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John Millen

This week Garfield the lazy cat has hundreds of millions of fans
World's favourite feline
When you read your Young Post, do you always check out the adventures of Garfield on page 11?
You wouldn't be alone if you admitted that Garfield was your favourite comic strip character. He is a popular feature in newspapers all over the world.
Garfield, the lazy ginger cat, made his debut in American newspapers on June 19, 1978.
Readers loved him, and three years later, he was starring in more than  850 daily newspapers.
By 2002, Garfield had officially become the world's favourite feline and fans followed his daily adventures in 2,600 newspapers.
Undertall, not overweight
Garfield was born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant, and that is why his favourite food is lasagne.
Garfield is a fat cat, but he firmly believes that he is not overweight but undertall.
He hates physical activity of any sort, loathes diets and is not very fond of Monday mornings.
He is sarcastic, never sees the good side of anything and is always ready with a clever quip.
His hobbies are destroying anything he can get his paws on, attacking the postman and tormenting dogs.
Step forward, Mr Davis
Jim Davis, Garfield's creator, was born on a farm in America in 1945. As a child, he suffered from asthma, and when he was too ill to leave the house, he would spend his time drawing cartoons of the animals on the farm.
Davis studied art and business at university, then got a job in the art department of an advertising agency. He noticed there were lots of cartoon dogs in American newspapers but no cats, so he set about creating a cat character.
The result was Garfield.
Davis' cat was soon appearing in newspapers all over America.
Today an estimated 263 million fans follow the Garfield comic strip in newspapers all over the world.
now do this
The truth about Garfield
Select the correct word from the brackets to make these statements about Garfield true.
1. Garfield is a (black / ginger) cat.
2. He was born in the kitchen of (a French / an Italian) restaurant.
3. Garfield's favourite food is (rice / pasta).
4. Garfield hates diets and he is (overweight / underweight) for a cat of  his size.
5. One of his favourite hobbies is (teasing / stroking) dogs.
6. He also enjoys attacking the man who (steals / delivers) mail to his owner's house.
7. Garfield (adores / loathes) Monday mornings.
8. In general, Garfield is a very (active / lazy) cat.
Garfield vocabulary
Garfield is a very clever cat. He certainly knows the meanings of these words. Do you?
1. What does the phrase 'to check out' mean?
a) to ignore completely
b) to have a good look at
2. What is a 'comic strip'?
a) a short series of funny drawings with a small amount of writing usually published
in a newspaper
b) a book of funny cartoons
3. A cat or a dog with a reddish coat is usually said to be ...
a) auburn
b) ginger
4. What is 'lasagne'?
a) noodles with meat and tomato sauce
b) thin sheets of pasta with a meat and cheese sauce between each one
5. What does 'to be fond of' mean?
a) to like very much
b) to dislike intensely
6. What verb in the article means 'to hate very much'?
a) loathe
b) quip
7. What are dogs' and cats' feet called?
a) hooves
b) paws
8. What sort of a disease is 'asthma'?
a) a medical condition which makes breathing very difficult
b) a children's eye disease
Answers
The truth about Garfield: ginger / Italian / pasta / overweight / teasing / delivers / loathes / lazy
Garfield vocabulary: 1. b/ 2. a/ 3. b/ 4. b/ 5. a/ 6. a/ 7. b/ 8. a



Meet the famous fat cat