Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for February 14, 2018

Now if Scooter can find a way to get to the other side of the fence, he’ll be in cold cuts heaven.

I love that mischievous little imp. A dog after my own heart.

This will be a severe test of Arthur’s sense of humour. The desecration of the sanctity of a man’s lunch bag is far from trivial .

Would that be hunting or scavenging?

LOL…… OK, if you guys insist on making poor little ME responsible…….

then it will be my duty to have to tell you that is NOT Scooter…

sorry….

Scooter is one of the few consistently recognisable dogs…

He’s big ….tall, and white… and brilliant, as non-anthropomorphic dogs go.

He’s in the strip a lot, so his name tends to come to mind.

This dog has been shown before but I don’t think he always has the same name….

I’m pretty sure he may or may not have possibly been called Riley.

Can we go with that?

And Riley is indeed trying to bridge the gap between hunter and scavenger….

They don’t allow dogs to hunt in the grocery store, where the lucky humans get to hunt.

He knows he’s not allowed to take down prey the humans are already carrying….

like Arthur’s bologna sandwiches.

But he knows “Oopsies” are fair game…

he can freely scavenge things that have been dropped or abandoned.

So he thinks this method may turn forbidden prey into permitted retrieval.

Unfortunately…. he thinks wrong.

He’s up against a master poker player.

Now try for the 8 ball in the side pocket.

Good morning Mudd.

This must be the dog that my kitten was in a former life.

He’s hoping Arthur will just throw it over the fence to him – now that it has been on the ground and all.

Hmmm… ‘Woof’ softly but carry a big stick?

It’s a dog’s breakfast, now.