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Kevin And Kell / Tropes C To I

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Kevin & Kell by Bill Holbrook
Tropes: A to B | C to I | J to R | S to Z
Main Character Page | Core Family | Kindle Extended Family | Dewclaw Extended Family | Lindesfarne's Peers | Rudy's Peers | Coney's Peers | Younger Characters/Turvy's Peers | Other Characters

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    C 
  • Call-Back:
  • Calling the Old Man Out
    • Lindesfarne's first series with Angelique has her doing this, expressing her resentment of how Angelique was distant from her in her childhood, and ultimately abandoned her.
    • Rudy does this with the memory of his father, after he finds out that Vin is his half-brother, meaning that he cheated on Rudy's mother.
    • And Leona doesn't take kindly to her father, Frank, nearly getting himself killed challenging R.L. to be CEO of Herd Thinners. Especially since she'd already lost her mother.
      Leona: Doctor, is his jaw broken?
      Dr. Caduceus: Why, no—
      (Leona punches Frank in the jaw)
      Frank: Ow! Leona! What—
      Leona: THAT'S FOR ALMOST MAKING ME AN ORPHAN, DADDY!!!
  • Calvinball: Both the hunting and gardening teams have numerous sports stories and the rules are never consistent. While in general, hunting/growing larger amounts of food is the goal, how this is done and the specific rules are never stated, rarely consistent, and seemingly made up on the spot for the needs of the story or Rule of Funny.
  • The Cameo: Larry the Croc from Pearls Before Swine appeared in this strip trying to get a job at Herd Thinners.
  • Cargo Ship: In-universe example: Aby Eyeshine literally married her job.
    • Complete with anniversary gift (a new sign) and concern about whether she's cheating on her job (by supplemental income from Ninth Life.)
  • Carnivore Confusion: The core of the strip, as well as a source of much of its humor. The strip basically establishes a morality in that so long as the predator is hunting for food, predation of other people is okay. However, if the prey is targeted as an individual and not consumed, it's considered murder. It is considered extremely taboo for herbivores to eat meat.
  • Cast Incest: In-Universe in a story arc about the high school putting on a production of West Habitat Story. Fiona is cast in the role of Maria. Her boyfriend Rudy? Cast as Maria's brother Bernardo.
    Fiona and Rudy: Awkward...
    • Rudy is later recast as Chino, Maria's hot-blooded suitor.
    • Another potential In-Universe example when Lindesfarne generates a new identity for Ophelia, making her George's sister.
  • Category Traitor: Herbivores marrying carnivores are viewed as such, and Kevin says that his family consider him and Lindesfarne "traitors" for his marriage to a wolf. Predators marrying prey species face less severe condemnation, but it's clear that many of the more traditional predators look down on prey species.
  • Cat Up a Tree: It is a common occurrence for cats in this universe to be chased up trees by dogs.
    • Kell herself ended up stuck in a tree with Aby which served as karmic punishment for all the cats she chased up trees as a child—one of which may have been Aby herself. At one point, Kell ended up saving a kitten who had gotten stuck up her tree. The same kitten was later seen stuck up a tree again, but this time rescued by a squirrel.
    • During a hunting competition, a cat claimed climbing trees was the advantage over Rudy in order to capture a squirrel. The responding fireman grumbled during the rescue.
  • Character Blog: Lindesfarne's "Virtual Quill" and Catherine Aura's Twitter.
  • Character Development: Ralph used to be the centre of a Running Gag in which he would try to eat Kevin and fail, and was more or less the Butt-Monkey. But then, an arc actually showed why he was so bad at hunting and he actually became a much more sympathetic character.
    • Actually Ralph's development began when he swallowed his pride and went to work for Hare-Link, making his former would-be prey his boss. His getting fat during this time could be a covert Lampshade Hanging. He even said he's glad he never caught Kevin.
      Kevin: Between us we can appeal to both herbivores and carnivores. What do you say?
      (Beat)
      Ralph: That... I'm glad I never succeeded in devouring you?
      Kevin: Maybe deep down you never really wanted to...
    • Vin Vulpen, when it was shown how he was doing, actually was shown to have been a much better character in the wild from the glance we saw. When he was pretty much an utter bastard (literally, since we find out that he's Rudy's biological father's son by an extramarital affair).
    • Even Angelique got some, although it wasn't as major. She's had a few redeeming moments (Lindesfarne's graduation from high school.)
  • Cheated Angle: Kevin always has one ear flopped over - the one furthest from the audience. Meaning that which is flopped and which is straight can change within the same strip if Kevin turns his head. Holbrook acknowledges this in the FAQ as a stylistic choice.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Danielle puts a human world quarter in a vending machine when it refuses to accept her human world dollars. When Rudy buys a Coke and gets that quarter as change, he starts getting suspicious about her.
