition can be cruel to us.
  Tarot: You'd think I'd have learned that considering the egos I surround myself with...
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In this strip, Kitsune finally tells the heroes the reason (or, one of the reasons) why he can't just undo the curse that turns people into animals: because giving mortals everything they've ever wanted with no consequences would make them petty, selfish and complacent like it did his demigod friends. Tarot won't have it, however, and after pointing out that nobody is asking for him to give everyone everything they've ever wanted, she tears into him for being the reason the curse exists in the first place and giving demons a way to get to Earth, something he's forced to concede:
  Tarot: That wasn't even what we were talking about, but I think I know why you think it was. You see yourself as a Force Of Nature, don't you? Well, forces of nature get to be capricious! But you've taken on sapient form. You want to be understood as good, wise and intelligent? Then you need to accept that this is your fault. You played the game that allowed for [humans] to become animals irrevocably. You condemned your friends to mortal life so they're not here to help you. If you're capable of fixing the problems you caused, you should. Even if there are knock-on consequences. Especially because you are powerful. If Heaven expects us to set things right, it's the least you can do.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Played with. Bailey isn't a villain, but her eye pupils turn red with rage on two occasions, presaging she means business and then some:
  • When Bino makes the mistake of interrupting an argument between her and King. Bino doesn't have time to "take warning," though...
  • When Gale sneaks up on her and her puppies intending to kill them. Seeing Bailey's red pupils are part of what make her decide otherwise.
• "Rediscovering Roots" Trip: Played for Laughs with the Wolves in Call O' Th' Wild, since their own is the same as a Camping Episode. After feeling like the wolf cubs are getting too lazy and comfy in modern society, Miles takes his entire pack alongside King's family into the Babylon Garden woods, accidentally encroaching on the territory of his scorned former friend.
• Red Scare: When Duchess first decides to convince King to be her partner for the dog show's king and queen pageant, she has Boris, a large pooch with a Russian accent, approach the corgi and ask for his purebred papers. King, who was originally a human born during the tail end of the Cold War, thought he meant something more sinister.
• Reincarnation: Being reborn is presented as an option for the deceased to return to Earth in this webcomic.
  • Breel is apparently allowed to skip some of the normal steps as part of his reward so he can be united with Keene on Earth.
  • Pete and Spirit Dragon are forced to be reborn as mortals when they lose a bet, becoming fox kits named Craig and Draig. Confirmed, when a mortal version of Great Kitsune reveals he is helping Craig and Draig's mother, Kix, raise them.
    Craig: I'll have my revenge on you yet, Kitsune.
    Great Kitsune: Please, kits, call me "daddy".
    Craig: STOP BEING SO WEIRD!
    Great Kitsune: Stop being so weird, "daddy."
• Reincarnation: An option for those in Heaven. This is also the ultimate fate of whoever would lose The Cosmic Game, being cursed to live a mortal life, which ends up happening to both sides.
• Reincarnation-Identifying Trait: Implied. The fox kits Craig and Draig have the same eye colors as ex-demigods Pete and Spirit Dragon, currently sentenced to spend a lifetime as mortals.
• Relative Error: It turns out Pete and Spirit Dragon are siblings. Apparently quite a few readers thought they were exes or something.
• Retcon: In an early King arc, Dog Heaven and Human Heaven are mentioned as two separate things, implying a Heaven for every species. Later lore would elaborate that there is only one Heaven any species can go to, and indeed Henry Milton (a human) gets to go to the same Heaven as his pet ferrets, and even takes the form of a ferret while there.
• Ret-Gone: In this strip, Sabrina tells Fido to go in and stop Bino from smashing King's "fate" stopwatch — saying that if he doesn't, she will obliterate any trace of his existence.
  Sabrina: Fido, if you don't go in there and stop this right now, I am going to make you never born.
  Fido: D...don't you mean "Wish I was—"
  Sabrina: No.
• Retroactive Wish: Maxwell, as Macbeth. When he finds out he has become king, he quickly demands silver to nobody in particular.
• The Reveal:
  • Here, Fox finally discovers that his enemy Joel and friend King are one and the same (respectively as a human and dog). It's a highly charged moment, too.
  • Fox is revealed to be a police dog in training after he tackles Bino, who was caught trying to steal things from a baby.
    Fox: ...well no wonder that was so easy, you're like a magnet for this!
  • Spirit Dragon and Pete, now resurrected, have turned into the fox kits Draig and Craig, respectively. We meet them at the ruins of Pete's temple.
    Draig: What about my temple in Egypt?
    Craig: Sure! Let me just pull out my mortal superpowers to fly us there OH WAIT...
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: Inverted. When Lana asks Lucretia "you wouldn't eat me, right?", Lucretia assumes it's a rhetorical question and doesn't reply. Lana, however, was expecting an answer and is unnerved when she doesn't get one.
• Running Gag:
  • Peanut waking Grape from one of her naps when he needs her help on something.
  • Also Bino getting thrashed when his Jerkassery goes too far.
    Fox: By the way, Bino, have you ever wondered why injuring you is not grounds for expulsion?
  • Bailey's wish to drink pickle-and-cherry milkshakes, which started out as a Wacky Cravings joke.

S

• Sadistic Choice: Given to King by Pete. He must either become Pete's avatar or return to life as a human. The sadistic part comes from the day he chooses to give this ultimatum: King's wedding day.
• Samus Is a Girl: People often mistake Grape for a boy — but she is indeed female. In fact, other cats sometimes have problems telling. Even Peanut, Grape's housemate and best friend, couldn't tell.
• Sapient Pet: The comic. It's a Type 3, where animals being sapient is a known and understood fact of life, but people continue to keep them as companions with very little rights anyway.
• Sapient Steed: Horses are on the list of sentient talking animals, so they become examples of this trope. Camels later turn out to be as well.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Milton ferrets tend to believe that they can do anything that please because they're wealthy, buying whatever catches their fancy even if the law or rules don't allow it:
  • They have a swimming pool filled entirely with grape gelatin (or alternatively chocolate mousse).
  • Keene at one point contemplates getting a waterfall installed in their mansion.
  • Keene plunges the entire neighborhood into a grandiose water balloon war just to test out a new line of water guns.
  • Taken to its logical conclusion when Keene pays off the International Court of Justice to ensure Sabrina marries Jata.
• Scrubbing Off the Trauma: Discussed when Peanut Breaks the Fourth Wall during an imagination scene that parodies Macbeth.
  Peanut: The washing of hands while sleepwalking indicates profound guilt. Not surprising given how much embarrassing fanfiction she tends to write.
  Grape: (throws "screwball" placard she was holding at him) OUT, D-WORDED SPOT!!!
• Scooby-Dooby Doors: Averted in this strip. After being found by a ghost and running away in a tightly packed group, the K9 unit somehow finds a series of doors in the cave. They run through one, and are surprised to find the ghost does not give chase.
• Second Law of Gender-Bending: In the epilogue to "Heckraiser", after using the boon they were granted as a reward to make a "completely scientific method" for anyone to change between human and animal forms, Marion admits to feeling comfortable as a squirrel now that they're not ostracized because of it. Then Lois brings up why they haven't changed their Gender Bender and Marion's more hesitant to go into detail about that, brushing it off as unsafe to tinker with.
