Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for December 19, 2017

Luddy, you didn’t!

Luddy looks scared, is there a squirrel in the tree??

Don’t ever touch a Christmas tree unless you know where it’s been.

Yet another Arlo and Janis that makes no sense to me.

Something “marked” the tree before it was in the house. Another reason to hose them down 1st (only if it’s above freezing of course).

Skunk much?

Squirrel carcass?

It must be alive, judging from tail-poof. Mouse?

The “smeller’s the feller”!

No — a fir tree (like a pine or spruce) smells a little like a cat that has marked its territory — thus the cat thinks there is a giant cat in the house.

One of my three cats was “marking” the artificial tree this morning – fortunately, only by raking her claws on the trunk.

Something scared the XXXX out of Luddy….

Many years ago our little black and white cat (now deceased ;-( ) bit into the lights cord. Before she could let go the light string, the tree and the cat made it almost out of the living room. The cat wouldn’t even go in the living room after that incident and my wife and I still grin at the memory of those cat high-jinks.

Perhaps something still in the tree to be revealed in another comic?

Man up, Luddie. Or cat up! I just got a [air of t-shirts with you and the front and I don’t want to be wearing any scaredy-cat shirts!!! lol ;)

One Christmas, years ago our cat brought a bat into the house. It went to the tree and hung upside down. Mu wife wasn’t having that not even a little bit, so she beat the bat to death, or so I thought, with a broom. When I picked it up to throw it out, it me. The good news is I am immune from rabies for a few more years. The bad news is that it took about a jillion painful shots, starting in my finger, and going to my arm, butt, and legs, with additional shots in my arms for weeks to come. They told me I was lucky, this was a new procedure that was far less painful than the old one. I told them that this new procedure does a pretty damn good job of causing pain, thank you very much.

Cat urinates on electric lights.

Electricity flows through the urine to shock the cat.

(Have none of you done the same thing with an electric fence? What kind of life would miss such an electrifying experience?)

I’m thinking a squirrel or other rodent would put Luddy in hunter mode. A skunk would have been easily smelled by Janis – and maybe even Arlo. Something scared Luddy. I’m guessing a larger predator. Cougar/Mountain Lion, Linx, Wolfe, etc. Pick whatever predator is in your region.