Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for November 19, 2023

That caterpillar will show you!

“Someone whispered in my ear, ’You’re a butterfly . . . and butterflies are free to fly, fly away.’” —Elton John

Milk no fly. But butter fly. Haw haw.

Don’t worry. Soon, that caterpillar would become a beautiful butterfly. (I hope).

Rat always tries to pupa on someone’s parade

I am a butterfly / NO, YOU ARE A MOTH!

It doesn’t think about it. It doesn’t talk about it. It just does it.

And they only live….what….4 months ?

But the beautiful butterfly ended up in the net of somebody that thought it would be cool to keep. The caterpillar didn’t.

Anything that is able to disassemble itself at the cellular / molecular level into a soup of “imaginal cells,” and then reassemble itself into a completely different being has my awe and respect.

Pig tries to show Rat the sunny side of life, but he prefers the shade!

Apparently life is all about timing and perspective.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. ~ Maya Angelou

The caterpillars will metamorpihize into butterflies, one day. They don’t need to cope with anything.

I suppose for a caterpillar, it’s eat, sleep, and fly.

Interesting switch to Pig and Rat in the last frame.

Should have been named “flutterbys”

Is that a bright elusive butterfly?

Moral: We all have potential.

It gets better.

They don’t have free will just like the rest of us.

Another home run Steph, a home run.

Beer: Simplest coping mechanism EVER!!

Google Maps gave me an idea … Pin it.

Butterflies are fascinating. I used to collect the cocoons and hatch them. It’s an amazing thing to witness.

A lesson in perspective

Just be sure to give them plenty of space to hatch and expand their wings. They often need more room than you think.

When we get out of the cartoon-within-a-cartoon and get back to the real Rat and Pig, the comic gets dark and depressing….

By being so poisonous, foul-tasting, spikey, irritating, or smelly that nothing wants to eat them.