• Secret Relationship: Fido and Sabrina are a clandestine romantic pair, forced for some time to hide their love because they're in a frowned-upon dog/cat Interspecies Relationship. Fido is forced to reveal that they're a couple on live television to prevent an Arranged Marriage from ending it.
• Sedgwick Speech: Todd gets vapourised in the middle of a Rousing Speech.
• Seers: Tarot makes frequent reference to her clairvoyance, mostly to the annoyance of other people around her. She teaches this power to Sabrina, but eventually loses it when Dragon loses The Game.
• Self-Deprecation: The webcomic author spoofs himself over the swings between Slice of Life Romantic Comedies and fantasy arcs that the comic sometimes takes.
• Self-Insert Fic: Grape writes a Pridelands fanfic and includes a self-insert character named Gapre in it here. She's incredibly embarrassed when Peanut reads it.
• Selling One's Own Hair: In one strip, Bino sells all of his fur to buy an iPhone cover for Duchess. She responds with a $10 gift card and comments that the case doesn't even fit her phone.
• Sequel Hook: At the end of Temple Crashers 2, we find out there's another mana source in the form of Dragon's temple, which is still in Egypt. And Badger Steward still has that one cursed coin, with the panel revealing it even having an "End?" that hints at it being important later. Both of these would indeed end up being addressed in later story-focused arcs, specifically the coin in "My Life as a Teenage Squirrel" and the temple in "Heckraiser".
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: As soon as Rock decides to film a kibble commercial with resident Cloudcuckoolander Sasha, it immediately begins going downhill. Sasha cannot eat the kibble used as a prop, scripts are switched out, and she ends up getting stuck in a full body suit. The ad is filmed anyway, and her being cut out of the suit is used as a metaphor for the product's quality.
• Shared Family Quirks: Fido (a dog) is dating a cat named Sabrina. His youngest brother Joey is in a relationship with Squeak, a mouse. Associating with mice is another thing the Byrons seem to have in common. Fido has also grown rather attached to Spo, a mouse he was volunteered to care after, by none other than Sabrina. And we've come full circle.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Parodied. Peanut manages to make Grape look better just by combing her eyelashes out.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: When Keene happens upon a trapped Zach and Jessica, he assumes Jessica is Zach's girlfriend. — and not surprisingly so, given that he found them snuggling for warmth in the previous strip. They officially become a couple a few strips later, but in this case Zach's attempt at a denial is interrupted by an irate opossum.
  Keene: Got lost, Zach? Introduce me to your sweetheart some time.
  Zach: She's not—
  Jessica: If it isn't Mr. Moneybags — Aren't you afraid you'll break a nail out here?
  Keene: Hardly.
• Shining City: Heaven first appears as one of these when Pete flies towards it, situated in the clouds and resembling a white and gold modern city.
• Shipper on Deck: Fox actively encourages King to develop a love relationship with his cousin Bailey, and the two indeed become a romantic couple in later strips.
• Ship Sinking: Anyone who was shipping Pete with Spirit Dragon will be distressed to learn they're brother and sister.
• Ship Tease: Peanut and Grape are constantly presented as possibly being a romantic couple over the course of the strip. They have separate sweethearts, but apparently "mushy stuff" is okay between them.
• Shooting Superman: Or rather, shooting Spot (Superdog). A dalmation robber attempts pulling a gun on him in one comic, which is later lampshaded as holding no tension in a scene with a bulletproof character.
• Shout-Out: Now has its own page.
• Shovel Strike:
  • King finds himself trapped in a toolshed by Duchess, and uses a shovel found in the shed to knock her out, in this strip.
  • This flashback strip shows a coyote getting whacked in the face with a shovel by Rufus when chasing Maxwell.
• Show Within a Show: There are two prominent examples:
  • Pridelands, a fictional novel series. It's a favorite of cats in general and Grape in particular. She even writes self-insert fanfic for it.
  • "The Adventures of Spot (Superdog)," Peanut's homemade comic strip. It's amateurishly plotted and drawn.
• Shrug of God: Invoked and Played for Laughs, when Peanut admits in his own Superdog comic he's written himself into a hole.
• Shy Finger-Twiddling: Peanut nervously fidgets with his fingers at times when he's embarrassed. One example occurs here, when Grape calls him out on his sexual attraction to her.
• Signs of Disrepair: Mosquito Hat's Movie Palace features a decrepit theatre sign at its front.
  NO P YING
  OO OPIA
  UNG OOK
• Sleep Cute: There are several examples of characters snuggling adorably while asleep in this comic. Examples include Grape and Peanut here and Bruce and Roosevelt here.
• Sleepwalking: Subverted here. Thomas is caught by Lana while stealing from her house, only for her to seemingly sleepwalk to the fridge and leave him to breathe a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, Lana actually is awake and is just messing with Thomas.
• Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: Almost all animals can talk with one another and with humans, with no real issues with understanding one another (besides geographical language barriers, such as Thomas and Sofia, as well as Satau initially). There is some confusion among livestock, though, as the horses imply that some (like cows) do not. This is discussed at one point among Uncle Reuben's horses and Peanut.
  Action Replay: Hey City Dog, how come you didn't want to come riding with yer cat friend?
  Peanut: Uh, that's complicated. I guess I didn't expect domesticated ungulates to be so...expressive?
  Action Replay: We get that a lot from city pets
  Money for Nothing: They come down and expect all hoofed animals to be blithering idiots, don't know why they lump us horses into that
  Made of Win: I blame the media—they keep portraying us as four-legged bicycles.
• Small Parent, Huge Child: Pete and Spirit Dragon after regaining their true forms and immortality, becomes the huge children to the mother they had during their mortal life, Kix, who's barely half as tall as Pete's beak. Even shrunk down for Christmas, her children and spouse still dwarf her.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Miles (who often is seen wearing reading glasses once he becomes more civilized, in strips such as this one), and Marvin (shown wearing glasses while calculating Tiger's nutrition rates in this comic) both qualify.
• Sniff Sniff Nom: Justified as a Furry Reminder. When his owner brings in a bag of wet wipes, Peanut insists on sniffing to ensure it isn't food. After a lengthy nose inspection, he ends by gently nibbling on the end before deciding it's fine.
• Snowed-In:
  • In this strip, Peanut opens the door to their house only to be confronted face first by a wall of snow covering the door.
  • Bruce and Roosevelt are trapped in their zoo dwelling by a wall of snow here. Their window is almost completely covered, leaving only the upper few inches open — enough for them to peek through the top.
• Soap Punishment: Bailey washes King's mouth out with soap after he swears in front of their puppies.
• Society of Immortals: The Celestials, a race of immortal Physical God beings who pattern themselves physically after creatures from human mythology. What they truly look like and what their civilization may be like, if it exists, is unknown, as we only see them through their interactions with Heaven and Earth.
• Something Else Also Rises: Zach's ears and tail stand erect when Jessica kisses him.
• Something Only They Would Say:
  • Subverted when Marion, who has been transformed into a female squirrel, tells his girlfriend Lois a deeply embarrassing story from his past in an effort to prove this squirrel is really him... but the idea that such a transformation could take place is simply so ridiculous that she jumps to a more logical conclusion instead.
    Lois: ...Marion told you about that?
  • Marion gets his revenge later on, by popping this same question when Lois has been transformed into a bobcat herself, right before Marion's eyes.
    Lois: I swear I will eat you.