    • this 2009 strip, it's established that R.L. employs a homing pigeon as a living GPS. Four years later, it's shown that Richard Rodent secretly illegally uses a homing pigeon to navigate the Mouscar race maze.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Carl thinks Leona has this after she saved his skin three times in roughly half a year.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Most characters who depart the strip are at least given some plausible excuse, but a few simply drifted out of existence. A perfect example are Lindesfarne's friends at the prom where she met Fenton, an armadillo and a turtle.
  • Circling Vultures:
    • In one strip, Ms Aura (a school teacher and a turkey buzzard) is circling above Rudy's homework. Rudy and Bruno comment that this isn't a good sign.
    • Subverted in the June 12, 2005 strip. A bunch of vultures are shown standing on the top of laptops at an internet café, which makes Kevin think the wi-fi the customers are using isn't secure... but then it turns out said vultures are just the waitstaff.
  • Clark Kenting: Invoked when Lindesfarne reported back to her lab mice after the prom where she fell in love with Fenton.
    Lindesfarne: I... I think I'm in love!
    Lab mice: Really? With whom?
    Lindesfarne: Umm, he looks like a nerdy geek with really thick glasses, but when he flies he changes into a master of his environment!
    Lab mouse: Sounds familiar.
    Lab mouse: Does he wear a cape?
    Lindesfarne: Well, you never see them together...
  • Comic-Book Time: Time advances in fits and starts; pretty much whenever Bill feels like it. This is particularly noticable in some of the older strips, such as when Fiona notes she'll set her biological clock for 2008.
  • Coming of Age: Specifically for Rudy, his dealing with a rotting branch on the Dewclaw Tree, finding it after Fiona heard unnatural cracking in it, is treated in this manner.
  • Compensating for Something: This joke is made on occasion. The most acute example is Aby's first boyfriend, Max Manx. She reasoned that he likely had a particular hunger for wealth to compensate for not having a tail.
  • Contrived Coincidence: This happens all the freaking time.
    • In the Christmas Tree storyline, Kevin almost encounters Kell while looking for a tree, and the tree later becomes "Tree".
    • In the wedding arc, the one doctor who knows how to drain blood is hurt and bleeding internally, just in time for the freaking vampire bat to exit the house. Also convenient that she can instantly drain spinal fluid without any medical knowledge beyond "where's the jugular?" Would almost be amusing except that the art and writing take a huge drop when these things happen, and the only trope the author seems to like more than this one is Carnivore Confusion / Funny Animal.
    • Note that Rachel was introduced as being in Bruno's class...then is suddenly Lindesfarne's roommate.
    • We need to write Rhonda out of the comic. How about revealing Lindesfarne has an arranged marriage she needs to get out of and make sure Rhonda's been dating the character we just mentioned?
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Kell's boss, R.L., and later Kevin's ex-wife when she marries R.L.
    • This trope is tempered however by, of all tropes, Brilliant, but Lazy. R.L. shot down both world conquest and a racketeering scheme because it'd be too much work.
  • Crapsack World: Earth That Was in the backstory.
  • Crapsaccharine World: The main universe of the comic, if taken seriously, would be one of the most terrifying fictional settings ever; of course (and fortunately), it's not.
    • In essence, at a first glance, the world of Kevin & Kell seems just a basic Furry Fandom setting... until one really thinks about what the maintenance of pre-sentience foodchains means, which is made worse because they are often brought up as part of the storyline. Not only can anyone simply kill and eat you on the street just because they were peckish, the law can be brought down on you for trying to protect yourself and the government will actively interfere with steps to change society so that predators don't basically run everything. Of course, even being a predator is no protection because if a nastier predator wants to eat you, they can: nobody will notice or care if your boss eats you for falling behind behind the quota, for example. Some people are also bred to be used as goods, like Dip the "Sheepskin" Diploma.
  • Crash-Into Hello: How Carl and Leona initially met. While Leona was looking for Francis, who was wandering naked between the combined Herbivore and Carnivore summer camps that year, she tripped and fell over Carl's horn.
    Carl: Hang on... I got something on my nose.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: A couple relatively low-key examples:
    • In the original casting of West Side Story at Caliban, Edgar is cast as Tony, Fiona is cast as Maria, and Rudy is cast as Maria's brother, Bernardo. At a point where Tony and Maria kiss during a rehearsal, Rudy gets mad. So when they rehearse a fight scene between Tony and Bernardo, he actually hits Edgar, leading to Fiona and Leona having to break them up. (Leona had a bit role in the play) Rudy was re-cast as Maria's other suitor, Chino.
