'Garfield' Plane Up For Sale

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ What exactly is ``an aircraft fit for a fat cat?'' <br><br>If you're Jim Davis, jet-setting creator of the feline-themed comic strip ``Garfield,'' it's the sleek

Friday, February 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ What exactly is ``an aircraft fit for a fat cat?''

If you're Jim Davis, jet-setting creator of the feline-themed comic strip ``Garfield,'' it's the sleek private jet you're putting up for sale.

An advertisement in Indiana Business Magazine's February issue describes the twin-engine Dassault Falcon 20F-5 as ``an aircraft fit for a fat cat.''

Garfield, the strip's lasagna-loving star, is pictured in the ad posing next to the plane, which bears a giant burgundy paw print on its tail.

When Davis bought the 10-passenger plane in 1987, he frequently shuttled from Delaware County Airport in Muncie to New York to do syndicate work. He also flew to Los Angeles to guide the ``Garfield and Friends'' television show, said Kim Campbell, a spokeswoman for Paws Inc., the Albany-based firm that handles Davis' business matters.

The jet ``has served Jim and the company well for many years, but has recently become a very large and expensive item we can live without,'' Campbell said last week. ``With the power of the Internet, we don't travel as much.

``Garfield is still strong and healthy. But his needs have changed.''

The initial offering price of $7.6 million is negotiable, said Will Grant, former chief pilot for Paws.