• Something We Forgot:
  • The Milton ferrets take quite some time to realize Keene's still trapped at the zoo after his last visit, only noticing when they need him to open a can.
  • King gets the feeling they've left someone behind when the group sails from Australia back home. That's because they forgot to include Bruce and Roosevelt.
  • Totally averted, but played seriously by Peanut. He can't remember how many puppies he had to babysit for King and Bailey, but since he can't get a straight answer he continues to worry endlessly until the poor guy is left shaking out of needless worry until King and Bailey come home.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: Discussed by Zach in his diary recounting the Water War. Apparently, Fiddler and Keys played their instruments through an attack, which he compares to Pippin's similar musical scene in The Lord of the Rings.
• Spaghetti Kiss: Averted during Tarot and Peanut's date in the Gallifrax Dimension. Neither have seen the movie, so when they're served the dish behind an Italian restaurant, they go to town on it without bothering.
• Species-Specific Afterlife: In what is possibly Early-Installment Weirdness, Sabrina alludes to separate Heavens for dogs and humans at the end of Not All Dogs, bringing up the issue that since King is technically neither he may be Barred from the Afterlife. Later entries would nyx this, showing a single unified Heaven that all species live in harmony in, which is convenient when all of Babylon Gardens needs to be moved there in Heckraiser.
• Species Title: Initially only about the titular animals (in-universe, slightly distinct from our world's housepets due to their intelligence and anthropomorphism), but quickly became an Artifact Title as more characters were introduced.
• Spider-Sense: When a hunky leopard steps out of a taxi cab that brought him to Babylon Gardens, Grape comments that her "hunk sense" is tingling, to which Peanut replies "That's Spider-Man's power, actually."
• Spit Take:
  • Grape spits out the milk she's drinking with surprise after finding out that Peanut had e-mailed her Pridelands fanfic to Res.
  • Max spews a sip of fruit juice in shock when Fido announces his true feelings for Sabrina on TV.
  • When Tarot tells Sabrina she may be pregnant in this strip, the latter spits out the beverage she has been drinking in surprise.
• Spontaneous Choreography:
  • Happens here. Neither Peanut nor Grape knows who "Uncle Reuben" is, yet they're enthusiastically dancing while thinking about going to see him.
  • Fox does an impromptu dance after getting a kiss from Sasha while singing a thinly veiled version of the Broadway song "Maria." When he realizes that, he stops with embarassment imagining how silly he must look.
    Fox: And I'm subconsciously projecting myself onto the lead of West Side Story for a reason, aren't I?
    Alt-text of that comic: Tony / I'll end up in a ditch just like Tony
• Squee:
  • Emitted by Max and Grape during the Imaginate Too! story arc upon imagining each other as a hunky warrior lion and his fetching lioness queen.
  • Jata gets a full panel "Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" from the surrounding crowd of neighborhood female cats, in this strip.
• Stable Time Loop:
  • Peanut had unwittingly set up a stable time loop during the PsyCon2: PsyConner arc by telling his past self he visited the Gate of Mystery after he, himself, traveled through it due to his future self telling him he went through it.
  • It's implied that Spirit Dragon's crush on Peanut is the result of him failing to hide himself in time behind the lantern that's supposed to conceal his presence (as he isn't supposed to be within the time period he was accidentally sent to alongside the rest of his friends).
• Stacy's Mom: When caught in a trap set up by Poncho and North Star, who are essentially adolescents with no experience in the outside world, Gale starts flattering them to distract them while her son Pueblo cuts her free. Both fall for it hook, line, and sinker.
• Stalker Shrine: Natalie, a wolf who acts like a sullen teen, is shown to have one for Fido, complete with candles and framed photos. She quickly changes her crush to Satau after running into him.
• Starving Student: Implied in this strip as the reason Itsuki invites the Sandwich family to his apartment; the tanuki hopes that seeing him in poverty will convince his new boss Itsuki needs the money. He also invokes the trope here just before entering a hot dog eating contest, saying his status as an ill-fed student will give him an advantage.
• Stealth Pun:
  • The "father" of the Sandwich household is named "Earl". His full name has never been said in-comic.
  • There's also an Uncle Reuben.
  • The main two characters, Peanut Butter and Grape Jelly (also members of the Sandwich family), are ingredients for a sandwich.
  • And then there's the "mother", Jill.^note Enough people aren't Resident Evil fans that they didn't get that joke. Which is okay, since in the comic, neither does Jill.
• Stepford Suburbia: Babylon Gardens seems like a perfectly fine town with a few quirks at first glance. Unbeknownst to all the humans who live there, however, in the woods just behind them lies a centuries old Eldritch Location that previously housed a Captured Super-Entity. Its collapse leads to the monsters inside disseminating into the woods, and even if you can ignore that, the fact that the pets of this small town frequently decide the fate of the world and more than a few residents have been cursed into animals is pretty bad for the market value.
• Stock Animal Diet: Invoked on occasion with the mice. Squeak has to tell her boyfriend Joey that the "mice like cheese" thing is a stereotype. And when Fido first gets Spo some oats instead of that, he states that he can't stand cheese.
• Stock Characters: Discussed. Peanut and Grape realize they are filling their imaginate with these, such as ninjas and aliens, and consider more original character archetypes to include.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: Kangaroos Bruce and Roosevelt are expected by the zoo staff to speak in incredibly cringeworthy Australian lingo when patrons are in earshot. They despise every second of it.
  Grape: Guys, it's okay! We're regulars.
  Bruce: Oh thank goodness! Every single word feels like throwing up!
  Roosevelt: "Shrimp on the barbie?" We're herbivores!
• Story-Breaker Team-Up: In-Universe. Spot (Superdog) is a Superman Substitute with Flying Brick powers who Peanut insists on playing in the grounded Xenofiction world of Pridelands. Putting him in the place of a character slated to be sacrificed ruins the story, as there's no reason he can't just break his bindings and save everybody, which he does.
• Straight Gay: Bruce and Roosevelt, the kangaroos that work at the zoo, cuddle while watching manly sports together. In case you're wondering how we know they're a couple.◊ — and further reinforced here.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Is how the first Imaginate ends, via a card that simply reads 'explosions'.
• Sudden Eye Colour: Upon switching from the black and white style that defined the comic's first few years, every character was given an eye color never alluded to prior. Interestingly, this would later end up reverted again, with eyes shrinking back down to black dots over time. This means, for a few lesser seen or late arrival characters like Kix, their eye colors were only ever barely visible in a select few strips during the transition.
• Sultry Belly Dancer: Bailey dresses as a belly dancer to entice King in a guest strip, although the appeal is lost on her.
• Stylistic Suck: In universe, Peanut's comic "The Adventures of Spot (Superdog)" is hopelessly amateurish. It contains artwork that looks like it was drawn by a five-year-old, as well as black-and-white characterizations (including a Mary Sue or two), dialogue that is cheesy and overwrought, and plots that have holes and tend to peter out.
• Subbing Versus Dubbing: Discussed by Lester and Joey. Both have their own opinion over which version is better, but when the audience sees the two side by side it becomes clear that both versions use exactly the same translation, complete with broken dialogue and {{Engrish}}.