    • Wendell, despite playing off Lin's crush on him, bristles when other boys get involved with her. Like when she smooched Hockley to try to get him jealous, and when Tyler offered to ask her to be his Valentine to get her off his back.
  • Crazy-Prepared: After a rough night where they lost Savanna's pacifier, Carl appears with a bandolier full of pacifiers on his horn.
    Carl: That'll never happen again.
  • Crossover:
    • January and February 2004 saw the epic crossover A Tail of Two Species with General Protection Fault. An implication that GPF takes part in K&K's analog human timeline was later revealed to be a Red Herring.
    • A 2019 storyline had the family attending the wedding of Shanda the Panda.
  • Cult: There is a cult in the uncivilized areas around Domain. Rudy ran off when Fiona briefly dated Vin. Ralph tried to join during the Millennium Bug arc, but was rejected because of his poor hunting skills.
  • Cultural Personality Makeover: Fiona, once her fennec ears grow in, begins to explore and embrace the dress and style of her fennec ancestry. She becomes disillusioned when she realizes the fennec community she has joined online is rather hateful and spiteful of outsiders, but ultimately decides to still appreciate her background and wears traditional colors rather than the full outfits.

    D 
  • Danger Takes a Backseat: Attempted in the March 1, 2007 strip, where an alligator is hiding in wait in the backseat of a sheep's car. Unfortunately for the alligator, the sheep happens to be a customer of Aby Eyeshine and her auto service, and had a "Check Back Seat" light and associated ejection seat installed for just such an event.
  • Dark Horse Victory: Frank Mangle challenged R.L. for control of Herd Thinners. The winner? Kell, who had only intervened to keep them from killing each other.
  • Dead Hat Shot: When Fenton flew out of Lindesfarne's car and head-long into a N.O.P.E. car chasing them, a frame in the next comic showed a panicked Lindesfarne through one of the lenses of Fenton's glasses, the other lens shattered. He survived, but badly broke one of his wings.
  • Death by Childbirth: Corrie's mother.
  • Death Glare: Kell has a pretty mean one
  • Deer in the Headlights: It happens on occasion. Kell does it deliberately with a projector as one of her hunting tactics.
    Kell: Works every time!
  • A Degree in Useless: Discussed in the October 4, 2009 strip, where a random bird moves back in with his parents after an unsuccessful job search; one of them says "What did you expect with a B.A. in Philosophy?"
  • Demoted to Extra: This has happened to numerous characters that haven't been Put on a Bus entirely. Most notable are Bruno and Corrie, whose complicated saga dominated almost a decade of the strip's existence and now only appear very rarely and in the background. Also notable are Lindesfarne's friends Tammy and Ray, who moved to a lighthouse and have decreased in appearances, often going a few years between appearances.
  • Demythification: Everybody knows the Easter Bunny is real. But while people may assume it's magic, in reality it's the rabbit council who is in charge of a whole program to dispatch different easter bunnies to different areas to take care of hiding the eggs.
  • Deus ex Machina: Some multi-day story arcs are suddenly resolved by an instant event. For example, a tiny insect that threatens the Dewclaws gets instantly crushed by a falling book, or is eaten by a passing motorist.
    • In a case of "deus eggs machina", Honk's girlfriend was fretting over having to leave him and Onk for international delivery duties, when suddenly she laid an egg.
  • Deus Exit Machina:
  • Diabolus ex Machina: A multi-month storyline involved Kevin's ISP, Harelink, competing with telecoms for a lucrative contract to provide free wifi to the city of Domain. After all this time spent with the reader wondering if they'll win the contract or not, they do...and the very next strip shows that the telecoms instantly passed legislation making offering community wifi illegal simply so Harelink would lose the contract. For some strange reason, Kevin also doesn't immediately take court action on a clearly unconstitutional law, simply going on an Anvilicious rant instead. This was all because Holbrook wanted to use the strip and its characters for his personal soapbox on telecom practices (he'd also used them to illustrate a campaign on the subject at the time.)
  • Disappeared Dad:
  • Distracting Disambiguation: Frank and Sheila bump into each other while Sheila was standing in for Kell due to a leg injury. They end up having a heart-to-heart, when Sheila admits that she chased him up a tree when they were kids; he had believed Kell did, which was the source of their rivalry. Kell breaks them up over the phone:
    Frank: All these years Kell could've been a valuable ally at Herd Thinners. Instead, I labeled her as an enemy.
