Today’s strip reveals much… Rusty returns from his apple picking to innocently request that his adoptive parents come check out the wonder he has seen…
But look at the scowl on Mark’s face in panel one! Cherry’s pursed lips! It’s like the mere presence of this lad puts them immediately off their feed! The center panel confirms this and reveals a stern and crabby response from Cherry… What is it NOW??? Huh?? The beleaguered Rusty, apparently used to this, simply lowers his visage and beseaches his keepers to stay with him…
Sorry, but for all the ribbing we give him, it appears that Rusty truly does live in a cage, literal or metaphorical…
The Daily Trail 
What do you expect – I think they found the poor little feral lad in the woods….
Well, maybe it’s the environment? Every room in the house probably looks exactly the same: Plain, brown logs. Brown, wooden tables and chairs, brown wooden door. Heck, they even have brown, wooden trees outside! It’s a world of brown; enough to get on anybody’s nerves!
But I’m more curious as to how Cherry grew so tall! Is she taking steroids? She is normally about a foot shorter than Mar (https://thytrailbedone.wordpress.com/2015/12/page/3/).
Well, artistic license, I suppose. Allen had to frame Rusty’s entrance, and it would probably have been to clumsy to show her as “in between” Rusty and Mark.