That’s a lot of sea slugs! And, boy howdy, did I learn some neat and crazy animals facts today!

And you wonder why Mark leaves Lost Forest whenever possible.

Just something that David Beglinger, a Facebook/Comics Curmudgeon fan, has a number of inspirational thoughts (and googly eyes) up his sleeve)…

Face it. Everything is better with googly eyes!!!

A journey to the heights of the Himalayas is not going to prepare itself, you know. And some folks just cannot go along –but Cherry and Rusty will have loads of fun!

There are others who resent being left behind…

While others, after the Chiricahua debacle, do some fancy, quick thinking…

…another item scratched off my Bucket List (I’ve got a Bucket List?!??). Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, and Mammalogy field trips to the Petrified Forest, and… ONYCHOMYS!!!

Okay, here’s the whole Sunday strip, featuring that voracious little carnivore, the grasshopper mouse!

..at least until Mark’s editor from Wilderness & Wildlife, or Woozy & Weird, or Whatever the Hell It Is, Bill, calls him. Can it be that there’s a hot new assignment for Mark, when he’s been home for only a few days? What’ll Cherry do without him? And what about Rusty? AND WHAT ABOUT THE MAMA COUGAR???

Heck, maybe Mark might give this assignment a pass!

Hmmm. Looks like Mark’s gonna have a lot of convincing…

Mark can hardly catch a break…Cherry really rubs it in, that remedial Rusty does very well reading snarky comments about the comic strips, up to and including Mark’s own strips! How’s that for respect?!??

Poor Mark! To come home, only to have a cougar squatting on the front porch AND discovering that Rusty is smart (sort of) enough to read the comics. Will the horror never end?

…when you come home from a business trip…or even a vacation!…and wish you could sit back and relax….

….and you don’t even know where Rusty is.

(There was all sorts of neat action with an ol’ grizzly and a mama cougar and her baby while Mark was coming home from Arizona, too!)

And I think I forgot to welcome Mark home!

…one of those days, and sometimes you can’t get away from them.

(But sometimes it’s kind cute….)