    Kell: Hello? If we don't meet our prey quota we'll both be labeled unemployed
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The strip uses numerous animal characters to reflect real-world situations. The title characters appear to represent a mixed race couple, "domestication" is often treated as homosexuality (one character discusses the problems of her "openly domesticated lifestyle"), and another character's "trans-diet" surgery to change him from a carnivore to an herbivore is treated with scorn and derision for altering the manner of his birth - in other words, a reflection of transgender issues. It also subverts it from time to time - actual homosexuality in the world of Domain is completely accepted (in the strip's logic, because people focus more on the carnivore vs. herbivore differences than anything else). It's worth noting, however, that Word of God says that Domestication is not a direct reflection of any real-world condition, despite the more obvious reactions to it.
    • Even worse: When Bruno's friends found out he was trans-diet, they literally found him in a closet, eating hay.
    • The creator actually says in the FAQ that another part of the strip is a stand in for real world issues, all real world issues.
      Bill Holbrook: I would like to add, however, that species difference in "Kevin and Kell" represents all human conflicts, whether racial, religious, national, ideological, gender, etc.
      • Well, at least he's not biased . . . mostly.
    • There appear to be degrees of discrimination; only the most extreme believers in species purity (like the Institute of Species Purity) oppose inter-species marriage as long as the two partners share diets, but predator/prey relationships have quite a bit of social opposition.
    • Some fans have noted that the treatment of Rudy by opposing fans while on Beige University's competitive gardening team looks similar to the treatment of black students trying to attend traditionally-segregated Southern U.S. universities in the 1960s, or what Jackie Robinson dealt with busting Major League Baseball's color barrier in the 1940s.
    • Domestication always seemed to me like a metaphor for something like autism/ADHD/OCD or some other mental condition, given the non-contagious, non-fatal, behavior-altering aspects of it. Especially considering dystracksia exists in Domain.
    • On the other hand, I feel like the responses to carnivore/herbivore pairings combine aspects of prejudices about race and sexuality, and what gets emphasized depends on what type of prejudice Bill wants to comment on at the moment.
  • Dope Slap: Coney gave Rudy one when he admits he never sent in Kevin and Kell's marriage license.
    • Kell gives Sheila one. With her tail. It was to clue Sheila in that if she wanted to get serious with Frank, she needed to also bond with Frank's daughter, Leona.
      Sheila: Did you just give me a "dope slap" with your tail?
      Kell: Somebody had to.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The headmaster of Caliban Academy, a fly, is killed by a sheet of glass falling from a truck, opening his position for Fran Caudal.
  • Dungeon Bypass: Two Rabbit's Revenge members burrow into Danielle's room to avoid having to go through Kell's house.

    E 
  • Ear Ache: A very, very, very extreme implied example came up one day when Rudy and Kevin were walking in the Rabbit Warren, and walked past a rabbit whose ears had been cropped down almost to forehead level.
    Kevin: Never open an above-ground trap door without an all-clear. Lawn mowers are everywhere.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Vin Vulpen faked his death and escaped to The Wild in 2002. A year later, he is seen in The Wild with a mate and some kits.note 
  • Easter Bunny: Kevin was the Easter Bunny for a few years (after being the previous one's bodyguard), but a complex series of events led to Rudy getting the job. Here's a timeline of known Easter Bunnies in the Domain area:
    • Some time in the past: Dorothy Kindle was the Easter Bunny for Domain in her younger days.
    • Through 2004: Various unknowns (with Kevin as a bodyguard at various points)
    • 2005: Kevin Dewclaw (no bodyguard needed)
    • 2006: Kell Dewclaw (stand-in for a sick Kevin, again no bodyguard needed)
    • 2007-2015: Rudy Dewclaw (Fiona as "bodyguard" from 2008 on, and Wendell as apprentice from 2011 on)
    • 2016-2018: Dorothy Kindle (Fiona as bodyguard, Wendell as apprentice)
    • 2019-2023: Miranda Hutch (Wendell as apprentice; Fiona as bodyguard, Edgar in 2022 only, Fiona and Lin in 2023)
      • The storyline established that Miranda was invited to be Domain's Easter Bunny after Dorothy's cover was blown and she retired. Before this, Miranda was Easter Bunny for the area around Beige University, usually with Carl as her bodyguard.
    • 2024-: Wendell Luckyfoot (Lin and Coney as bodyguards, Miranda as mentor)
  • Eating the Enemy: Done by proxy in the issue for Thursday 9 January 1997 when baby Coney devoured the tiger who was about to snitch on Kell being domesticated. Instead of Kell being fired, the tiger's head hangs as a trophy in Coney's room.
  • Education Mama: Mei-Li (Lin's mother), who's a real Tiger Mom.
  • Elephant in the Living Room: Literal example here.
  • Epunymous Title: Punning on "heaven and hell".
