For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 31, 2024

So Mike apparently was informed Farley died!

Nice to have ways of remembering him.

I am going to guess that Rhetta does not have a key to the Patterson house and maybe just rang the doorbell and did not search the house. Then again, the Pattersons are gone for 3 weeks, so who knows?

I like Edgar’s expression in the second panel, looking at the reader as if he knows all this exposition retcon does not match his memory (or the readers’ memory) of things.

Farley was everyone’s dog.

Mike has been sadly misinformed. Elly never wanted Farley in the first place, considered him a nuisance all his life (just like with his son now), and was totally nonchalant about his death. To the others, though, he was the most valuable member of the family.

Nice name, awful plant. They stick to everything like burrs.

Very poingniant. I was away on business when my 18 year old cat died. We have to scatter the ashes this weekend over her favorite spot in the garden.

The loss of your dog is exactly the kind of thing your dog would have helped you through.

I planted a yellow rosebush for my dog.

My wife and I had to say goodbye to our best friend a few weeks ago. I can’t believe what a hole she’s left in our hearts and lives. We’ve had other dogs in the past and will have another at some point, but Dixie was truly special. Maybe a little like Farley.

They’re crushed, I accidentally sat in them

This is one hallmark of a great story teller of any kind: The extension of their immediate story world in other directions, be they physical or temporal, North, South, East or West, past or future. Farley was a part of the Patterson’s lives and still is, and Lynn shows it to us.

Pets are family..

Then how come Elly did not want a dog when Mrs. Baird (the Pattersons’ late neighbor and Farley’s original owner) was giving away puppies?

Ooga Farley!

Booga Farley!

Googa Farley!

Rooga Farley!

Woooooof

Cats are Royalty. My new cats trial period ended yesterday, I’m ‘stuck’ with him. HaHa He’s already attached to me.

That could have been something to have a strip like this…

Elly: Michael is home from school.

Michael enters Patterson residence

Michael: Hello everyone. Man, what a rotten semester! Only thing that kept me going was coming home to our dog greeting me. Farley, where are you? Yoo hoo, Farley! Hey, anyone seen Farley?

John: My son, sit down. There is something I need to tell you…

I love how Edgar constantly observes, like Daisy Bumstead!

Elly-bashing is an Olympics-level sport in the comments section for this strip. Today’s strip has nothing to do with Elly, yet there are already a couple of bashing threads. Not sure how she earned the vitriol.

Okay,Mr.Smartmouth Duck…Mike’s ALWAYS known.

Now shaddup you face

Still waiting for the bunny rabbit Liz palms off on April

Circling back to Farley again, nice to see.

What can be, unburdened by what has been.

i think i have something in my eye

So sweet.

Forget-me-nots? What happened to the reincarnations?

Geez, just as we were getting over the pain of Farley’s demise and she gives us this bittersweet reminder. Poignant but still tough to take.

Brought a tear to my eye.

Beautiful.

My 22 year old kitty crossed the rainbow bridge on Monday…it’s been a tough week.

Very soon there will be “Farley sightings” around that tree.