• Subterfuge Judo: In the "Not All Dogs" story arc, King, an anthropomorphic corgi (actually a transformed human named Joel Robinson), happens to come across his own fate energy (mana) when a character in Heaven drops it, and it falls toward Earth, onto his head, transforming into a sports stopwatch. King doesn't think much of the fate stopwatch that falls from the sky onto his head and throws it into a dumpster, until Sabrina reveals that the watch is important to his very existence. Desperately going back, he can't find it; later, with Fox, King finds that Bino found the watch and is keeping it for himself. When King tries to demand it back here, saying that it doesn't have Bino's name on it, the latter says "Then let's see, who is this Joel person?" — at which point Fox perks up in fear, while King grits his teeth in frustration. Fox later changes his mind and stands his ground about Bino keeping the watch here, during which time King pleads to have it.
  Fox: That watch belongs to the guy that kidnapped me. For all I care Bino can do whatever he wants. Don't get mixed up in this.
  King: But I—
  Fox: My dad gives me a real big allowance. I'll buy you a watch if you really want one.
  King: But I need that watch.
  Fox: I am not being light about this, King. Unless you have a profoundly good reason to expect my support, I can't do anything. Is there something you need to tell me?
  [King has an Imagine Spot about Sabrina revealing the nature of the watch, who King really is, and Fox breaking off their friendship from those reasons, in anger.]
  King: [aside, to himself] Oh Thanks for that, Brain.
  Fox: What?
  King: I mean... No
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: By the end of Heckraiser, scientifically analyzing and understanding magic(k) becomes mandatory to undo the Mass Transformation that turned a massive chunk of the population into animals. Once it's understood, transformation between forms without hang-ups becomes possible as well, and it becomes its own branch of science.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: Invoked by Lois after she and Marion have been turned into animals. She even says they're "in for a penny, in for a pound" regarding their changed status, suggesting they have to commit fully to the situation if they have any hope of reversing things — which may or may not be true.
• Supernatural Hotspot Town: Babylon Gardens' long trend of attracting Celestials and supernatural forces seems to be entirely by chance. When they met, Pete requested that Keene's father put his temple (Previously in Saudi Arabia) in a 'Decently sized city with a dense forest'. Said human happened to be the owner of an entire town set next to a forest, and that moment would seal the fate of Babylon and its weirdness for generations to come.
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment: If it were ever possible in text form, then the little demon that befriends Keene in "Temple Crashers 2" pulls it off when agreeing to help Keene and Breel escape "the bad place." His Heel–Face Turn from hanger-on to menacing entity is unexpected, but in retrospect makes sense:
  Demon: I found Breel! He's chained!
  Keene: That's nice, but I can't do anything about it unless I had my cap...
  Demon: I can get cap for you! Just take me to Earth!
  Keene: Fine! Whatever! Just be quiet about—
  Demon: THEN THE CONTRACT IS SEALED
  Keene: (widens eyes)
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • How the "True Stories of the K9PD" arc wraps up. If Fox had just let things take their obvious course he would have worked out that Sasha's innocence was pretty obvious to everyone in his department, but automatically assumed he had to go on the run — did he really think the police he worked for were that corrupt? More likely, he just didn't think it through and wanted to be a badass action hero — a recurring joke that crops up every now & then throughout the series.
  • When Kevin realizes Fox's crush on Sasha, he explains the true nature of his relationship with Sasha, which involves him building a case against her abusive owner to get her emancipated. On a more depressing note, Sasha tearfully notes that she misses her previous owner — Truth in Television, as some abuse victims still love their abusers even after being separated from them.
  • While trying to determine why he was transformed into a squirrel, Marion cracks open an energy drink. The caffeine does not sit well with him, as his mother finds him curled up on the computer desk with a serious case of the jitters.
    Marion: I have nothing and my heart's about to explooooode...
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Invoked several times in Spot comics in regard to the species of his girlfriend, who Peanut is insecure about including. This often leads to lines of dialogue like "Your girlfriend, who despite all appearances is not a cat!"
• Swallowed Whole:
  • In his first and last appearance, the mouse Karl-Lenin Faust is stomped on by Grape and tossed into her mouth, where she swallows him whole. She frequently alludes to eating animals elsewhere, but this is the first and final time it's ever shown on-screen.
  • During The 12 Days of Housepets, an exhausted Squeak is put in a cup of hot cocoa to warm her up. Immediately after, Dallas approaches the cup, eager for a drink, and begins to sip it back. Joey runs to stop him, and the camera cuts away before we see the result.

T

• Take That!:
  • Any page that has Tiger or Marvin "Arbelt" is almost certainly a parody of Garfield.
    The cast page for Tiger: I hate Thursdays. I like pizza. I hate cockroaches. I like my teddy bear Poom. That’s characterization, right?
  • Several of Peanut's Spot (Superdog) comic strips are pretty much the author taking jabs at story lines or plot elements of questionable quality from superhero comics. This story line is a caustic spoof of Superman: Grounded, for instance.
  • The Shout-Out to Ghostbusters is followed immediately by a disparaging reference to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
    Keene: Excellent use of a Ghostbusters reference.
    Res: It was either that or a Star Trek V allusion.
    Keene: You made the right call.
• Talking in Your Dreams: How Pete sends his message to Grape, laying out directions to his temple in an indirect way to make her curious enough to follow them in real life. This eventually leads her to freeing him.
• Tarot Troubles: Discussed in this strip, where Tarot explains to Peanut the real meaning of the "Death" card, and adds that "The Tower" is the card that really signifies actual death.
• Telepathy:
  • In universe, dolphins have this as an explanation for why pets can hear them through water. Despite being one of the few supernatural elements known to the general public, it doesn't get brought up much, and mostly equates to Thought Bubble Speech.
  • Teoxihuitl also shows some signs of this, which he uses to explain his situation to Fido. He explicitly compares it to 'dolphin speech'.
  • Later, Tarot displays this ability thanks to Dragon's power.
• Teleportation Sickness: The first time Pete teleports him, King is noticeably Green Around the Gills.
• Tempting Fate: While looking out the window to his office, Keene claims in this strip that the water war he started couldn't be stopped with all the water in the neighborhood. The sky then opens up in a torrential downpour.
• Terrible Artist: Peanut's drawings for his "Adventures of Spot (Superdog)" comics are about on par with those of a stereotypical five year old.
• Terrible Interviewees Montage: When King is looking for a babysitter for his pups, every candidate he screens leaves a lot to be desired and is summarily dismissed. Eventually, they settle on Grape and Peanut, who were engaged by Bailey and prove to be only marginally better choices — Peanut in fact misremembers how many puppies they're watching!
  • Max is rejected because he wants to know if the babysitting money can be forwarded straight to his bookie.
  • Squeak is rejected because she's too small, and her supposed ability to maintain order with dogs likely doesn't extend beyond her boyfriend Joey.
  • Tarot comes floating in on an umbrella like Mary Poppins, but is ignored by King as they have a contentious history. In fact, Tarot doesn't even ask for the job.
  • Natalie is rejected because King doesn't want a wolf babysitter, plus she lists her relevant job experience as "bouncer," "warden," and "hitting with a stick."
  • Mungo is rejected because he's a bad mix of super-strong and super-clumsy.
  • Fiddler and Keys audition by performing music — very loudly and raucously.
  • Bino is rejected even before he has a chance to speak. Given his status as the neighborhood's resident Jerkass, it's not surprising.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics:
  • In this comic, Peanut emphasizes Grape's feminine side by combing her eyelashes out while giving her a makeover.
