Arlene

Arlene is Garfield's on-and-off girlfriend. She is an elegant, skinny, pink-furred cat, who seems to be the only one living thing in the world, who can successfully crack jokes at Garfield on a regular basis. She has distinctively big red lips and a very thin neck. Earlier in the series, she also had a big gap between her two front teeth; she also appeared more often than now. She first appeared on December 17, 1980. Although she never appeared on the animated series (with the exception of a cameo appearance in the fourth season), she appeared in the film version as well. In the series Instead of Arlene they had a light pink, fluffy cat called Penelope Pussycat.

She once wished that their relationship would take a few steps, but Garfield doesn't seem to notice. Garfield once quipped in the early strips, that he and Arlene have an apparent love-hate relationship: Garfield loves himself, and Arlene hates that. Once, while Garfield was waiting for Arlene to come to a date, another beautiful cat walked up to Garfield and greeted him. At the same time, Arlene appeared, and quickly got enraged. In the next strip, Arlene called Garfield a "cad", but Garfield cleared up the misunderstanding, and Arlene forgave him.

Although she never appeared in the animated series (with the exception of a cameo appearance in the episode, "Feline Felon".

In the book, "Garfield's Judgement Day", it was revealed that she was a stray cat, which she had never revealed to Garfield, until emergency situations brought it to light. She is voiced by Debra Messing.