Donald and the triplet's (excessive amount of) pets

[juicymcduck]

Hello everyone! I'm doing research for a future article for Picsou-Soir discussing Donald and HDL's relation to pets. More specifically, I’m looking for stories that deal with the Ducks' tendency to accumulate animals at home, and the difficulties that ensue. I managed to find two such stories so far (All Creatures Great and Small, and Too Many Pets!), but there’s bound to be others. After all, the insane amounts of pets Donald and the triplets have had over the years must have led to more stories like that. Do you fine people have anything to recommend? Thanks in advance! :-)

[Matilda]

There are *many* one-shot pets--pets which occur in one story and are never heard of again. GeoX has mentioned this on his blog, but without a list. Just offhand, I'm aware of two dogs which the family adopts other than Bolivar: Birthday Bugaboo and Heldenleven. Plus one cat, with the unfortunate name of Billyum. (Maybe the Brits thought that sounded all right for a cat's name, but to me it suggests a cross between yum-yum and bilious, which is not a happy mix.) Then there are the multiple other species--I can think of at least two separate parrots....

In the stories I cite, there are no difficulties which ensue from adopting the pet, because the story is not burdened by the awareness of other pets. The difficulties come before the boys get Donald to agree to the adoption.

[LP]

Throughout the Taliaferro strips, there are a ton of them. Cats, dogs, ostriches, a burro, probably a penguin and other birds. I seem to recall an elephant too. 
I specifically remember one strip in which all of the pets from the strips appear in the house at once, but I have no idea how to find it among the thousands of other strips.

I can't think of many concrete examples besides that. The Ducks have a goldfish in a bowl in a few Barks and Rosa stories, which is sometimes way too large for its bowl. Oh, and Donald owns a cat in the Fethry stories by Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard.

[Rrr]

Well, INDUCKS is down at the moment so I can't link to any stories. But yeah, in a Branca story, the triplets find a dog (although the story isn't about it), and in a Italian story, they have adopted a dog again too. And then there's always Old Froggie Catapult!

[Rrr]

Apr 3, 2021 17:29:08 GMT LP said:

a cat in the Fethry stories by Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard.

Also known as Tabby.

[juicymcduck]

Hello again! Thanks for the input everyone. :-)

Note that I'm not trying to come up with a complete list of one-time pets either --- this would be a vain pursuit. I did make a representative sample list though, which of course includes the regulars (Bolivar, Tabby, that obese goldfish...) and some of the more exotic one-time pets (the frog, the falcon, the camel, the dinosaur, the pig, and so on).

I'm more looking for stories about pets in general, if you get my drift.

[Matilda]

Hmmm. Not entirely. I don't entirely get your drift, I mean. A bunch of the one-time-pet stories do include discussion of why Donald doesn't want such a pet. I think of the Code of Duckburg story with Roscoe the Reindeer, for instance. But the story won't usually deal with pets in general beyond the nature of the pet in question. You want stories where the family has to deal with a bunch of pets at once? Where the plot is in some sense built on the awareness of the huge number of one-time pets adopted in stories past?

[juicymcduck]

Apr 3, 2021 19:57:20 GMT Matilda said:

Hmmm. Not entirely. I don't entirely get your drift, I mean. A bunch of the one-time-pet stories do include discussion of why Donald doesn't want such a pet. I think of the Code of Duckburg story with Roscoe the Reindeer, for instance. But the story won't usually deal with pets in general beyond the nature of the pet in question. You want stories where the family has to deal with a bunch of pets at once? Where the plot is in some sense built on the awareness of the huge number of one-time pets adopted in stories past?

Yes, that's indeed what I meant. The two stories I've linked in my original post definitely fit that bill, but I'm trying to see if I can find more.

[Ramapith]

Apr 3, 2021 20:09:57 GMT juicymcduck said:

Yes, that's indeed what I meant. The two stories I've linked in my original post definitely fit that bill, but I'm trying to see if I can find more.

Then this story, Carl Barks' "Plenty of Pets," is certainly one. HDL have an absolute ton of pets all at once... this is also the story with the Black Mask Burglar, a sort of prototypical Beagle Boy-like house robber.

[Spectrus]

While it's only temporary, this story surely qualifies:

inducks.org/story.php?c=H+85145

Donald literally runs out of space for himself because his nephews invite Riccardo to their house, alongside all his animals!