Don Orehek Cartoons: 77. Book: Cats Cats Cats

This cartoon is from a book titled Cats Cats Cats, a collection of great cat cartoons, edited by Sam Gross and published by Harper & Row, 1986. Don contributed nine gags to this book and happily so as a cat lover. Cats he and his wife Suzy have nurtured over the years are Hamlet, Giki, Pinkie, Tippy, Schwanzie and her litter of four, Tracks, Teddy, Champagne and Sugar. (The latter three found other homes at about eight weeks.) Then there was Bogey and now Cleo. They ranged from gray, to gray and brown tabby to all black and black and white.

Each possessed its own distintive personality.

Hamlet: scared away a burglar --- Giki: serious and gentle --- Pinkie: loved laps --- Tippy: fat, always keep the bowl full --- Schwanzie: a bobtail, sweet and a very good mother --- Tracks: could spin his tail like a helicopter --- Cleo: taps Suzy on the leg when she wants to play.

There's a story here!

This picture was taken a few years ago during a big snow storm. It's definitely appropriate for today's Long Island weather.
Bogey wanted to go outside so badly he drove us nuts! The problem was, the snow was piled so high we couldn't open the sliding door he usually used, so finally we let him out the front door. He jumped off the porch and immediately sank up to his nose. He literally swam (what a comical sight) through the snow around the house to the back deck where the sliding door is located. Now he wanted to come in very badly. We still couldn't open the slider, so he jumped up to the deck railing to holler at the window, got his picture taken, then we opened the window and a happy and wiser cat climbed in!

How Many Cartoons and Illustrations?

Thanks to those who guessed how many cartoons Don has sold in his career -- so far. Our estimate is 12,000 +. Hard to believe, isn't it? Our basis for this number is a written record of sales from August 1966 (when wife Suzy started working for Don) through December 1994. This record is a simple list of sales on three-hole notebook paper. It is 253 pages with 25 lines per page. That's 6,325 sales. Add to that multiple-drawings in sales to magazines like Cracked, about 30 drawings for each of 32 jokes books, and the other 32 years before and after the list, and--well--we stopped counting at 12,000.

The text above reads:

America's National Cartoonists Society poll their entire membership of leading cartoonists throughout the United States for their pick of the best of the year. This year, Don Orehek, was presented with a plaque for the "Best Magazine Gag Cartoonist".Don is one of our major contributors to Cartoons & Gags, Laugh Parade, Best Cartoons, Cartoon Capers, and Cartoon Laughs. A sample of his work is on the following pages. He loves to draw, and his drawing shows a love for old times, new times, and wild times.Don and his wife, Suzanne, and their children, Errol and Holly, live in Port Washington, New York.Love to draw and your drawing draws love.
Congratulations, Don
-- Robert Mende

Don's Trash Can

Don has had the same plastic trash can for more than 40 years. At some point he started putting any stickers on it that came his way. Now we suspect the stickers are the only thing holding it together. There also are a few bumper stickers in there. Remember how popular they were in the 70s? About 1975 we had a bumper sticker made up that said "READ CARTOONS." It stayed on our old 1966 Chevy Belair until it was towed away. (Trash can stickers may, but do not necessarily, reflect the opinions of the artist or his family.)