  • Establishing Series Moment: The third strip, in which the family reminisces about the wedding, in which the predator and prey sides of the family had to be separated by barbed wire.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Everyone Hates Fruit Cakes: Kell used a fruit cake to beat Marty during his challenge at Herd Thinners, shoving it into his mouth and yanking it back out, breaking all his teeth.
  • Everyone Is Related: The Dewclaws, Kindles, and Fennecs have not-so-gradually developed into a Tangled Family Tree. One comic from 2002 featured a Dewclaw family tree that is now a little out of date, a current one would be difficult to portray in only two dimensions.
    • Rudy and Vin, once bitter enemies, turn out to be half brothers.
    • Corrie, a sheep, is the long lost daughter of Ralph, a wolf.
    • And now it turns out that Wendell, the Bratty Half-Pint rabbit that's been following Rudy during the last couple of Easter Bunny arc is Dorothy's grandson and, by extension, Rudy's cousin.
    • Not pictured on the scheme, Kevin's sister Danielle (her doppleganger, but there's little difference) married George Fennec.
      • And this isn't counting the ones that are predicted to happen when they're old enough to marry, such as Bruno/Corrie and Rudy/Fiona. Lindesfarne and Fenton tied the knot recently.
    • Also demonstrated in this strip.
    • Some commenters on Lindesfarne's blog have referred to this phenomenon as "Dewclaw assimilation".
  • Evil Costume Switch: Well, sort of. Kell's been sporting darker red business outfits (as opposed to her typical peach-colored ones) ever since she became C.E.O. of Herd Thinners. Then again, she's significantly fairer than R.L. is.
    • And now she's switched to a more neutral green since she set herself up as a rival to Herd Thinners with funding from the Rabbit Council.
  • Evil-Detecting Baby: Introduced in January 2021, Leona and Carl's infant daughter Savanna is a lion/rhinoceros with a retractable horn that comes out when she's threatened. Soon after birth, she witnessed Angelique (Kevin's villainous ex-wife) appearing on television... and the horn immediately came out. Leona comments on it:
    Leona: Perceptive judge of character, isn't she?
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Mei Li is a Tiger Mom in every sense of the word. Even Lin has referred to her as one.

    F 
  • The Faceless: R.L. Somewhat subverted in that his muzzle is always clearly visible, but the rest of his head is always just off-panel.
  • Failed a Spot Check: When Lindesfarne was taken to meet (arrange disconnection from) the hedgehog boy, Quinn, that Angelique had arranged her to be betrothed to, his parents didn't notice her engagement ring from Fenton. But Quinn did.
    Quinn: {texting) Nice engagement ring. My rents notice?
  • Faked Rip Van Winkle: Lindesfarne and Fenton's tree do this to him by making him think it's three years later. It kind of backfires. Fenton does curb his thrill seeking tendencies, but Lindesfarne inadvertently accepted his marriage proposal after years of waiting for the right time.
    Lindesfarne: Maybe this "future married life" trick of mine was really a way for my subconscious to convince me to make a lifetime commitment!
    Fenton: So, instead of conning me...
    Lindesfarne: I conned myself.
  • Fantastic Racism: Mainly between predators and prey, although some inter-species prejudice, such as between canines and felines, exists. It must be said, though, that its take on the concept, which, while as seen above is not without its critics, is certainly more nuanced than most, and more relevant. While most parables about racism and cultural conflicts encourage people to put aside their differences, this one asks more difficult questions: What if some differences can never be put aside? What if some groups can never co-exist without hurting each other? Can we still find a way to make a peaceful world even then?
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: Kevin's ear, which the author has admitted will always flop the same way regardless of what side Kevin is facing for aesthetic purposes.
  • Fee Fi Faux Pas: Honk's girlfriend made the mistake of not recognizing Tree's sentience once:
    Honk's girlfriend: Is your house connected to "the Internet of Things"?
    Tree: Are you connected to the Internet of Stupid Questions?
    Lindesfarne: Psst! Tree is not a thing.
  • Fictional Sport: While there is competitive gardening in the real world, the webcomic treats it as an intense college level sport similar to football within a stadium's field, and implies there's organized rules and fouls. Hunting competitions also appear at high-school level.
  • Final Girl: Namedropped as a horror trope and discussed in the June 4, 2023 strip, when Wendell tells Coney he sees her in this role when they get older.
  • First Girl Wins: Fiona for Rudy. Oddly, Victorious Childhood Friend is subverted: they had hated each other when they were in day care years before Fiona moved away, and didn't even remember that before a teacher told them about it.
  • First-Name Basis: This was added for Fenton with Kevin and Fiona with Kell following their respective engagements with Lindesfarne and Rudy.
