Excitement in Lost Forest continued this past week as Mark and Ranger Shaw surveyed the abandoned e-waste in a clearing of Lost Forest. You could hear the teeth gnashing. Mark was in his element, taking charge of a case of illegal dumping in Lost Forest, even though legal authority likely rested with the all-too-compliant ranger.

Jules Rivera filled in a few plot holes for us as Mark revealed that Rusty had, indeed, been digging! Apparently, this spade work must have happened “after hours”, when cartoonist Rivera had quit work for the day to visit the beach and didn’t get around to drawing Rusty’s digging until later in the week.

Talking to Ranger Shaw, Mark relayed that Rusty claimed Robbie (who is the ranger’s son!) had buried his broken game controllers in the area. After enjoying the burn on Ranger Shaw’s face, Mark admitted that Rusty had also been involved. Just two dads, commiserating over their juvenile delinquent kids.

But Mark must have sniffed something wrong, as he began to interrogate Ranger Shaw on whether he had seen anybody in the area. Rivera made a point of showing Ranger Shaw looking guilty as he forced out an odd denial. Yet, nothing was made of it. The week ended as the two walked into the debris area to look for clues. No doubt, at least one piece of abandoned equipment will have a label that reads “If lost or illegally dumped in a forest, call 999-555-1234. Ask for Elmo.”

Let’s see … last Sunday Mark got in his talk on e-waste, stealing Rusty’s thunder. This week, it’s beavers.

Rivera devoted a Sunday to the beaver’s rodent cousin, the muskrat back in December 2022, where Mark compared the two animals and tried to make the case that they are both “engineers”, but in different ways. But she also did a Sunday on beavers back in May 2022, which has a little bit of overlap with this one. Some of you might recall that beavers became an involuntary aid to Mark in the “Oregon Trails” story at the time.