Author's Note: Here's another Garfield one-shot I've got in mind, folks!
This one shot is inspired by a series of arcs concerning Garfield engaging in a massive snowball fight with Jon.
I don't own Garfield. Jim Davis and Paws Inc. does.
Much of Muncie, Indiana was covered in snow on one particularly cold morning, though the residents of the suburbs didn't quite feel the chill due to the central heating system being on full blast at their homes.
Among the houses that has their central heating system on was a single-storey house, home to two adults, a cat and a dog.
It was warm as usual in the house when Garfield woke up that morning, though the first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes was that it was snowing non-stop outside.
"Oh, joy." Garfield remarked when he saw the snow outside, in time for Odie, who was already awake, to come join him. "It's snowing outside, Odie."
"Arf!" Odie nodded in agreement as they looked out the window.
"By the looks of it, there's at least a foot of snow outside." Garfield observed. "I could barely see the sidewalk."
Then, hearing Jon and Lyman's snoring, the tubby cat turned to Odie and added, "And while I'm usually not fond of waking up early, it does give you good when you can get things done before everyone else wakes up and spoils the fun."
Odie nodded in agreement, and noticing the smirk forming on Garfield's face, started grinning.
Eying Odie's evil grin, Garfield continued, "That's right, Odie. We're gonna give Jon and Lyman the surprise of their lives!"
Stretching his paw out, he then added, "What do you say?"
Odie immediately took Garfield's paw and gave it a firm shake.
"Ar-in." He nodded.
Smiling, Garfield then said, "Come, we don't have all morning!"
A short while later, Jon and Lyman were in the dining room with their mugs of coffee ready.
Noting the snow outside, Lyman remarked, "It sure snowed a lot last night, Jon."
"Tell me about it, Lyman." Jon nodded in agreement. "If this keeps up, we're gonna have to get ourselves a new snowblower to clear the path to the sidewalk and the driveway."
"Oh, don't remind me what happened to our last one, Jon." Lyman shuddered. "Those lawn gnomes gave me nightmares."
Lyman was referring to last winter when one day, with the front yard buried deep under 18 inches of snow, Jon decided to take their snowblower out and clear the snow on the path and driveway.
Trouble is, with the deep snow, Jon could barely see which area was the path and which area was their front lawn.
Lyman came out of the front door, intending to help Jon out with the snow-clearing, when it happened, where Jon was still hard at work clearing the snow off the path when the snowblower started making weird noises.
Jon didn't think too much about the weird noises from the snowblower until Lyman pointed out that there was smoke emerging from the machine, which is when the snowblower finally gave out.
The two men inspected the snowblower, but nothing in the creation of mankind prepared them for what's to come.
Garfield and Odie were awaken by the sound of glass shattering and two men screaming at the front yard, and the duo got up and went to the living room to check out the source of the racket.
The first thing they saw in the living room was the decapitated head of a lawn gnome, accompanied by shades of broken glass.
The duo then went to the window and saw Jon and Lyman completely horrified by the sight of several more gnome heads that had just spitted out from the snowblower.
As it turned out, Jon had strayed from the path and ended up taking out at least six lawn gnomes in their front yard.
Six was what Garfield had counted when he and Odie checked on their owners, though Odie later found a couple more gnome heads jammed in the broken down snowblower.
Since that escapade, Jon and Lyman had resorted to using snow shovels to clear the snow whenever it snowed, though Lyman ended up wearing a cast on his right arm for a couple of weeks after he shoveled too hard and ended up pulling a couple of muscles.
"You're telling me." Jon deadpanned. "Since that escapade, I had to tell Liz not to buy us any more lawn gnomes for our front yard."
"Anyways, moving on." Lyman said after taking another sip of his coffee. "Should we wake the boys up and tell them that it's snowed?"
"Oh, I'm sure Garfield would love it." Jon said. "The boy sure loves snow. In fact, last winter, he placed a cone in our front yard during a snowstorm and later ate all of the snow that has gathered on the cone, complete with two large buckets of cherry and maple syrup."
"I remember." Lyman nodded. "Where did he get those two buckets of syrups?"
"Like I said when Liz asked, 'Some things are best left unknown.'" Jon replied. "But anyways, I'm gonna wake the boys up."
"Sure thing." Lyman smiled.
Jon then turned towards the doorway leading in to the living room and shouted, "Hey boys, guess what? It snowed last ni-"
Jon didn't have a chance to finish, as at that very moment, he was struck in the face by a snowball.
