Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for September 16, 2008

Dogs and cats sharing the same medical professionals – it’s just not right! I mean who knows where that thermometer has been!

My vet at least has separate waiting areas for dogs and cats, though rather loosely divided.

Claude, it may be the last thing you do! Or at least the last thing you wish you hadn’t done. Take a breath, and listen to Cleo.

It’s not a suggestion.

Listen to Cleo please.

It’s a bit early for the nut cracker.

At least now we know that the chain saw will start. It’s upside down. Kinda like Claude.

Buster knows just how to take care of a cat.

He’d rather have it with gravy than lotion…

at least in his dreams.

Dennis… I know it’s none of my business….

but all this time, I’ve made the (perhaps unwarranted?) presumption that you’re human.

If I’m right… you really should stop going to a vet.

Weren’t the rabies shots a clue?

Nighthawks….

The workshop elves of Cleo and Company puzzle department were quite gratified yesterday,

by your seeming assumption that they could produce adequate images when working with one quarter of a puzzle.

However, as a representative of Elves Local 306, it is my duty to inform you that such results required extra labor, including detective work and magic, that was neither acknowledged nor compensated,

assumption having been made by management that all output was produced after the final strip was uploaded.

Yet this was not the case….

May I direct your attention to a closer inspection of the image and strip links posted by our department during the GoComics outage?

Some of us….. sniffle… (ok, just me) …. just thought you might be a little more surprised.

Claude! That is not a safe way to get longer legs!

There’s a lot to be said for electric chain saws!

Since we didn’t hear the sirens of the ambulance, we can assume that Claude still didn’t get the chain saw started. Whew!

At least Claude won’t need to go to his vet to get snipped now!

(Sorry I missed out on the fun yesterday — I was out-of-town at a friend’s hundredth birthday party. She makes me look old!)

It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if someone (some man) had tried this. Pretty bad when your dog is smarter than you are.

Claude will soon be the only soprano in the barbershop quartet.