  • In general the comic avoids this, leading to quite a lot of Viewer Gender Confusion over the years, and allowing Grape to be mistaken for male for the comics first year. However, around Heckraiser, the artist began drawing certain female characters like Bailey, Dragon, and Kix with noticeable (nipple-less) breasts. Grape once again averts this, possibly to maintain plausibility that she could have been thought male.
• That Was Not a Dream: Standard celestial policy — after a mortal has a run-in with either Pete or Spirit Dragon, they are told to "wake up" and immediately do so in their bed. However an item is always left behind which tells the mortal it was not a dream.
• Thief Bag: In this strip, the Milton Ferrets award contest prize money to Daisy in a traditional white sack with a dollar sign on it. Lampshaded by the author in the comic's title, "In a Laundry Bag with a Dollar Sign."
• Thinking Tic: Happens a few times. Of note is Tarot's example when she's trying to figure out how to emulate Peanut's chemistry with Grape. She pensively puts a curled paw in front of her mouth and looks to the side intently, then affectionately leaps into the dog's arms and flirts with him.
• Think Unsexy Thoughts: When three sexy barn cats invite Grape for a slow-motion pillow fight here, Peanut tries to calm his "urges" down by sitting half-submerged in a pond with a Heroic BSoD look on his face.
• Third-Person Person: Peanut's comic strip character of Spot (Superdog) refers to himself in the third person in this strip.
  Spot: No dice, cat! Spot has incisors of steel!
• Those Two Guys: Tiger and Marvin, who spend most of their time either in one-off hijinks-style comics or as crowd extras. They're virtually always seen together, though. Tiger got his own arc in mid-2014 that at least gives him (and presumably Marvin by extension) a bit more character and roundness.
• Through a Face Full of Fur: The Funny Animal characters sometimes blush noticeably. In this comic, Peanut's entire face turns red from embarrassment.
• Time Skip: The comic has a habit of doing these at the end of story arcs. Mainly to catch up with the time spent publishing the comic.
  • Towards the end of the "Real Stories of the K9PD" arc after the central conflict has been resolved, the comic skips ahead six months to Christmastime since it began in July 2016 and ran until December 21 even though the story itself took no more than a full day to happen. Lampshaded in the title of the strip that takes place six months later. Special delivery (taking place during a single night) did a similar one though with an undisclosed amount of time.
  • My Life As A Teenage Squirrel has an almost identical six-months-ahead-to-Christmas skip at its conclusion, the entire arc having taken place across a few days. As had Call of the Wild which also just covered a few days.

• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl:
  • King (a small male Corgi) and Bailey (a large female Husky) are a married couple.
  • Marion (Squirrel) and Lois (Lynx) count as this as well, being a romantic couple who are rarely seen without the other.
• To Hell and Back: Keene has to enter and survive several months in Pandemonium during Temple Crasher 2 in order to rescue Breel before the portal is closed.
• Toilet-Drinking Dog Gag: Comes up a few times, and exaggerated in one strip, where Bino is disgusted by French-imported water.
• Tongue Trauma: When Kevin walks in on Fox and Sasha smooching here, Fox bites Sasha's tongue.
• Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket: Parodied here. A TV ad airs, selling a product aimed at people supposedly too stupid to operate a regular drinking glass.
• Too Much Information: Apparently, Joey's kinky personal life with Squeak as seen here tends to elicit Squick-based reactions. Lampshaded in the final strip panel when a placard saying "Agh too much information!" appears obscuring a scribbled-over depiction of their roleplaying.
• Totally Radical: Gale sarcastically uses "hip kids" lingo while talking to her cub Pablo — which would be weird enough, but at that point she has North Star's lovestruck body entwined with hers as she pretends to seduce two wolves, when she's really just showing how gullible they are.
  Pueblo: Hey Mom, I think you broke [Poncho's] brain.
  Gale: [holding North Star] Nah, that's how young adults be sometimes.
  Pueblo: Eww, MOM! Stop being so weird!
• Total Party Kill:
  • A non-fatal example in Temple Crashers 2. When The Forgotten first shows up, Peanut rallies every team at the Mana Pool into fighting him together. This battle occurs off-screen, and in the very next panel every single fighter is plastered on the floor, defeated.
  • Heckraiser's climactic finale ends with everybody in Tarot and Keene's team being killed by Eudoant's Eye Beams. Between pouring focus on protecting Craig and Draig and Marion distracting him, they survive long enough to reincarnate Pete and Dragon just before kicking it. As it turns out, Death Is Cheap in Dragon's temple, and all who died reincarnated outside.
• Town Contest Episode: Temple Crashers 2 features Keene setting up a town-wide LARP with vague prizes as a way of extolling free labor and scamming the winners out of the reward at the end- Namingly, the Mana Pool he wants.
• Toxic Waste Can Do Anything: Lampshaded in the Spot universe, where two aspiring superheroes even get to pick the flavor of waste they want when trying to gain powers.
• Trial by Combat: Jata emphatically invokes this trope here and here in order to defend his claim to marry Sabrina against any rivals. Given how built-up and well-trained he is, he's more than qualified to prevail in a physical battle for Sabrina's affections.
• True Art Is Angsty: While satirizing how university professors teach, the comic has Grape insist Freedom from Want of the Four Freedoms means life is meaningless.
• TV Never Lies: Occasional one-off strips involve unusually truthful TV commercials. See examples here and here.

U-V

• Unanthropomorphic Transformation: "The Gallifrax Protocol" has Tarot take Peanut, Grape and Maxwell to the Gallifrax Dimension, which is exactly like their own, except pets are quadrupedal and can't talk to humans. Grape freaks out, feeling like she's "on the point of dislocating [her] everything", whereas Peanut says that if you just don't think about it, it comes naturally. Maxwell makes an attempt to balance on his hind legs, saying he's maintaining his dignity.
• Underside Ride:
  • Truck and Falstaff hitch one of these on their way to Max's crawdad party, not shown but alluded to in the text boxes.
  • Grape explains how she got to the house where Maxwell and Fox are being incarcerated here. She apparently was clinging to the underside of an unmarked car.
  • Negabreel follows Keene and Breel home by hitching a ride underneath the ferret's car. It doesn't go well for him, as he gets repeatedly bounced into speed bumps — which is made worse by Keene's aggressive driving.
• Unexpected Art Upgrade Moment: One seemingly random comic (and its followup) in the Theme Park World arc unexpectedly add shading and a colored overlay to each panel to make it look crisper and cleaner than anything else in the comic at the time.
• Unflinching Walk:
  • Played with in this strip, with the characters walking away unfazed from a massive water balloon explosion behind them at the conclusion of the story arc "The Great Water Balloon War" — complete with Cool Shades for extra style points.
  • Played with here. After blowing up Eudoant, the vanquishing trio of Pete, Spirit Dragon, and Great Kitsune calmly turn and float away silhouetted by the blast while donning Cool Shades.
• Universal Translator: The justification for how Satau, one of the Spirit Dragon's past avatars who accidentally gets himself trapped into the future, manages to suddenly learn modern day English. This comes courtesy of a spell cast by Sabrina, in case you're wondering.
