Disclaimer: Garfield and all related characters are the property of Paws Inc. and ViacomCBS/Nickelodeon at the time of this story's creation.


Chapter 1: Thanksgiving Preparations

November 23

7:00 AM

The morning sun rises as its beams shine through the quiet town of Muncie, Indiana. Inside one of these houses lies a fellow cartoonist named Jon Arbuckle, who is sound asleep after a very busy day yesterday.

*CREEEEEEAK* The door slowly opens as a familiar orange cat peeks his head in the bedroom. The cat, known as Garfield, spots his lazy owner still snoozing away in the land of dreams. Wanting to be fed a rather delicious breakfast, Garfield jumps onto Jon's bed and approaches his master.

"Good morning, Jon Arbuckle." Garfield quietly said, putting his face right in front of Jon. "Sorry to disturb you. I know you have a very busy social calendar, but if you would be so kind as to go into the kitchen and fix me a huge and delicious breakfast, I will allow you to come back to bed to finish your sleep."

The owner responds by kicking his cat off of his bed.

"So that's how it's gonna be, is it?" Garfield rubs his head. "Well, two can at that game." The cat rushes out of the bedroom and quickly returns with two frying pans.

"At the sound of the tone, the time will be…"

*CLANG*

"...Time to fix your cat breakfast!" Garfield shouts. Jon, however, refuses to budge and remains under his blanket.

"Huh." Garfield is surprised by how much of a deep sleeper Jon is.

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

Garfield bangs the pans even harder, but no dice.

"Grrrrrrr! Of course you realize Arbuckle, this means war!" The angry cat stomps out of the bedroom. Waiting for Garfield to leave, Jon slowly rises from his blanket.

"I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of waking me up." Jon chuckles to the reader, not knowing that Garfield and his dog friend Odie were peeking their heads through the bedroom door.

"I knew it!" Garfield quietly said.

"Is everything all set?" Odie nods his head and shows Garfield the stereo.

"Excellent! Let's move." The two pets carry the stereo and place it on Jon's nightstand. Garfield evilly chuckles as he sets the volume up to maximum.

*CLICK*

"AAAAARRRRRRGGGHHH!" Jon screams as loud patriotic music blares right in his ears, which causes him to fall off his bed.

"Ugh. My head." Jon moans in pain as his pets climb onto his bed, Odie with cymbals in his hands.

"Rise and shine, fellow soldier!" Garfield shouts as he salutes along with Odie, who barks in agreement. "It's time to serve your nation as you serve your fellow man! Yes sir, it's time to serve them blueberry pancakes! I'm talking pancakes the size of Australia! And coffee! Yes, Jon, coffee! We wouldn't be the great nation we are today if it weren't for coffee, so do your patriotic duty Jon Arbuckle, and FIX...ME...BREAKFAST!"

Garfield marches out of the bedroom.

*CLANG*

Odie hits both cymbals right in front of Jon's face, causing him to twitch. Satisfied, Odie leaves the bedroom.

"I wonder if people with goldfish have this problem." Jon looks at the reader.


Later…

Garfield finishes the last portion of his morning meal.

*BUUUUURRPP*

"I trust breakfast met with your satisfaction, master?" Jon sarcastically asked.

"Mm-hm." Garfield said as he finishes his cup of coffee. "It was filling, but about those blueberry pancakes. Whoo, next time a little less pan and a little more cake, okay?" He rubs his stomach.

"Sometimes, I think I cater to you too much." Jon said as he leaves the dining table with the dirty dishes.

"Well stomach, guess it's time for our early midmorning nap." Garfield talks to himself. He notices Odie walking past him.

"Check that, it's time to abuse the dog." Garfield smirked as he approaches the unsuspecting feline. He prepares for a nice big kick on the poor pup.

"Hello, What's this?" Garfield notices the calendar next to Odie and reads it.

*Wednesday, November 23. Remember to take Garfield and Odie to the vet for a checkup today*

"OH, NO! NOT...THE VET!" Garfield shouts in dread.

"Jon can't take me to the vet! It's inhumane! My uncle Barney went to the vet once. He came back as my aunt Bernice!" He explained. Odie gives him a confused look.

"They think they know what's good for me. Good for them, but that's bad for me. Because what's bad is good for me, but if I go to the vet, and that's bad, they'll prescribe what's good for me, and that's not good!" The poor cat hyperventilates as he sweats through his paws. "Maybe if today disappeared from the calendar, Jon will forget about his little note."

