Pooky

Pooky is Garfield's teddy bear and best friend. Pooky debuted on October 23, 1978, when Garfield discovered him in a drawer. His most recent appearance was August 9th, 2018.

Personality

Garfield sometimes communicates with Pooky as if he were a living animal; he can also be over-protective of Pooky. When Pooky lost an eye, Garfield requested a new eye for Pooky as his Christmas present. Garfield isn't shy to show his love for Pooky, often grabbing him in hugs making Jon jealous. Pooky is generally portrayed as sentient but immobile. In one instance, Pooky is seen rollerblading past Jon, who assumes Garfield is playing a prank. However, we then see Garfield at the other end of the room, implying that Pooky is skating under his own power. Over the years, Pooky has had several close calls; losing a leg, an arm, and an eye, but Garfield has always been by his side.

In a 1987 sequence when Garfield had amnesia, Pooky cried out a tear when Garfield didn't want to play with him, along with Jon and Odie, who also cry. He actually does have an absent mind himself, but has no brain, or common sense, because he is a teddy bear. He enjoys what Garfield does, because Pooky is his only friend, who doesn't criticize his sloppy-like attitude. He is the sidekick of the Caped Avenger, also wearing a cape. He had a brief cameo in Garfield: The Movie and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. Pooky was bigger in the first film. In the second film, he is a tiny Ty-Beany Baby doll with a shaking-rattle inside him. In "The Garfield Show" Nermal stole Pooky from Garfield as blackmail to get him to be nice to him. In one strip, Garfield was watching television with Pooky. After he finished watching a program, Garfield left leaving Pooky on the couch. The program changed to a nature documentary about bears while Jon walked by. Pooky's been around for 39 years and hasn't fallen apart.

Trivia

Garfield gave him the name Pooky in the first strip he appeared in, confirming that Jon did not give him his name.
One mouse tried to give Pooky as a birthday present to his son in one strip on February 18, 1989. Garfield was angry about it and after the strip ended, it is clear that Garfield took away Pooky from him. The mouse was probably lying about him having a kid's birthday and was just simply stealing Pooky.
In a December 1986 sequence, Pooky was squeezed by Garfield so hard that the cotton inside him became a blobby squiggle that enlarged his head. Jon fixed it by making Pooky have his body enlarged with extra cotton, making Pooky much larger and overweight as well. Garfield pulled Jon's shirt up over his head for not fixing Pooky correctly. Pooky however was back to correct size in subsequent appearances.
Pooky only made two appearances on Garfield and Friends, which made hundreds of episodes. The episodes were Ode to Odie and The Caped Avenger. In "The Caped Avenger", Jon took Pooky to the washing machine, and Garfield dresses up as "The Caped Avenger" to find Pooky.
He also has made only two appearances in the TV Specials. In Garfield's Halloween Adventure, he is seen after Garfield sees the old man on TV. He pulls Pooky up and goes to sleep with him. In Garfield's Feline Fantasies, Pooky is shown to be working as Garfield's companion in the submarine fantasy.
When Pooky first appeared, he had a mouth (a smile), but now his mouth is not visible.
Garfield called Pooky, "dumb, stupid, and silly-looking" in the first strip, but he has never said anything mean to Pooky since.
Nermal is able to sleep on Pooky's lap. Garfield wishes that he could do that.
Pooky has either appeared or has been mentioned 198 times in the comic strip as of 19th June 2016, one of the most frequent appearances for a character apart from Jon, Garfield, Odie, The Mice, The Spiders and Liz.
Pooky appears in The Garfield Show. In "Desperately Seeking Pooky", a dog named Hercules stole Pooky so he can have a friend since Hercules is supposed to scare off people since he is a guard dog. Garfield at first got angry at Hercules, but when using a female teddy bear doll and a walky-talky to trick Hercules into giving Pooky back, Garfield decided to give him three plush dolls as new friends.
In a 1992 strip Garfield went to wash Pooky, who was huge after his wash, despite the fact that this had not happened after other washes.
Once in 1983 when Garfield tried to give up Pooky, he suffered from extreme withdrawal and took him back in a week.