Mediocre Comic Strip References Awesome Movie, Confuses Many

Today on my daily perusing of the comics section in the Washington Post, I noticed something pretty odd. Check it out:



Normally this comic sucks ass and never references anything even remotely tied to pop culture (although I do appreciate its promotion of adopting animals from shelters). So what the hell is going on here? Did the old coot who writes it have an aneurysm and his cool grandson took over?

If you didn't catch it yet, I think this is a huge nod to The Big Lebowski. I mean, the cat is even wearing a freakin' bathrobe.