He quickly rips the paper off the calendar and shoves it into Odie's mouth.

"Here, Odie! Wednesdays are good and good for you! I'm not having my nuts cut off because of them!" Garfield said as Odie chews on the paper.

"Hello, hello. What's this?" Garfield notices something on the calendar. He gasps upon reading it.

*Thursday, November 24. Thanksgiving day!*

"Tomorrow's Thanksgiving!" He shouts in excitement. "Do you see that, Odie!? Tomorrow's Thanksgiving!" He repeats.

"That's the day people celebrate having food by eating as much of it as possible." He explains to the dumbfounded dog. "Yes, that's the day people try to eat every turkey, pumpkin, and cranberry on the face of the earth. And you know how much I looooove tradition!" Odie wags his tail in excitement.

"You're a good dog." Garfield pets Odie before grabbing the calendar from the wall and rushes over to Jon, who's busy washing dishes.

"Oh, Jooonn! Jon, Jon, Jon, Jon!" Garfield repeats in excitement as he dashes to the kitchen.

"What do you want, Garfield?" Jon sighs, too tired to be dealing with his cat's usual shenanigans.

"Thanksgiving, food, eat, tradition!" Garfield shoves the calendar right in Jon's face.

"Yes, I know tomorrow is Thanksgiving." Jon pushes the calendar away. "Which reminds me, we'd better go to the grocery store to get lots of good things to eat."

"I'm with you, buddy!" Garfield hugs Jon.


Later...

Jon parks his car right in front of the nearby grocery store.

"Here we are, boys!" Jon said as he and his pets exit the car and enter the store. Both Garfield and Odie gasp upon seeing the many delightful treats the store has to offer.

"Okay, boys. Pick anything you want, but be back in ten min…HEY!" Jon suddenly shouted as the two pets run rampant through the store.

"Forget about them. Just get the stuff that you'll need and get out of here." Jon thought to himself.

"This must be what heaven is like! Look at all this food, Odie!" Garfield exclaims, Odie happily barking in agreement. "Jon said we could get anything we want, so what are we waiting for? Let's feast!"

The duo pick out all the food they want as fast as they could, not caring one bit for the collateral damage they're causing to the store. Soon enough, Jon's grocery cart becomes so heavy that Jon is barely able to push it to the cashier. Her eyes widen in shock from the HUGE amount of food in Jon's cart.

"Whoa! You got enough food here to feed a small army!" She said.

"Trust me, this isn't even enough for my cat. He usually eats enough for a large army." Jon explains, eyes deadpanned as this is nothing new to him.

"Excuse me sir, are you the owner of these two pets!?" The manager angrily stomps towards the frightened Arbuckle, carrying both Garfield and Odie in his arms.

"Yes, I am." Jon sighs in frustration.

"You're gonna have to pay for all the damages your two little monsters have caused to my store!" The manager shouts as he points to all the aisles that were trashed. It looked like a tornado struck the place.

Jon pinches his nose. "How much?"

"Here's your bill." The manager hands Jon a paper.

"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!" Jon screams at the top of his lungs and faints.


Later…

"I can't believe you two!" Jon angrily yells as he drives away from the store. Odie lowering his head in shame.

"I can't believe it either, Jon! They didn't even have any lasagna in there!" Garfield said.

"Well, your little stunt cost me a fortune! From now on, you two are banned from the grocery store!" Jon declares.

"Ahhh, who needs them? We got everything we need right here!" Garfield said.

"You're just lucky that I still had enough for all that food, so you better be grateful that I'm even bothering to feed you all this on Thanksgiving." Jon points to Garfield.

"But I am grateful, Jon! Look, we got Thanksgiving cookies, Thanksgiving pie filling, and even Thanksgiving coleslaw!" Garfield said as he looks through the grocery bags. "Now drive carefully, Jon. I don't want to bruise my Thanksgiving kumquats."

*BEEP*

"Hmm?" Jon briefly looks at his phone and spots an important notice on his phone calendar.

"Oh, that's right! I almost forgot!" Jon said as he makes a sudden turn.

"Wait a minute. This isn't the way home." Garfield said, noticing a different lane than the one they usually drive to.

"Uh...Jon? W-Where are we going?" Garfield asked nervously.

"Oh, yeah. I forget to tell you this morning. We're going to the vet, Garfield." Jon explains.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Garfield suddenly screams, causing the car to steer out of control.