For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 30, 2021

Dog ain’t getting any younger.

Poor Farley. Just how cold was it out there? I know where I live in Arizona, they are constantly on people walking their dogs on sidewalks so hot that they burn the dogs’ paws. I imagine the same would apply to a dog in the winter.

Isn’t Farley just a year or two old at this point?

Just let gramps do it while he still can, geez.

He means the dog brought him home.

Touche, Jim! Good one.

Even dogs need protection from the cold if exposed for lengthy periods.

Don’t let that dog go near the river.

He better not eat the yellow snow

Good excuse, Grandpa.

Dogs, for all we love them, are stark reminders that we don’t live forever, and if we did all the good-byes would make us wish we didn’t.

Very considerate of you.

If you can’t go any farther, how do you get back? Do they loosen up the closer to home you get?

Grandpa can easily put on extra stuff to weather the cold. Farley, not so much.

Good response. For us we have 3 fur babies and two of the 3 not happy not walking, us human’s the fur babies want to take us for a walk to cold for us.

That’s the most fun that Grandpa had without Elly stopping him…

My son had a British bulldog that halfway into a walk would plop down and refuse to move. My son would have to carry her home.

I notice that Liz is holding April, again. I don’t know what Elly is doing.

I believe this is the first strip that puts an emphasis on Farley’s advancing age.

SPOILER ALERT: Farley eventually mates with a neighbor’s dog. One of the litter is a lookalike of Farley that the Patterson family (except Elly, of course) loves and adopts. So there would always be an English sheepdog in the family.

Plus Farley is a large breed and they have more trouble with their joints, anyway.

Farley is at the age where age starts to count. A LOT!!

I have a 14-year old standard poodle. Her joints are definitely not what they used to be. She always reacts with enthusiasm when the work “walk” is uttered, but once we hit the halfway point, she doesn’t want to stop for anything — she’s ready to go home.