  • Foot Popping: Holbrook seems to be a fan of these, possibly because nobody wears shoes, creating a unique foot focus. Usually it's Kell who ends up doing it, but there's also a notable one when Coney kisses Nigel just before the two use a time machine to return themselves back to their usual toddler forms.
  • Foreshadowing:
  • Forgotten First Meeting:
    • Rudy and Fiona, who find out after dating for some time that they were in the same preschool - and hated each other.
    • Kell and Aby first met when they were both 10, when Kell chased Aby up a tree. Kell doesn't remember at all because she chased lots of cats as a kid. Aby only knew who she was because Kell's mom gave her a Full-Name Ultimatum when taking her home. Although Aby remembered, she didn't carry a grudge over the incident.
  • For the Evulz: Rudy's comic portrayed humans as Captain Planet villains in almost every respect except for the fact that they're the main characters. Of course, at the time he drew the comic, everyone in that universe thought humans were fictional creatures. The idea of a race that would deliberately destroy habitats was considered so outrageously absurd as to be humorous.
  • Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Land mammals, though mostly on two legs, are just as adept at being on four legs. Though larger land mammals like elephants are more commonly seen on four legs in civilization, they can also be on two legs. Carl the rhinoceros is a good example, being seen on four legs most often early on, but being on two legs more often once he begins dating Leona.
  • Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Lindesfarne runs her own blog, and 6/27/08, she started responding to replies.
  • Framing the Guilty Party: Papa Kindle and Angelique try to frame the other for Sid's murder, thinking that the other did it. It was actually (technically) Danielle, who was assigned to kill Sid, but couldn't do it, causing Sid to accidentally kill himself with her stake gun. Papa Kindle decides to take the fall for his daughter.
  • Freudian Excuse:
    • Ralph's desire to eat Kevin stems from the tragic death of his herbivore lover.
    • Desdemona Fuscus pressures Lindesfarne and Fenton to get married so that Lindesfarne doesn't find out about her being a vampire bat before the wedding.
    • One of the reasons Carl resisted Leona's crush on her is because she tried to hunt his best friend, Miranda, after Miranda broke up her relationship with Edgar.
  • Frivolous Lawsuit: A bear attacks Kevin, who easily backhands him. The bear responds by suing Kevin, claiming that, as a rabbit, he violated the natural order by fighting back and demanding Kevin's weight in meat. Mei Li gets the case thrown out by pointing out that the bear using the judicial system to attack Kevin is equally unnatural.
  • Furry Confusion: Basically determined by Rule of Funny. For just one example, Lindesfarne's lab mice were long-running characters that lived in a cage like pets, even though they were actually sentient and capable of speech. Other parts of the comic have shown mice that are the same size as the main characters, complete with anthropomorphic features like hair and clothes. The status of the lab mice nearly break the strip's logic when Lindesfarne attempts to send them to the human world in place of herself and Danielle, but is informed by Catherine Aura that it wouldn't work with mice because they're "too small". This concept is also used for laughs from time to time - for just one example, Kell appears to be enamored of dogs in a pet store window, but the last panel zooms out to reveal it's a temp agency. The Dewclaws also keep a sentient flower for a pet. They're also aware of the concept of pets despite no appearances of other pets in the strip, though there may be other reasons why they feel this way besides Rule of Funny.
    • There's also the appearance of human-sized insects like moths, lightning bugs, and praying mantises... while insectivores like Lindesfarne and Fenton usually eat regular sized little insects. There was even an instance of a GIANT SPIDER attacking Tammy and Ray's (moth and lightning bug respectively) wedding, which Lindesfarne and Fenton ATE.
    • Though one comic has Danielle realizing that pets don't exist in this world, which she admits makes sense as animals are the dominant species to begin with.

    G 

    H 
  • Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The comic's characters are aware of a need for clothes and covering up nudity...but some of them are naked and some of them aren't. For one such example, people who live in the wild forgo clothing, and Kell is visibly upset about being naked and covering herself up during a storyline where the family pretends to be uncivilized. However, Catherine Aura briefly wore a sweater (and no skirt) in her earliest appearances, though this was dropped in favor of her son and pretty much every other bird flapping around in the nude (her cousin wears sunglasses - and that's it). Nobody comments on this. The less anthropomorphic animals will also appear without clothes with about as much comment as Lindesfarne's pet mice.
    • To justify one species not wearing clothes...how would snakes wear clothes?
    • None of the animals wear shoes or socks, leading to an early joke in the series about the characters wondering why they hung Christmas stockings as they had no idea what they were.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Francis, though it's really complicated.
  • Happily Adopted: Lindesfarne, Mary, and Gweneth and her siblings.
