22 March 1979
Confusingly, this implies that Garfield can actually communicate with Jon's friend.
All cats understand everything we say, they just don't care to acknowledge it.
I assumed the guy in the corner was Jim Davis acting as an omnipotent prankster.
No that guy was a regular in old Garfield comics. I think he was Jon's roommate or something. In fact I believe Odie is technically his dog idk what happened to him.