Sent by Dirk the Daring, who asks “Is this about Twitter? Or about nothing? Damned if I know.”
Yeah, you GOTTA suppose it is somehow about Twitter — even though the repeated “twit” never becomes “Twitter” or “tweet”, and that bird is not the blue Twitter icon bird.
Comics I Don't Understand 
If I went to a rescue station and they offered me that animal, I think I would paraphrase a famous “tea/coffee” comparison: “If that is a dog, please bring me a cat. On the other hand, if it is a cat, then I would rather have a dog.”
P.S. As for the “meaning” of the strip, I don’t think that McEldowney would shy away from political commentary, but I think the implicit criticism of Musk’s enterprises is a secondary “shadow” interpretation; the primary gag being the ordinary conflict between a nominal predator and what under other (non-comic) circumstances might be its expected prey.
The dog thinks the bird is calling him (her?) a twerp. It’s no deeper than that.
The bird called the dog “Twerp” so the dog called the bird “jerk”.
1) I agree about this being more a dog than a cat.
2) ‘Twit Twit Twit’ induces no reaction from the cat, but then . . . the bird starts throwing in a ‘twerp’, and the cat realizes it’s being insulted, as well as teased.
noun
derogatory•informal
noun: twerp; plural noun: twerps; noun: twirp; plural noun: twirps
Origin
late 19th century: of unknown origin.
@ Andréa – Perhaps that white animal is aware of Kurt Vonnegut’s definition of a “twerp“, and is therefore even more offended than by “twit”. (And justifiably so. I’m not going to repeat the definition here. Vonnegut mentioned it in several books, and in various interviews, so it’s been quoted all over the Internet. One can argue about whether the definition is NSFW, but it is definitely crude.)
So did the “dog” eat the bird? I’m not clear on that.
Popular belief is that Musk accidentally got into this mess because of his impulsive responses to people being mean to him on Twitter (an idea I’m inclined to accept). So arguably this metaphor could work, e.g., his reaction to the noise and insults is to destroy it.
@ CloonBounty – I think the second panel in the bottom row clearly shows that the bird flew safely away while delivering its final insults, and the pupils in the last panel seem to indicate a side-glance toward the bird off in the distance.
Yep, I had the same question that Cloon Bounty commented; and after some looking decided it was the story as Kilby has it.
Yes, it’s a dog (hard to tell here, but it regularly interacts with the (black) cat and the size, if nothing else, makes it obvious). I think there’s a tiny extra joke – the “jerk” is not something the dog says, but a twitch or jerk of (her?) ear. So it’s another of his onomatopoeia jokes.
I think there’s a tiny extra joke – the “jerk” is not something the dog says, but a twitch or jerk of (her?) ear. So it’s another of his onomatopoeia jokes.Hunh, I was half expecting twerp and jerk to blend and yield twerk.
Thank you, Kilby, for the rescue-station story. I hadn’t heard the tea/coffee version, but I imagine it’s a simple substitution, reminding me of once when I was busily chatting with friends in a restaurant. I had ordered a cup of tea, and when the waitress brought the cup, I absent-mindedly sipped from it, then spat out the coffee. Needless to say, I left no tip.
@ Boise Ed – That anonymous tea/coffee quote has appeared in a variety of forms, and was attached to a number of different sources before it was (falsely) attributed to Abraham Lincoln. One of the better versions appeared in Punch:
Here is the cat:
https://www.gocomics.com/9chickweedlane/2022/11/27
And the cat and dog together:
https://www.gocomics.com/9chickweedlane/2022/09/11
Coffee / tea joke:
Patron: “Waiter, is this coffee or tea?”
Waiter: “What does it taste like, sir?”
Patron: “It tastes like s*** is what it tastes like!”
Waiter: “Oh, then it’s coffee. Our tea tastes like p***.”
@ MiB – There’s also a classic gag in MIB3:
K: This coffee tastes like dirt.
J: That’s because it was just ground yesterday.
Brian in STL – oh, that’s weird. I’d never seen either the white or the spotted cat before – the only cats I’ve seen in that strip were solid black (and he plays with it as art, of course) or (mostly) the Siamese. Never saw the white or the spotted one before.