• The Unmasqued World: At the end of the "Heckraiser" arc a significant chunk of humanity, including eighty percent of high government officials, are transformed into random animals, leading to magic(k) getting studied as a science and several animal rights laws passed overnight.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: A variation, given the parallel of Cats/Dogs with the gender binary. Peanut is visibly disturbed upon first realizing he knows Joey's cat persona, and had assumed it to be someone different.
  • Then again with the Mr. Bigglesworths, two of whom go on a date while assuming the other is female.
• Unsound Effect: Use of non-onomatopoeic descriptive words as stand-ins for sound effect based ones occurs frequently in the webcomic.
  • Played with when Grape and Peanut hold up a sign reading "EXPLOSION!" here in the first "Imaginate!" story arc. It's meant as the culmination of the apocalyptic scenario they're describing.
  • The "explosion" of the big water balloon towards the end of the "The Great Water Balloon War" story arc uses the word "EXPLOOSHION!" for emphasis as Peanut, Grape, and Zach emerge doing an Unflinching Walk.
  • When Grape tries to wrestle Peanut away from Res so she can visit the latter all to herself, she does so to the emphasis word "SUPLEX" here.
  • "FACE" appears as a sound effect word in this strip when Bailey furiously punches Bino in the face as he angrily interrupts her.
  • Max gets hit with a thrown boot to the face twice, accompanied by the emphasis word "BOOT" here''' and here. The first time happens when he tries to beg for fish at a market, while the second occurs when he jumps up on a fence to sing.
• Unusual Euphemism: Here, Grape shouts "Son of a fish tinner!" at one point when Peanut wakes her from a nap.
• Unwanted False Faith: The woodland critters fervently follow Zach as the "Opener of Ways," seen in this comic — and Zach wishes his adoring admirers would just leave him alone.
• Valentine's Day Episode: Every Valentine's Day brings a set of four paper valentines featuring characters from the strip. They're mostly meant as jokes, but they're also provided in a large printable format so you can give them out.
• Vanishing Village: Its mentioned in the Alt Text that after Pete's confrontation with Dragon, the house he and King lived in vanished off the map. As a result, King lives with the wolves from then on.
• Vehicular Kidnapping: Attempted on Fox by two members of PETA. Foiled shortly upon being pulled over.
• Viewer Species Confusion: Attempted by Peanut with Stripe, Superdog's girlfriend who he repeatedly insists in his comic is not a cat.
• Vocal Dissonance: After nearly a decade, the comic implies that the ferrets have stereotypically small voices. This was previously Played for Laughs with Alan and the Ground Squirrels but only recently confirmed with the ferrets.
  Keene: Hey, at least you don't say literally everything in a small, squeaky voice.
• Volumetric Mouth: Anytime a character needs to angrily yell, it can be assured that their mouth will grow much larger.
• Vomit Discretion Shot:
  • In this strip King loses his lunch after a stomach-upsetting trip on an amusement park ride, with the resultant spew out of view of the audience.
    King: The spirit is willing, but the flesh is a leaky chemical quagmire.
  • Happened to Itsuki in the same arc when he is seen vomiting over a fence. Apparently, it was his first time eating hot dogs.
    Itsuki: YABA-I! IS THAT WHAT HOT DOGS TASTE LIKE?!
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: We don't see the act, but we do see the vomit in this strip. King's face is covered in puke after tossing one of his puppies up and down into the air.

W-Y

• Wacky Cravings:
  • Bailey freaks out King when she asks if he'll prepare a "pickle and cherry milkshake" for her here. She claims it's something her mother made for her when she was a pup — and no, she isn't pregnant.
  • Later, Bailey and King pick up a to-go order, consisting of a large strawberry shake, blooming onion, nachos, and four pickles fried like corn dogs in this strip — and unlike the time she requested a pickle-and-cherry shake, it turns out Bailey is indeed pregnant. She claims it's the fried foods that are the real pregnancy craving.
• Walking Spoiler:
  • Tarot shows up a year into the comic's run and is instantly surrounded by mystery, with several reveals coming back-to-back about who she is and who she works for. Said boss of hers, Spirit Dragon, counts as well; for a while, the comic implied she was just a form Tarot could shapeshift into, rather than a separate character with her own motivations and goals.
  • King is initially introduced as the human Joel Robinson, and his Animorphism forms the basis for many arcs afterwards. He eventually chooses to stay in dog form, making it impossible to discuss King's future with those just starting the comic.
  • Negabreel, upon introduction, is only referred to as 'Demon' and looks nothing like the character he's an Enemy Without to. He sticks around after regaining his memories and becomes a minor villain in Heckraiser, which may surprise those who took him as a bit character in his first introduction.
• Wall of Text: In this strip Sabrina's explanation of her past produces a wall of text separating the second and third panels; lampshaded by the Alt Text.
  Alt Text: Yes, it is literally a wall of text between panels 2 and 3. Get your tl;drs ready
• War Arc: The Great Water Balloon War sets up a comical one of these, (ostensibly) pitting cat against dog.
• Water Guns and Balloons: Housepets had an entire story arc based on a water balloon war (appropriately titled "The Great Water Balloon War") between the titular creatures. It was used to parody military and wartime tropes, and begins here.
• Waxing Lyrical:
  • When Spo tries to romance Squeak after returning from his alleged European trip, he does so quoting lyrics from the song "Leaving on a Jet Plane," written by John Denver and made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary.
    Spo: I'm never leaving you again! You mean more to me than all the cheap flings of Europe! There's so many times I've let you down, so many times I've played around, I tell you now, they don't mean a thing!
    Squeak: That, I don't doubt.
  • Most of Peanut's lines in the second panel of this strip are lifted from the 1958 novelty song hit "The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley.
    Peanut: The one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater! Sure looks good to me!
  • Max briefly begins quoting A Flock of Seagulls' I Ran So Far Away while describing a scene from his childhood. Subverted in that he actually didn't realize he was doing it, and was surprised when his listeners assumed the ending through it.
• Weather Manipulation: Spoofed in an early strip. Grape's Weather Wizard character declares her powers by summoning rain, which is actually tossing a water balloon into the fan.
• Webcomic Time: Lampshaded here. The strip was released at the end of February, but Fox hadn't appeared in the webcomic since Christmas and Fido hadn't realized it until now.
  Fido: —FOX! Er, when did you get back from Kansas?
  Fox: Uh, like the first week of January? I don't ask to be the center of your attention but come on.
• Wedding Episode: The story arc "The King and I" portrays the marriage of King and Bailey. Plus a Bouquet Toss caught by Tarot.
  Grape [to Maxwell]: Maybe we could get married sometime.
• The Weird Sisters: Naturally, the original trio show up in the Macbeth Imaginate, played by Tarot, Sabrina, and Grape. Amusingly, Grape is the only actually non-magic(k)al one of the trio.
• We Need a Distraction: After Tarot fails to find a spell that would let her take care of Demon-Steward on her own, she comes to the conclusion that they indeed need Kitsune to take care of the situation. The problem: They're still within Steward's sphere of influence and need to get outside of it to alert Kitsune... and Steward currently has all the heroes trapped in a car on a rooftop. Realizing that the latter hasn't been a demon for very long, Tarot theorizes that tricking him into freeing them and then taking off in different directions might split his attention and let at least one of them escape the Perception Filter. Ultimately, it works: While Tarot, the man-turned-aardvark and Todd are incapacitated fairly quickly, Lois manages to evade Steward and keep his attention on her for long enough that, once he finally catches her and rants about his motives, he fails to realize that Marion isn't with her, Marion having managed to climb the town's radio tower^note Steward never included the top of it in his sphere of influence and successfully alerted Kitsune in the meantime.
