Okay, Cherry has a point:  Meat sources attract various animals, even bears. Bad news! But Cherry can also be blamed for not taking better measures to reduce animal attacks, such as locking down the bins, fencing them off, or even possibly making more balanced mixes of compost material to minimize smells. Will this point of contention (or one like it) come out in the story this week?

Sure, we can criticize Rivera for not appearing to know about these things, but that might not be the case. We must consider this situation from the viewpoint of plot. It was clear early on that Violet’s unusual fried chicken binging was emphasized for a reason; and that reason was to enable this conflict between the two women and the composting project. Stories need conflict.

This bear-attacks-compost plot device reminds me of Mark’s earlier dealing with a bear snacking in unsecured garbage bins at a mountain retreat site (see the strips for March 17 and 18, 2023 in the “Bear Necessity” adventure).

Otherwise, I’m waiting to see Cherry’s fluency in “Bear-speak.” And that may be a fact, as many of us should recall seeing (in reprint) early strips (April 1946) by Ed Dodd of Cherry Davis playing with her pet bear, only to have Mark arrive on scene thinking she needs to be saved.