Glad I’m not the only one! The only thing I can guess is that while he was up there cleaning the gutters, so many leaves fell and well, that’s the best I got.
Not to nitpick about a cartoon about dogs but how it that a futon? It looks like a dog bed/blanket to me. A futon is a mattress on a metal or wooden frame that can go from being a couch to a bed.
Since it’s not a play on the joke in the column, how did ANY editor not catch that cord was spelled wrong?