• Wham Episode: This series has several of them, each of them changing the comic forever, as more and more of the plot is revealed:
  • The first is very early, setting up the possibility for romance between Grape and Peanut, the two original protagonists of the comic. That entire arc sets up Peanut's "cat lover" status, as well as displaying the prejudices of the pet world.
  • The second is A Sinister Shadow, the first real darkness in the comic, where the status of pets as people is first seriously questioned, as well as showing the first human face in the form of Joel. While not obvious at the time, this arc kicked off the second major conflict of the comic, the status of pets in the human world.
  • The third became evident with this comic from Oops I Arced. A dream that had occurred earlier in the comic had Grape meeting a gryphon named Pete, and when she woke up, she had a gigantic feather from it despite it being (supposedly) a dream sequence. This was later followed up by the appearance of Tarot, who confirmed that magic(k) existed in-universe, but the girl seemed a bit crazy. However, the existence of Pete was confirmed by the aforementioned comic from Oops I Arced, setting off another central conflict to the comic as Pete is unleashed, and then turns Joel (from the A Sinister Shadow arc) into a dog and gives him the name of King. Rather than being an odd one-off event, King becomes the third major protagonist of the comic, with many arcs following his struggle of fitting into the world of pets as an ex-human.
  • King's arc gained special significance a few arcs later, with dog days of summer revealing that Tarot is actually the avatar of a higher order being, a Dragon who is Pete's counterpart. She seems much more benevolent than Pete, but, along with the Great Kitsune, ultimately it is revealed that all three of the higher order beings - the gryphon, the dragon, and the kitsune - are ultimately playing games with the lives of mortals, and not only is King caught in the middle of it, but Tarot is shown to be not just a silly creature, but actually the avatar of a being of immense power. King rejects his role as a mere piece in a game run by bored demigods, and as such is set off on his own, stuck as a dog until the game is over, but given the promise of a reward at the end of the game, as all avatars receive. It is also implied that the dragon has an interest in Peanut beyond Tarot's interest, with the demigod herself wanting to be his girlfriend.
  • The next lies in Imaginate, Too!, when Grape reveals that she knew that Peanut had a crush on her all along, and the pair are forced to attempt to articulate what their relationship means to each of them. When Peanut eventually fesses up to the fact that he wants to be her boyfriend, Grape challenges him as to what more he could want - and declares that he is her best friend in the world, before kissing him. This adds a great deal of ambiguity to their relationship, as from there on the pair are seen snuggling periodically, calling into question both of their extant relationships as well as the exclusivity of it. While it is obvious that Grape and Peanut are taking their boyfriend and girlfriend considerably more casually than humans do, other relationships in the comic range from being of similar seriousness (Bino and Sasha) to being much more serious (Fido and Sabrina), and it is not really clear that Maxwell understands the depth of their relationship - though Tarot said from the very beginning that Grape could take him if she was willing to reject Maxwell, something she didn't want to do.
  • More than twenty arcs later, the Trial in Heaven reveals that not all is what it seems with the game of the gods. While Pete had been shown time and again to be a jerk, self-concerned, conceited, and ultimately appearing to care little for mortals, this is all turned on its ear as it is revealed that not only does Pete care, or at least has cared about mortals in the past, but it is revealed that the Dragon is not the kind-hearted creature that she seems - it is heavily implied that not only has she been meddling in the affairs of mortals, but in their love lives, with two of her followers dating two creatures that Pete was interested in, and the ex-boyfriend of one of said followers dating a third - all conveniently ruining Pete's own plans, but implying that all of their relationships may be, to some extent, a sham set up by the Dragon to prevent Pete from winning. Worse still, it is implied that the goal of the game that Pete and the Dragon had disagreed upon hinged upon the equivalence of humans and the other animals which inhabit the world - and Pete, not the Dragon, was on the side of the equivocation of human and animalkind, with the Dragon opposed to it. Thus, rather than the black and white conflict as it had appeared before, both sides were painted in gray - Pete is a jerk, but the comic is meant to lead the readers to sympathize with the pets, and King's arc in particular shows the difficulty of the transisition between human to animal - as well as the fundamental difference between the mindset of many animals and many humans, though the wolves had also worked to blur that line in the other direction by living as people, and far more responsible people than the ferrets, their benefactors, do. It also sets up for Pete having some sort of backup plan, but because of the Unspoken Plan Guarantee, we still don't know whether it has come to fruition.
  • Who can forget about Jungle Fever? This Arc focuses on Fido who finally confess his love for the cat named Sabrina in front of everyone in Babylon Gardens. Most of the characters are shocked by the reveal, while a few already knew about it. It marks the first major public acknowledgement of an Interspecies Relationship (which up to now had been kept under wraps by the pets when it existed) in the webcomic — and dramatically so.
  • The big storyline of 2014, Heaven's Not Enough. King has finally figured out that Pete still has an ace up his sleeve, which in a condensed form means that Pete is not forfeiting the cosmic game he's playing. Furthermore, he doesn't actually need him to fight as his avatar. However, it doesn't stop Pete from continuing on with his contract to King, just to torture him some more. Except, in a completely unexpected twist, Bailey takes the fall for King and signs Pete's contract, becoming his avatar. Now she has been whisked away to who-knows-where to duel against Spirit Dragon, where it is expected that she will be gone for a very long time from reality's point of view. Then Fox finds out who his best friend really is.... The arc takes on three parts. In Part 2, King and Fox head to Heaven so King can sort things out with the higher-ups. While King has a cryptic meet-and-greet with the big boss, Bahamut, Fox has a dalliance with two female husky angels. Part 3 has King disrupting the Cosmic Game and bringing it to its conclusion, leading to both Dragon and Pete losing their wager, and King winning permanent status as a dog.
  • In 2016, Arc 100 is The 4 Animals You Meet in Heaven, where Keene suddenly finds himself dead. Those four animals: a marten masseuse named Breel; the previously-known Cerberus; his mother; and his owner, Henry Milton, who has decided in Heaven to become a ferret himself. In the end, Cerberus discovers that Keene met his end prematurely, and sends him back to a moment shortly before his death, when his limousine was pushed into a reservoir, allowing him to escape alive.
  • Then the grand year-and-a-half-long "Temple Crashers 2" arc, where Keene tries to invade the temple to get to its mana and fulfill Henry Milton's dream of human and animal equality, and only opens up several cans of worms as he gets the pets of Babylon Gardens and the denizens of Heaven involved.
• Wham Line:
  • Joel says "I was kidnapped by my own pets once" while being arrested by members of the K-9 force for being an accomplice to his dog-napper PETA friend. It explains why Joel has become a member of this shady wing of the organization, especially when he later adds, "But any time I have to face any of you, I keep thinking about that week — because I know, deep down, you're exactly the same as they were. ANIMALS." Made even more dramatic by the fact that this page is the first time that an entire human face is shown.
  • The climax to the Jungle Fever arc has this: "READ MY LIPS YOU TACKY FUTURE TAXIDERMY! I AM IN LOVE WITH SABRINA D'ANGELO!" Shouted vehemently by Fido, who has kept his long-term love relationship with the cat a secret for fear of being ostracized by his fellow canines. It's done to prevent Sabrina from marrying her childhood-arranged betrothed Jata — on national television, no less. It's a shocker in-universe as well for most of those who know Fido.