"Tell us something we don't know." Garfield responded as Odie prepared another snowball.
Before Lyman could say anything, he was struck in the face by Odie's snowball.
Lyman wiped the snow off his face, shook his head rapidly, and then shouted, "Et tu, Odie?"
Odie simply shrugged as Jon wiped the snow off his face and shouted, "This is war!"
Soon, the two men were outside and busy at work plotting strategies on how to take down their pets in this snowball fight, not long after the two parties agrees to the terms of conditions of the victory.
Lyman completed the finishing touches of their snow fort while Jon finished producing a pile of snowballs.
"All set, Jon!" Lyman said. "Our fort's solid enough to withstand attacks from the boys."
"Good." Jon smirked before shouting, "Okay, boys, we're ready!"
"Bring it on!" Lyman added, and then he and Jon started laughing, thinking that they had the upper hand.
However, unbeknownst to the two men, a couple of snowballs were already fast-approaching them from behind.
Odie was hiding behind the tree behind Jon and Lyman, grinning as he held two more snowballs, and he winced as the two snowballs he had thrown earlier hit their targets.
Both Jon and Lyman paused when they felt the snowballs hit them from behind, and feeling the snow dripping under their coats, the two men both turned to the back, in time to see that Odie had thrown an another pair of snowballs towards them.
Odie chuckled and made a run for it as a couple of "Splots!" can be heard.
A short while later, Jon and Lyman had changed the location of their snow fort to the bottom of a hill.
"Okay, this should do it, Lyman." Jon said as he did the finishing touches of their fort. "We should've thought of this before."
"Yeah." Lyman nodded as he tossed a finished snowball and caught it with his hand. "Didn't think that Odie was gonna ambush us the way he did."
"Oh, well." Jon shrugged. "At least now we're ready to go."
He then shouted as he added, "You boys hear that? We're ready, and you boys are going down!"
"Bring it!" Lyman shouted as well as a couple of smirks formed on their faces.
The smirks on their faces disappeared when they heard what sounded like a combination of a car tire rolling through the snow-covered ground and a whistle coming from behind, and the two men turned and looked, only for their eyes to widen.
The scene then shifts to the top of the hill, where Garfield had already pushed a giant snowball down the hill - right towards Jon and Lyman and their snow fort.
"Yaahh!" The two men screamed in horror, just before the snowball hits them and covered them under tonnes of snow.
At the scene in front of him from the bottom of the hill, Garfield remarked, "Never build your fort at the bottom of a hill."
Jon and Lyman wasted no time getting the snow off their jackets, and it was then that they decided to try a different strategy.
"You know, Jon, maybe we ought to split up so that it will be harder for the boys to take us down at once." Lyman suggested. "After all, they managed to ambush us and get ahead in the game while on their own."
"Good point." Jon nodded. "In this case, I take the front yard and you take the back, and we'll try to find the boys and strike."
"They sure wouldn't know what had hit them." Lyman chuckled before they proceed to split up.
Unbeknownst to the two men, Garfield and Odie already had a number of schemes ready to go.
As Jon made his way to the front yard, he saw Garfield adjusting the bird bath on its side.
Seeing that the bottom of the bird bath was attached to what appeared to be a snow fort, Jon smirked and remarked, "How cute, you think that bird bath's gonna do much good in protecting you, Garfield."
As Jon made the remark, Garfield rushed over to the roses under the window and made a snowball before taking aim at the bird bath.
"If you really think I'm gonna hit myself with my own snowball, Garfield, then you're dreaming." Jon continued. "Because there's no way I'm gonna throw the snowball towards-"
Jon didn't have a chance to finish, as at that very moment, Garfield threw the snowball, which then looped around the bird bath tub and then splatted Jon right in the face.
"Yes!" Garfield pumped his fist in victory as Jon, with the snow on his face, stood there in dumbstruck.
(Note: See the Jan. 8, 1995 strip for the bird bath and snowball gag)
Meanwhile, Lyman was at the back yard building a new fort and stack piling on at least a dozen snowballs.
He gritted his teeth, in determination to turn the tables against the two pets.
Losing a snowball fight with your pets can be a humiliation, and neither Jon nor Lyman are willing to take their chances to see how humiliating that can be.
In no time, Lyman had finished the snowballs and building the fort.
