For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 10, 2017

From the day we arrive on the planet

And, blinking, step into the sun

There’s more to see than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done

There’s far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rolling high

Through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round

It’s the circle of life

And it moves us all

Through despair and hope

Through faith and love

Till we find our place

On the path unwinding

In the circle

The circle of life

Now it’s time to worry about Farley. In all honesty, if a dog eats a spider (even if it is a poisonous one) it won’t cause a problem. The problem from spiders occurs when the spider bites and invenomates the dog. The venom in the dog can cause irritation and necrosis.

If this venom is ingested as it would from Farley eating the spider without being bitten (which is what it looks like in the cartoon), it gets diluted out and broken down in the dog’s stomach and doesn’t cause any problems.

Well, the way the kids tried to do was cruel…with Farley, it was simply the life cycle, courtesy of the nurturing Mother Nature. Yeah, I know dog’s diet does not include spiders, but I imagine their ancestors did eat bugs before becoming domesticated.

I can’t help wondering whether Elly would give the same speech if Michael hadn’t brought a spider into the house,

but just pointed one out to her,

that he discovered crawling on the ceiling in the kitchen,

or especially, if John found it dangling over their bed at 10pm.

Would it have the same rights then?

C’est la vie.

Children learn more from life experience than they do from their parents. Well… just as much.

That’s nature! Only the fleas survive.

Okay, I’ll be the brave one and say it:

Doggone it, Farley! ;o)

It’s the Circle of Life

Apples and oranges comparison:

1.) What Gordon did was out of sadism and the kids were trying to get their thrills. In the same way there is a difference between using a fly swatter to be rid of a housefly as opposed to kids dismembering appendages for fun.

2.) Farley is an animal, not a person. Animals do not have rational souls as do us humans. (Though I admit that probably was not ideal food for a dog!)

I have one of those battery operated fly/mosquito zappers that looks like a tennis racquet. It is the best way to get rid of bugs in my little motor home…especially mosquitoes. Most sprays mess up my allergies. Just don’t try to use it on anything big. I tried it on a bumblebee and it just made it mad!

“Death takes us by surprise,And stays our hurrying feet;The great design unfinished lies,Our lives are incompleteBut in the dark unknown,Perfect their circles seem,Even as a bridge’s arch of stoneIs rounded in the stream.Alike are life and death,When life in death survives,And the uninterrupted breathInspires a thousand lives.Were a star quenched on high,For ages would its light,Still traveling downward from the sky,Shine on our mortal sight.So when a great man dies,For years beyond our ken,The light he leaves behind him liesUpon the paths of men.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Check out this strip (minor spoiler alert)

http://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse/2005/2/6

Lynn’s notes:

Better still was the finale. Interesting thing: nobody complained about death by ingestion.

Details appreciated: Wasn’t there an incident of the Exon oil spill where thousands were spent cleaning a couple of marine animals, and when turned loose were eaten by something else within minutes of their release?

Spiders & snakes and such aren’t poisonous*, per se. They are venemous. The venom injected into your blood (or nervous system) via a bite or sting, etc, causes a reaction harmful to your health. But that same venom, if swallowed, would not damage you in the same way. Poison is something that would damage your health merely by ingesting it.Another way to put it is that all venoms are poisonous to your blood/lymph/nerves/etc. Other poisons that are not venoms injure you because of chemical reactions, or by corrosion, etc.So all venoms are a specific type of poison (usually one of two types: hematoxic – toxic in your blood; or neurotoxic – toxic to your nerves [which includes the brain]).

*Everything you can see/feel/taste/smell/etc is poisonous. It’s a matter of the dosage: too much air or water or Drano or snake venom can kill you. Lesser amounts might do you less damage, but you breathe air long enough and it will oxidize [rust] your cells & you will eventually die. It might take over 100 years, but … [Whether anti-oxidants will make it take longer to oxidize to death is not part of this comment :) ]But just because metals are poisonous does not mean getting hit by an old metal car and dying from the wounds, that you were poisoned: blunt trauma killed you before the poisons could.