  • Happily Married: Most of the couples in the strip, and if the relationship doesn't work out there's always a Second Love:
    • Kevin and Kell. At the start of the strip, they were at the point of their first wedding anniversary, and they continue to enjoy each other's company in the years that follow.
    • Fenton and Lindesfarne marry later in the strip, and are quite happy with one another.
  • He Knows Too Much: The reason behind the Great Bird Conspiracy abducting Vin, Fenton, Ray and the elk that Rudy caught, along with a desire to make their computers Y2K-compatible.
  • Healing Serpent: Being an anthro webcomic, one of the reoccurring doctor characters is a snake named Dr. Caduceus. Fiona's college friend Greta Garter is a snake with a pre-med major, and has been known to mimic the Rod/Staff of Asclepius while posing for her selfie stick.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Danielle Kindle, by way of Taking the Bullet for George.
  • Hibernation/Migration Situation: Hibernation and migration crop up from time to time, such as when young Turvy has to say goodbye to her best friend Ack, who is a goose and is migrating. There is also a bear family that decided to stop hibernating because that was causing too many problems.
  • Hidden Depths: Rudy develops this as time goes on, showing he can be quite wise and resourceful. It's lampshaded when Ralph was reunited with Corrie as her father: Rudy got the idea that she was his daughter a year before.
    Corrie: Funny thing... Rudy actually guessed I was your daughter... from the scent of the wolfskin!
    Ralph: Hey, Rudy can be a pretty smart kid.
    Corrie: ...when his brain doesn't get in the way.
    Ralph: Well said!
  • Historical Domain Character: Douglas, aka D.B. Cooper.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: A bear sued Kevin for defending himself with force rather than the "natural tactics" of running in fear. Mei Li, acting as his attorney, points out to the judge that, by his own logic, the bear should only be attacking Kevin with tooth and fang, not a lawsuit. The case gets dropped immediately.
  • Holding the Floor: Kevin, and then Coney when Kevin tried to get the Rabbit Council to either accept his resignation or stop taking bribes. The interesting variation is under herbivore rules, as long as someone is chewing on something, they hold the floor. The council caved in and agreed to quit taking bribes right before Coney ran out of snake to chew.
  • Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: The Interspecies Marriage support group has been shown to have some rather bizarre pairings like this.
  • Human Head on the Wall: Variant — R.L. keeps the trophy heads of his failed employees (who are all sapient, anthropomorphic animals) on the wall of his office. The strips from November 8 and 9 of 2010 reveal it's actually subverted when Kell finds out they're employees he fired and then rehired back as temps without benefits, who are only posing as trophy heads (which R.L. considered cheaper than actual taxidermy).
  • Humanity Ensues:
    • Francis eventually changes to one entirely after two years as an indeterminate furry species.
    • Ralph and Martha also briefly experienced this when they were transported into the human world. Ralph returned to his own self when he returned to their own dimension, but Martha remained human for a short time due to being in a lead container.
  • Hypocritical Humor: comic will often do a Take That!, Humans Are Bastards, or even occasionally a You Bastard! about the real world... and then get back to comics of sentient beings devouring each other. Not shockingly, this is often played up for humor as well, often from Danielle pointing out the ridiculousness of the animal society from her perspective.
    Danielle: THIS CIVILIZATION ALREADY DOES THAT!!!
    Kell: Yes, but Francis gives them an "other" to blame.

    I 
  • I Am Not Weasel: George is not a rabbit, thank you!
  • I Can Explain: Averted twice with Corrie, who doesn't quite confess to being a sheep disguised as a wolf before the people whom she believes realize her secret indicate they're talking about something else.
  • Identical Grandson: Or, in Coney's case, Identical Granddaughter. She bears a great resemblance to Dorothy when she was Coney's age.
  • I Got Bigger: Comes into play with the youngsters in the Summer Camp 2021 arc. All the kids around Coney's age got taller since we last saw them full-size prior to the pandemic...except Coney. Even Francis, who is at least two years younger than her, is much taller.
  • Impact Silhouette:
    • Played with here when Coney eats a hole in a hedge made to look like it had been caused by a giant predator busting through the hedge, and not her and her two companions.
    • Rudy performs a belly flop into a pool, leaving a him-shaped crater in the pool's water in one strip talking about impact craters.
  • Implausible Deniability: In a 2015 strip, it's revealed that young boar Hockley has been posting online, asking for money to pay off people who'd otherwise tattle on him for bullying. When Rachel Einhorn asks outright if he's been trying to raise money for his bullying, he denies it... whereupon she shows him she's found the site where he's been doing so. And is not amused by it.
  • Imprinting: Everyone has comparable traits to actual animals. Thus a Canadian Goose needs to have a photo taken and used on a mask. The little goose's sister Ack is later able to imprint over Facetime.