"Now to see what Odie's up to." Lyman remarked to himself.
He then took leave from the fort and went about to search for Odie, only to find him around the corner building a snowman.
Seeing the snowman, Lyman smiled as he walked over to them.
"Hey Odie." He said, and the dog paused and turned around.
Seeing his own, Odie smiled - rather innocently, if you ask Garfield - as Lyman examined the snowman.
It has the standard three snowballs, with one snowball smaller than the one below it, and all is left is to get the pebbles to make the face and buttons on the belly.
"Very cute, Odie." Lyman said to Odie. "What do you call it?"
Before he could react, a loud "Splot!" can be heard and next thing you know, a snowball was in Lyman's face while the snowman is now missing its head.
Odie chuckled as Garfield entered the scene and said, "He calls it: A clever ruse."
The next hour or so featured Jon and Lyman trying their best to turn the tables around their pets, only to ended up getting bested one way or another.
While Jon was hiding behind a tree hoping to ambush Garfield the way Odie did to them earlier, Garfield happened by holding a snowball.
Eying Jon's bare back, Garfield got an idea and next thing you know, Garfield was calling him "Mister Powder Pants" while Jon was taking part in a weird dance trying to get the snow out of the insides of his pants.
In another occasion, Odie walked up from behind as Lyman had finished building at least dozens of snowballs.
As his owner admired his work, Odie instinctively pushed him to the ground, causing Lyman to end up with snow on his front.
Later, Jon was inside the house getting another pair of pants when he heard thumping coming from the front door.
He walked over to the front door and opened it, only for a snowball to hit him right in the face, courtesy of Garfield.
There was the occasion where Jon and Lyman managed to stockpile a gazillion snowballs, only for Garfield and Odie to use a catapult to launch a giant snowball into the air, a snowball that landed right on Jon and Lyman just as they were about to go for the attack.
In another occasion, Lyman managed to dodge a throw from Odie while running back to his fort, only to trip over a loose fence board and ended up with snow in his face.
And then, there was the occasion where Jon was about to ambush Garfield with another snowball, seeing that he last saw Garfield on the other end of the house.
As Jon waited at the front left corner of the house, Garfield is revealed to have gotten a giant snowball onto the roof, waiting to give it a push that would lead it to fall off the edge of the roof and land right onto Jon.
After getting bested by their pets, Jon and Lyman finally decided to throw in the towel.
"It's getting cold now, Jon." Lyman nodded. "We should just cut our losses and head back in."
"Agreed." Jon nodded before the two snow-covered adults walked to their pets.
Garfield and Odie were about to throw their snowballs when Jon and Lyman came to them.
"Okay, we give up." Jon exclaimed in annoyance. "You boys win the snowball fight!"
Garfield, who was holding a snowball when their owners surrendered, disappointingly tossed the snowball he was holding to the side as the two men walked towards the house.
"Neither Jon and I are matches for you boys, even when we're in for this together." Lyman added.
"Let's just stop this right now!" Jon said.
"Okay." Garfield replied just as he and Odie hear the distinctive "Twang" coming from where Jon and Lyman just walked by at.
Jon and Lyman both paused when they heard the "Twang", and not noticing the smirk forming on Garfield and Odies faces, they shared looks with each other.
"You hear that, Lyman?" Jon asked.
"Uh-huh." Lyman nodded as he and Jon's eyes widened. "This can't be good."
Sure enough, before they know it, the two men were pelted with more snowballs.
Watching their owners getting pelted by the snowballs linked to their traps, Garfield added, "Just give us a few minutes to unhook our booby traps."
Odie snickered in agreement as Jon exclaimed, "Yaahh!"
A short while later, Jon and Lyman were in the dining room, each holding a hot mug of coffee.
Both of them looked embarrassed about getting bested by their pets in the snowball fight, and it didn't help with the fact that Garfield and Odie were currently pigging out on the ordered pizza.
Watching Garfield and Odie enjoying the pizza, Lyman turned to Jon.
"I still can't believe we have to order two Garfield pizzas, Jon." Lyman remarked.
"Yes, I know that the Garfield can feed twenty people, Lyman." Jon nodded.
"You mean one Garfield." Lyman deadpanned. "Can you see how much Garfield reduced that pizza to?"
"There's a lot about that cat that is best left unknown, Lyman." Jon replied.
Lyman nodded thoughtfully before he and Jon get their plates ready for another slice of pizza.
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