  • Here, it is revealed several years into the strip that Pete and Spirit Dragon are brother and sister when she takes Pete's hand and affectionately says, "Well don't worry. Wherever we end up, your big sister will take care of you." It's spoken as the characters enter the mortal realm. Up until this point, there has been no hint whatsoever that the two may have been related to each other.
    Pete: That only dredges up emotions worse than fear.
    Spirit Dragon: Yeah, I know.
  • In this strip, Bailey reveals to King that she is pregnant with a litter of THREE puppies. It's especially surprising given that she earlier denied being pregnant when asking King for a cherry and pickle milkshake, leading him to think Bailey was expecting back then.
    Bailey: I usually don't go for fried food, but I am eating for four now!
    King: [Heroic BSoD]
    Bailey: Did I forget to mention that?
  • Kitsune says "My li'l bro is growing up", finally explaining Karishad's antics.
  • From Tarot in the tentative finale: ”Though I think I might be pregnant.”
• What Are Records?:
  • In this 2018 Halloween arc Grape displays ignorance of both physical video rental stores and VHS.
  • Grape is later on the other end of this when Olive asks her what a Laserdisc is.
    Sabrina: So you don't know what a VHS is but you do know what a Laserdisc is?
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The exact location of Babylon Gardens (where the strip is set) is not specified, though it's likely somewhere in the US. Someone coughs over the name of the state when it's mentioned during King and Bailey's wedding ceremony.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: At the end of "Temple Crashers 2", Breel wants to stay on Earth and be with Keene. He prefers leaving heaven and his immortal state for a chance at true love.
  Cerberus (Left Head): Oh dear, I think going to the bad place might have given him some serious trauma.
  Cerberus (Center Head): I'm gonna have a word with Kitsune about screwing up the souls I let him borrow.
• Whole Episode Flashback: The arcs "Housepets Babies!" and "The Maxwell Thing" are told entirely in flashback.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Played with in this installment of Peanut's comic "The Adventures of Spot (Superdog)." When a powerless Spot is captured by villains, the female baddie in charge decides to unmask his true identity (even though he doesn't wear a mask). Her assistant asks why they don't simply shoot him as planned and be done with it.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Peanut's eyes widen and his irises constrict during his Sanity Slippage when he forgets how many pups King and Bailey have, most obviously here.
• Wimp Fight: Maxwell and Bino's "fight" in this comic is a humorous and juvenile slap-fest. The author's embedded comment states, "OK, I'll be honest, I pretty much drew this just for panel three."
• Wingding Eyes:
  • Here, Grape is seen dazed with eyes spiraling when she is thrown to the floor.
  • In this strip, Jata has been knocked senseless by Uncle Deadeye and thrown into a pool. The leopard's eyes are depicted as spirals as he descends into the water.
  • King is seen passing out after Elaine jokingly says she'll need to squeeze Bailey to make sure they got all her newborn puppies out of the womb here. He topples off his chair with his eyes depicted as spirals. The corgi gets dazed spiral eyes again in this comic when he sees Mungo juggling his three puppies.
• Woodland Creatures: The forest behind Babylon Gardens contains a cast of all the usual suspects; Magpies, deer, possums, raccoons, badgers, foxes, and the like.
• Working on the Chain Gang: In Pandemonium, Breel and Keene are chained together while they work for Eudoant.
• World of Snark: Of the main quartet, 3/4ths (Discluding Peanut, usually) are incredibly snarky, although not deadbeat. Marion, Lois, King, and many, many side characters consider this trend.
• World of Weirdness: In the Housepets multiverse, Heaven is maintained through Celestial Bureaucracy by a variety of strange and personalitied beings. Magic(k) is real and can be wielded by dogs. Characters can visit truck stops on their way from Earth to other dimensions, and attend psychic conventions helmed by creatures from every realm. All Myths Are True, although quite a few are friendly. And nearly every animal, domestic and otherwise, is intelligent enough to hold conversation with a human.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Housepets Babies features an antagonistic stranger who kidnaps a young Max and Fox with full intent to feed them to an alligator.
  • Before this (chronologically), in The Maxwell Thing, Max brings up an experience with a coyote and crow duo who hunted him down to eat him.
  • It's implied while she's preying on the wolves in Call O' Th' Wild that Gale was willing and intending to eat Bailey and King's puppies, only to be very quickly warded off by Bailey.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Rockstar Hawk chastises Darth Vader Sanchez while hunting for suggesting killing a cub. The Alt Text reveals that it's just because they're too fast and hard to catch to be worth it.
• Wrestler in All of Us: When trying to prevent Peanut from answering the door before her, Grape wrestles the pooch to the ground here. Later in the same arc, Grape hoists Peanut up and away in a Suplex move to get him away from Res here. The latter is Lampshaded when an Unsound Effect of "SUPLEX" is seen.
• Writer's Block:
  • Played for laughs here. Peanut loses his cool when he is unable to produce any of his Spot (Superdog) comics that day:
    Grape: Hey Peanut, what're you—
    Peanut: NOTHING! I HAVE NOTHING! I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO THINK OF A SINGLE NEW OR ORIGINAL THING FOR THE LAST 12 HOURS! I'VE DRIED UP! THE MUSE IS GONE! I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO WRITE ANYTHING EVER AGAIN, FOREVER! (runs off screaming).
  • Res' block in Temple Crashers 2 is part of what puts him into the plot, as he suddenly leaves for Babylon Gardens to escape his responsibility.
• Wrong Song Gag: Mentioned offhandedly as a Noodle Incident. Apparently, Sabrina and Tarot no longer play CDs of chanting during rituals, as Sabrina once put in a Queen CD in instead.
• Xanatos Gambit: Played with in this comic. Sasha wants to make out with King, who is married and wants nothing of the sort — but doesn't want to hurt Sasha's feelings. She posits the "choice" on this to benefit her desired outcome regardless of what King decides.
  Sasha: Well, I have been wanting to make out with you. Can we do that?
  King: [shouting] Sasha!
  Sasha: [whimpers]
  King: You are being so difficult right now!
  Sasha: Kingy, it's a simple yes or definitely yes question!
• You Are Fat: The comic, especially earlier in its lifespan, does not seem to think highly of fat people. If a character is overweight, many jokes will be made at their expense about it; The PETA worker who helped Joel is made fun of by K9PD for being too fat to outrun them, Fat Daryl is the butt of jokes like winning eating contests and being lured into Gale's trap with food, and a mini-arc depicts a squirrel growing fat after eating too many acorns and being left behind by their cohorts.
• You Must Be This Tall to Ride: Keene has one of these built outside Theme Park World using his own likeness, and still doesn't end up being tall enough for it. It's promptly lowered to accommodate, helpfully for all the pets he invited.
• Your Television Hates You: Some inconvenient scheduling affects a snowed-in Bruce and Roosevelt in "Snowed In, Part Two":
  Bruce: Sure the power's out, but we got food, we got blankets, we got each other, and it's not like we have any place to be! What's got you riled up?
  Roosevelt: What was the marathon we just watched? The Thing, The Shining, Storm of the Century, 30 Days of Night, Misery—
  Bruce: You could have changed the channel at any time!