2nd Pasco family featured in 'Marmaduke' comic strip

Click to enlarge comic strip and photo below.

TRINITY — Move over, Katie and Lucy. Make room for Missy and Trigger.

A week after the two yellow Labrador retrievers found fame in the funny papers for serving as mascots in the fundraising efforts of the Pasco Humane Society, two Boston terriers have hit the big time posthumously for amusing their masters.

Missy and Trigger (left), the pets of Bruce and Jeanne Kettler who retired to Trinity, were the second Pasco dogs in back-to-back Sundays who graced the panels of the comic strip Marmaduke. They died in the early 1990s around age 14.

In the words of the late Alpo spokesman Lorne Greene, that’s 98 for you and me.

The Kettlers, who lived in a suburb of Phoenix, bought Trigger from a breeder in 1978 when he was a pup. The story of how they acquired Missy was far more original, and featured in the comic strip.

Jeanne, a hospice nurse, had been called to work the night before and was catching up on her sleep. Some neighborhood kids found Missy in a nearby park. She was a dead ringer for Trigger, whom they would feed pizza through the fence. Thinking Trigger had gotten loose and not wanting to disturb Jeanne, they tied a rope around Missy and lowered her over the Kettlers’ back fence.

Jeanne awoke to Trigger barking at an unexpected guest and the neighborhood kids yelling, “Two Tiggers.” “They couldn’t say Trigger,” she explained.

A check of Missy after Trigger chased her around the yard showed she had been spayed. Someone also had removed the tags from her collar. The Kettlers took out a newspaper ad, just in case Missy was lost. When no one responded, they kept her as a companion for Trigger.

“She chewed on everything we owned,” Jeanne recalled.

The dogs got along famously and spent most days lazing on the swimming pool’s top step, their bellies in the water, an image captured in the comic strip. Trigger was the smarter of the two. He once killed a cricket in the kitchen. The feat earned him a treat, a dog biscuit that Bruce would wet first because he said it tasted better that way.

“I never questioned how he knew that,” Jeanne said.

The next morning, the Kettlers found 25 crickets on the floor. Some were twitching and chirping. “He had carried them in through the doggie door, all for cookie rewards,” Mrs. Kettler said.

As for Missy, “she never paid much attention to anything.” Jeanne, 58 and Bruce, 64, who share the same July 8 birthday, have been married 36 years. They never had children, so Missy and Trigger were treated like kids. They took them on vacations to Idaho. “We took them everywhere with us,” she said.

About a year ago, Jeanne saw a solicitation in Marmaduke seeking favorite dog stories from readers for a new feature called "Doggone Funny." She fondly recalled Missy and Trigger and wanted to share memories of the dogs she and Bruce still missed. She sent Anderson a letter recounting about five stories, along with pictures. Recently, a package arrived in the mail.

In it was a panel of the strip, a Marmaduke pen and calculator. It did not include a publication date. Jeanne was pleased to see the strip Sunday, with a cartoon Missy being lowered over a fence and Trigger surrounded by crickets, with a thought balloon filled with doggie treats. “I thought he captured it perfectly” she said.

-- Lisa Buie, Times staff writer

Comments

[Stevie Tamato]

they should make one about the ohio lady that fed her dog to the gator

[Lex]

She should have fed herself to the gator!

[bird]

Cute story. Sorry I didn't see the strip of Missy and Trigger.

[bird]

Cute story. Sorry I didn't see the strip of Lucy and Katie.

[Cheryl Shaw]

I am and have been a Boston Terrier lover and owner. I would love to see more cartoons featuring this breed. They are funny, spirited, loving, very inteligent, bundles of energy. I have cut out the comic strip and intended to frame it.