Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for August 22, 2016

Does Fluffy appear in any old strips?

Whenever somebody says, “Nothing to see here,” there’s something to see there.

The priest at my church, let me plant the urns of a variety of my pets (husband thought the display of cremated remains was getting a tad ghoulish) in a garden that had been made ready for shrubs. There they still lay today.

I still wonder, “Where do birds go when they die?” I’ve never found a dead one in my yard.

I’ve buried many pets over my lifetime but the most memorable was Tiger Cat (16 years old). Daisy Dog (9 years old) came into the house to say her good-bye, and later watched as we buried Tiger in the flower bed. Within the hour, I looked out and Daisy was frantically digging — apparently to retrieve Tiger’s body! Something I learned along the way is that animals grieve the death of their young or a companion. A welsh pony stood for days at the pasture fence, looking toward a tree where her still-born colt was buried, and was consoled only after she was led to the site and allowed to walk and sniff around it. A bluejay we raised from a fledgling watched me bury one of his babies after I retrieved it, too late, from the neighbor’s cat. When I stood up, he let out a mournful cry and then resumed hunting food for the survivors.

My cat disappeared a month ago & no body found. She never left the property & it’s now assumed a coyote may have had her for a meal (sad)

We have house rabbits, and as I can’t stand the thought of burying them, the vet cares for them, making sure they are cremated and the ashes are scattered.

sbwertz said, @dapperdan61“Around here (Phoenix) a great horned owl or a big hawk will take your kitty right out of your fenced backyard.”.An eagle tried to eat my father when he was a baby on a blanket in the yard. (Good for me the dog fought him off.)

We have containers of ashes in the back of a display cabinet – mostly behind dachshund figurines.

sbwertzOnly turkey vultures hunt by scent; most birds have little or no olfactory sense. As a result, great horned owls are the principal nonhuman predator on skunks (both being nocturnal), which, in turn, are major rodent predators.

We had our pets cremated and scattered their ashes in their favorite spots in the yard. We had to hold onto one terrier’s ashes for eight years before her best buddy cat was ready to join her.

shudder thanks! I’m supposed to sleep soon!;-)Actually, I’m going to rather enjoy musing about it. Imagine the movie possibilities! !:-D

Goodbye, my cats who have gone on before me…

Night-Gaunt49 said, @DavidHuieGreen“Chickens have T-Rex in their genes,”.Nah, a different branch of the family.THey share genes from a common ancestor but not direct hand-me-down genes.Just as you and mushrooms share common genes..“Imagine if we could turn them back on….”.THE ENORMOUS EGG was based on a similar concept although an even less related descent, chicken lays an enormous egg which hatches to a triceratops, kid raises him as pet..Bad genetics, but not bad for 1956. I see they even made a movie of it around 1968.

@Englishlass said,“Losing a pet is always sad and one never forgets where you laid them down for their eternal sleep.”.Of course one does.

.Keep on keepin’ on said, @DavidHuieGreen“Of course one does.".“One even forgets the pet ever lived.”.Keep on keepin’ on said“I dont think your “one” should stand for “EVERYone”. For some, that is like saying “one” will forget a family member ever lived. Like everything about people, individuals will differ. Me? I’d rather forget some people, than a single animal that’s shared life with me.”.See?You are catching on. People vary..Affections vary.I bet you can’t name every pet you ever owned since the age of four and you probably had one at two.One forgets.. I remember Rex (German shepherd) but not Roy (previous German shepherd), Snowball (somethinorother), Comet (calico kitten with a tail), Asteroid (born with no tail, dirty white), Boomer (longest lived cat we had, sister-in-law nearly starved her until we saved her, got well and acted like a kitten again) Curtis Rigby (somethinorother named after neighbor), Doofus (mixture of three kinds) Bertha (one of Doofus’ nine puppies), Bart (another of Doofus’ nine puppies), Beuford (another of Doofus’ nine puppies), I forget the names of the others, all were in high demand and went to good homes., Rainbow (callico cat we found abandoned and starving at Canoe Creek,. We caught crawfish and fed them to her for food right then.), Chocolate (one of Rainbow’s two kittens), Vanilla (Rainbow’s other kitten), Butterpecan (just a cat around that tme, Blackie (the black one), Blackie (who was alternating black and gray stripes). Fox (who looked like one), Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes, Wolf (their mother who looked like a wolf but had one blue eye and one brown eye, Princess (a boxer who nursed Rainbow’s Chocolate, a black tom with a white bowtie on his chest, Pedro (flying squirrel), Lord Grey (formerly Lady Grey until proven otherwise)..But one doesn’t remember all of them even as other names still rise from the depths of memory. I haven’t even mentioned the turtles or the owl or the shrew or the possums or the woodpecker (Woody, of course).. Regardless, if one says “one,” it can be taken as all-inclusive and yet shouldn’t be.