In The Garfield Show episode "Long Lost Lyman" (season 3), effort is made to explain what became of the character in continuity. Lyman is said to have left Odie with Jon, before moving away to work as a wildlife photographer in a distant jungle.

Lyman's absence and Jon's subsequent ownership of Odie was never explained in the comic strip but the show's superior 1980s animated adaptation Garfield & Friends provided fans much-needed closure by revealing that Lyman went to work as a photographer in Africa, and left Odie in John's charge.