  • Improbably High I.Q.: Played with. Lindesfarne and Fenton's specific IQ scores are never mentioned, just that they're high enough that Commander Kitsune gave them Mensa memberships for a wedding gift.
  • Infinite Canvas (or rather finite newspaper column): Recent Sunday strips.
    • Reality Subtext: That had been done because Kevin and Kell had been added to the Sunday comics for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the spot allocated to them required a strip that could be placed vertically.
  • Inherent in the System: The fact that anyone could be snapped up off the street and scarfed down with no repercussions whatsoever; it's not murder (even morally) as long as you eat who you kill. and in some cases if you didn't know them personally first
  • Insult Backfire: When Kevin ran for the school board position, R.L. confronted Kell about the press describing Herd Thinners as a "bloodthirsty pack of rapacious, slavering predators"...because they forgot to add "vicious" and "relentless" to the description. They have a reputation to maintain, after all.
  • Intelligent Forest: Tree has mentioned in the past that all plant life can communicate with each other through their interconnected root system, though only she can relate directly to animal life because of the Great Bird Conspiracy's intelligence ray.
    Tree: Go ahead, laugh. We had the Internet a billion years before you.
  • The Internet Is for Porn: Used in a rather PG way. Since the comic has a lot of internet jokes and setting it bound to come up.
    • Also Ralph uploaded some old photos he found. He then finds out they were of his mother.
      Kevin: First time I've ever seen a brain imploded.
  • Interrupted Declaration of Love: In late 2019, this happened a few times when Carl sought to ask for Leona's paw in marriage:
  • Interrupted Intimacy: Before moving out for college, Rudy caught his mother and stepfather in off-screen moments of intimacy in their bedroom on more than one occasion.
  • Interspecies Romance: From the title couple on down. In fact there aren't very many same-species couples at all in the strip.
  • In the Blood: Corrie, in her Dale persona as a wolf, is able to get away with not hunting, since people assume that she's incompetent as a hunter due to being Ralph's daughter. People also initially believe that may be a reason why she is losing her instincts.
  • Intimate Healing: How Honk and his girlfriend conceived Ack.
    Honk: Mine?
    Girlfriend: Yes.
    Honk: That layover in Muskogee?
    Girlfriend: When we were snowed in.
    Honk: Well, we wanted to keep warm...
  • Irony: When Martha initially found out Ralph was a father (he had just discovered Corrie was his daughter, and took her in), she initially dumped him because he was a single parent. Even though she herself is a single parent, with Fiona. Cue the comic boxes melting over them.
    Martha: What's that?
    Fiona: It's dripping with irony.
    • Another point when Corrie was introduced as Bruno's girlfriend. At the time, she was using the wolf skin she separated Ralph from previously to pretend to be a wolf.
      Rudy: Psst! I knew you would find a cute babe if you stopped wearing that ratty old sheepskin.
  • I Want Grandkids: Desdemona is a light version of this trope, she's seen asking Kell which of them should be the first to bring the topic up to Lindesfarne and Fenton.
    • It's noted that they had begun asking about a month before Lindesfarne found out she was pregnant.
    • In the case of Rudy and Fiona, this has both been averted and subverted at different points:
      • During the pandemic, Kell used it as a reason/excuse for enforcing Rudy and Fiona's separation until extenuating circumstances softened her stance, and she finally gave her blessing for them to cohabitate. She has yet to apply pressure for them to reproduce, however.
      • That pressure so far has come from Lindesfarne and Fenton.
        Fenton: You guys are welcome to continue living here.
        Rudy: Thanks, but...that's just a one-bedroom unit. We're gonna need more space:
        (Fenton and Lindesfarne both get expectant grins)
        Fiona: ...for my photography equipment.
        Fenton and Lindesfarne: Awwww...
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Ray developed a crush on Lindesfarne while under the influence of the intelligence ray. But knowing Lindesfarne was in love with Fenton, he sacrifices his intelligence so that he wouldn't stand in Fenton's way, and returned to Tammy at the end of the Y2K arc.
  • I Warned You: Dorothy used to date Rudy's coach when they were young, only to dump him for Bentley (Kevin's dad) after she was told she'd have to give up her Easter Bunny position for marrying outside her species (the coach being a pig). Given that her marriage to Bentley collapsed in a messy divorce, whenever the two talk the coach tells her "told you so."
  • I Was Quite a Looker: Elanor, in a picture taken 30 years ago. Ralph is squicked when he finds out that the woman he found to be a babe is his own mother. Kevin, meanwhile, is apparently sincere in telling his mother-in-law she's still a looker.

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