Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for March 26, 2020

Stay away from my fence.

Our German Shepard barks fiercely when the mail truck appears and stalks back and forth across the yard as the mailman puts the mail in the box. New drivers are apprehensive but the seasoned ones know she is just out there to race the truck the length of the yard.

My avatar is like that, totally fierce when it is safe to do so.

Big bad beast.

Our Siamese Cat growls every time a UPS truck drives up. Then he runs and hides when the driver delivers the package at the door.

The dog may have a problem with a floating head.

I worked for a lady who had a big Doberman on a chain and every time I got to where she could see me, she would ‘sing a concert’ complete with illustrations of how she would eat me if she got loose. The lady told me that if that chain broke, the dog would go hide in her little house. Never did test that though.

For a few years a long time ago, there was a peeping tom that kept coming around her house. You could always tell where he was around the house because when he was in the yard, the dogs were going nuts. When he was at the kitchen door looking at them – silence.

We are all like that.

OK – this is a pet peeve of mine. I walk the neighborhood about 4 days a week, just like Janis. There are MANY neighborhood dogs in front yards jumping around and barking their heads off when I attempt to walk by (ON the sidewalk). I usually avoid them by turning around, or walking down into the street, but it GALLS me that I have to do this! Why can’t I use the public sidewalks in my neighborhood? Why don’t these people keep their dogs in the BACK yard? What kind of a war would I start if I brought along a squirt gun and blasted them with a squirt of water (or ammonia)? We have two dogs ourselves, but we keep them away from the front sidewalks. Just venting.

Come over here and say that!

Strange for me to see something new in Arlo and Janis, there visual world is very small

Years ago, when I was an early morning runner, I’d pass by a neighbor’s tall fence. The first time their dog jumped up so its face was above the fence, about level with my face, and barked viciously, I jumped! The next two or three times just got more annoying. So the next time, I wrapped my sweatshirt around my hand and punched the dog. It never jumped at me again.

I used to walk in my neighborhood and there was one small dog that would jump up on fence to bark at me. He would then run around to the other side of the house to continue barking. One part of the fence had a gate in it and one day for some reason it was unlatched and when the dog jumped on it it swung open. When the dog realized I could now get to him he hightailed it back to the other side of the house.

This pup knows who he’s dealing with. Janis is very nice, but don’t cross her.

Really, a small dog that realizes it’s a small dog.

“Let me at her, Let me at her……jes kiddin……Let me at her”! ;o)

One time I was walking by an iron fence and a small dog in the yard was following me and barking furiously. I saw that up ahead a gate in the fence had been left open and was curious what the dog would do when we got to the opening. Well, it was “bark, bark, bark” all the way to the open gate. Silence as we went past the open gate, and then “bark, bark, bark” once there was a fence protecting the dog once again.

google " dogs don’t really want to fight"

“Walk softly, but carry a big stick.” Teddy Roosevelt (sort of).

From arloandjanis.com:

“And in the Where Do You Get Your Ideas Department: the current Arlo & Janis strip (which is a repeat from 2015) literally came from real life. There was a dog on one of our favorite walking routes who did the exact same thing as the dog in the strip, with a few glaring differences. The fence was a chain-link fence, the gate was the width of the driveway, and the dog was a snarling German shepherd and a big one at that. Every time we walked by, he’d meet us in the near corner of his front yard, barking and slobbering and lunging against the fence, the only thing between him and the sidewalk, and us. He would continue in that state, keeping apace with us until he reached the open driveway. Then, he’d politely trot alongside us, across the driveway, until he’d reached the fence on the other side where he’d resume his assault until we had passed beyond his jurisdiction. We became quite used to this behavior and trusted him to play by the rules. We’d speak to him in a friendly voice, which would drive him to higher paroxysms of gleeful fury. What I don’t recall is, how we ever worked up the courage to walk past him the first time.”

This happens to me far to often on my job…. Crazy to see this in caricature!!! :-)

Snoopy? Is that you?