For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 18, 2013

While I agree with your factual information about both the effects of chives on dogs and what causes “doggy breath”, you must remember that this is a cartoon. In a cartoon, anyone can do anything without consequences or logic. That’s what makes it funny. Who wants a lecture on proper gardening when you can blame it on the cartoon dog?

I don’t know my dog got herself some onion out of the trash awhile ago and had immediately taken from her and her breath was still especially bad for about for about a week. So it possible that Farley got his mouth on some chives.

Oh, sure, Elly! Blame your husband, children and son’s (closeted homosexual) friend!

Lawrence is like eight years old here. Does he even understand what the word “homosexual” means at this point?

Can a dentist who works with humans also work with his dog’s teeth?

You know how to suck the life right out of the cartoon, don’t you.How long did it take you to Google that answer in your attempt to seem learned?

Chives would be like a breath of fresh air, my dogs prefer dead rabbit or goat and fox crap.

[quote] for the chives, I would be looking at the local insect population for the culprit, [/quote]

Chives aren’t bothered by insects.

We used to have a cat that would go into the garden and eat tomatoes right off the vine. He would pick the biggest and reddest one and eat the while thing. He looked so funny with tomato seeds all over his face. And he was very well feed he just like tomatoes.

Pedant: A person who makes an excessive or inappropriate display of learning.

Dogs will try to eat just about anything, especially if it’s convenient to them. Some dogs can handle stuff like chives. Farley may be one dog that could eat stuff like that. Sheep herding dogs had to be able to eat whatever when they were out in the pasture. Farley is doing what comes naturally to his breed. I knew a dog who could eat any kind of bone. She could eat almost anything and not get sick. The only time she did was when she ate canned dog food that turned out to be poisoned. She was a Canaan, bred for living in the desert. Her breed’s stomach was designed to be able to help her eat whatever, and wherever the dog may be. The same may be true for Farley.

Edgar doing the dirty deed link missing from your Lynn’s Notes post.

well you certainly have put thought into you comment but i don’t think the dog would know any of that stuff so it was probably the dog trying to rid him of his bad breath.No need to put so much thought into a comic,i would not anyway :)

According to @Night-Gaunt49’s Lynns Notes post, the actual Farley ate chives.

Guess, Ellie

I don’t know of any dog that doesn’t have bad breath.Sure some dog breath is worse than others, but they’re all bad.I’d guess the chives were eaten by rabbits, though if I grew them they’d probably disappear from rot rather than being eaten. I still mourn my poor rosemary that was done in by this year’s wet weather.

I had a dog that would eat my garlic right out of the ground. And cherries off the tree where she could reach. Silly puppy.

ellys scoping it out

growing chives look a lot like grass. And we all know that dogs eat grass. He seems like a likely culprit for this.

And It takes a lot of Onions to cause the effects howtheduck describes.

My Wild Haired Foxy Terror always chewed the blossoms off my chives! She would stand there and munch a blossom and then move to another and do the same Repeat between *. When she finished,all the blossoms were still there, just dangling from the stems. She was getting the nectar from them like we did as kids when sucking on honeysuckle blooms — is that a southern plant? Never caused her any problems at all. She lived with for a joyous, active, 14 years.

Re: The dog’s feast that this comic was based on: EWWW, Night-Gaunt!! EWWW, Lynn! I’m glad that she changed the offending comestible for us readers!

Speaking of growing herbs, I had an herb garden in Florida, at the place where we used to live. Some of the herbs were intolerant of certain conditions. Basil wasn’t fond of cold weather; if you let sage get dried out enough so that it wilted, forget about its survival. But one herb seemed to welcome anything. It could withstand drought, standing water, heat, cold. Once we had a hurricane and the yard got flooded with salt water from the bayou that was across a big vacant lot. This herb went, “My, that was refreshing!” The herb was . . . chives!

I wouldn’t trade my sweet dog’s even sweeter kisses — bad-breath or not — for all the money in Bill Gates’ bank account!!!!! Love her and love them!!!

♥♥♥♥♥

Or Farley could have bad breath just from eating poop! :p

This probably won’t be enough to change your mind; but, except for the bracketed words at the end, the Note is a quote from one of Lynn’s books, that was published earlier this year, available online.To me, someone wouldn’t use a word like chives in a fictional account; they’d use something more common, like onions, instead.I don’t know what you’re talking about regarding Lynn contradicting herself; but then, I probably don’t follow her nearly as much as you.

Asharah: At eight, all kids are homosexual in an unknowing sort of way. “Cooties” are frequently mentioned in this context.

I meant the general use of “chives” and “onions”, not how often Lynn used it.Regarding your last paragraph: A keyword search of the website found exactly strip that used the word frog. It was a Sunday strip, not a daily strip arc. Neither the next strip, nor the next Sunday strip had a frog in it. So I don’t know what you mean by story (generally implies several strips); but I don’t have time either.

I had a cat who Loved chives! They were his way of inducing a hairball. Couldn’t grow them until he passed on at age 19. The chives didn’t seem to harm him much although the teriyaki beef jerky may have.

I have come to the conclusion that a number of the people who read and comment on this strip have a serious hate on for Elly. It’s a family, people. Ya know, one of those things that happens when two humans join together and decide to have more little humans? At no point did any of them become super human. Mom’s clean up kids’ rooms. They don’t do it to obliterate their child’s toys, they do it because the child either doesn’t do it themselves or wouldn’t realize that the broken toy that they haven’t thrown out themselves could be hazardous if they were to step on it and injure themselves… Children step away from parents in busy places. It happens. Not due to neglect or anything like that, simply a child’s curiosity when the parent is distracted for a split second. Elly NEVER accused Farley of eating her chives, if YOU inferred that, then the blame is on you. All this is, is a series of scenes of a dog with vile breath and Elly just happens to notice that her chives are thin again….. who’s to say a less than honest neighbor didn’t pinch them.

Seriously people, stop for a moment and see past your own issues with your mother, quit trying to show the world how smart you are, and enjoy the comic strip! It was written to amuse, not make some sort of statement!

The unnecessary recoloring of those Sundays (Seriously, they were already colored. Why not stick to the original colors?) hardly makes sense. When did Lawrence become black knowing we saw his mother regularly in the early 80’s? Was it intentional back then or has it been changed?