For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 27, 2024

My moms male cat used to climb on top of the female cat, but he had no idea why or what to do now. He looked so confused.

When we had our cat fixed, they kept the cat overnight after the operation. I have no idea why you would keep a dog overnight for a morning operation. Also, our kitty had a cone of shame to make sure she did not mess with the surgery spot. I kind of wish Edgar had one of those. It would be funny.

John sat in the vet’s office in his bathrobe—and he thinks Edgar is ignorant??

Male cat downstairs was grooming our female kitten. But the day we brought her home from the vet, she romped over to him as usual and he swatted her away. Talk about a confused look on our kitten.

Edgar just happy to see one of his favourite humans that’s all.

Personnally, I’d be happy too…

Finnegan was neutered when he was a puppy. He’s 11 now. One of his favorite activities, still, is molesting his stuffed animal toys.

When our cat Mischief had an operation the staff asked me if I wanted pain medicine for him. I couldn’t believe that wasn’t an automatic thing! They said some people just couldn’t afford it. Pain meds should be included in the price no matter what. I was with that vet for my kitty’s first year just because it was the closest. Then Mischief got really sick. I cannot recall what that vet said it was, but I do remember them saying it wasn’t serious and it would pass. That was on Thursday. On Saturday he got worse. That vet was closed. I went to another vet that had weekend hours. The other vets had misdiagnosed him. The magnesium in our local water was making him sick. Mischief got bottled water and special food for the rest of his (not nearly long enough) life. The price for all of his visits between the two vets was over $1100. Thankfully I has pet insurance and my out of pocket expense was $200. Still a lot of money, but he was family. One of my bosses overheard me telling a coworker and he said no cat was worth spending that much on, but a do was worth it. I asked him what kind of dog he had. It wound up being a chihuahua! I was like my cat is more of a dog than that thing. Back to Mischief. His yearly shots were covered 100%. His annual check-ups were 80% covered. His getting sick wound up offsetting what I paid in insurance for almost his whole life. Then he got sick out of the blue. He had had his yearly just a few weeks prior. Everything was fine. Then he had a bloody stool and was acting wrong. I called a mobile vet service (it was a new thing for our area and the paper had just done a story on them) because I didn’t want to scare him with a car ride when he was already feeling bad. They said it they would be here in 30 minutes. 3 hours later we gave up and took him in the car. I can still remember my daughter crying from the back seat, ‘Mommy he’s not breathing!".

Where’s the lampshade?

From Lynn’s Comments: One thing that always surprised me was how resilient and up beat our patients were after surgery. Dogs recover from some of the most serious operations with cheerful and friendly behavior—masking any pain they might be in. They are far more active than you’d expect them to be. Perhaps it’s a way to survive in the wild.

I remember when we brought our cat Rico home after his “snipping”. He spent the entire day curled up on the bed with me. He didn’t want me to leave his side.

Would that be a pile of post op meds on the counter? (Not a pet owner so just asking)

That’s how you know a woman writes this comic – NO male is going to feel like wagging his tail after that operation.

My vote is that John is wearing what we used to call an overcoat in Michigan. I’ve heard them called trench coats, too…though I don’t know what a “Trench” is. They fell out of favor for quite some time…I never owned one, nor did any of my friends own one. They were bulky and heavy, and most of us didn’t need that much protection from the elements to necessitate one. I do know, though, if any of my friends or I owned one, none of us would have had a purple one!

He probably wasn’t overtly aware of it in the first place.

Boy [no pun intended], everyone seems rather crabby this morning. Amazing how just the idea of a male animal getting “snipped” makes some feel so defensive. I imagine if the dog were a female, the comments would be much more positive — when females “get their tubes tied” [spade] no one ever seems to worry about her potential loss of a love life. People just accept it that the operation is done to prevent more babies/puppies/kittens — regardless of the pain and expense involved, it is done for practical reasons — to prevent females from having more kids [the same reason “snipping” is done]. I wonder why “snipping” a male is seen as such a crisis in his life. Maybe if we didn’t call it neutering.

Not neccessarily. You just won’t get a visit from the irate pure bred poodle owner – “DO You Know What Your Dog Did To My Fifi?”

Back then you only got the cone of shame if the dog was chewing on them most dogs didn’t none of mine did they give it a couple licks and they were done none of them chewed the stitches out so you only got a head cone if your dog was being particularly bad about it

Edgar’s just over ten months old and according to a quick web search ten months is toward the end of the bell curve for when male dogs achieve sexual maturity (the other end is seven months) so it’s over for him before it began.

Incidentally, the same search suggests that most vets recommend waiting till a large breed male is at least eighteen months old before neutering.

IT’s a hap-hap-happy day—-skoodle—oodle—didle—day….

Now doggie gots to find sumthing else to be licking.

Edgar’s only thoughts are, “I’m hungry!” and “My balls are numb.” I’m surprised that he doesn’t have a cone. Tommy, our cat, wore one for about 10 minutes, it was just enough to distract him from his stitches (really just a glue line).

My black Lab wore his cone for about a day and a half. Never had a problem. Of course, the whole snipping thing didn’t keep him from getting out. Fortifying his pen did.

Ironically, there was the October 1st, 2022 strip where John contradicts himself today:

John: Michael, you broke the law.

Michael: But Dad, it was a protest. We were against a 30% bus fare hike.

John: That is a 10% increase for the next three years. The new fares will double the length of the bus routes. The town council passed that bill this summer.

Michael: Oh, really? I didn’t know.

John: Ignorance is not bliss, Michael. It is DANGEROUS.

Dogs are happy by default, they are lucky, not ignorant ! ;-)

I think he’ll be comatose for a couple of days after surgery

Can’t miss what you never had.

to be clear a vasectomy decreases the efficacy of sex in terms of childbearing (it can be reversed) but does nothing to lessen the pleasure of sex.

Happy, happy. Joy, joy.

Are you next, Dr Patterson?

Surprised that Edgar is so frisky…can’t imagine sitting and wagging his tail is very comfortable. Also surprised there is no cone of shame.

Ignorance is indeed bliss; I love the sensitivity of this strip.