If you thought Mark’s interrogation of his father and the woman pretending to be Dreama was grating, Jules Rivera decided to give us a double-header. Over the dinner table—against my advice, mind you—Cherry tried to have a talk about Rusty’s impromptu self-pity walk, after avoiding his scout meeting. Over a nice dinner, Cherry went on and on about Rusty standing tall and talking to his friends to sort out the issues. Rusty was still angry that his friends did not stick up for him when Robbie presented Rusty’s nature photo to the scoutmaster (his dad) as his own work, resulting in Rusty getting talked down to by Scoutmaster (Ranger) Shaw.
Rusty was not open to Cherry’s advice, claiming it would make him look weak and not solve any problems. I think he was wrong, but then, he’s just eleven, right? However, Rusty got more obstinate, finally abandoning the dinner and storming off outside.
While moping outside in the dark, Rusty saw another raccoon, which he took to be Rocky, his raccoon friend from the walk. Rivera’s text gave us the impression that this really is Rocky, which could not be true, since the troop meeting was some distance away. As Rusty fed the raccoon, another one showed up. “More friends!” Where this story is heading, I don’t know. Does Rusty get attacked and bitten? Does Cherry come out with a broom or a bat and scare off the raccoons? We may have to wait another two or three weeks to find out.
Well, hooray for screen captures and graphics editing tools! Too bad there were no better images of Mark available, so they had to be drawn free-hand. This strip might have a better air of authenticity if Rivera tried to equalize the drawing styles of Mark and the mountain lions to look like they came from the same hand. We can only stand back and enjoy all of the detail in the panels.
If I were to hazard an observation, it would that Jules Rivera is likely channeling Jack Elrod, as far as the images of Mark are concerned (especially panels 6 and 7). But I am disappointed that Mark suggests that we let the mountain lion escape if we encounter one on a hike. I don’t know about you, but I thought it would be fun to just grab it, give it a good hug, and take it home for a pet. I mean, one can only appreciate cute kittens for so long. And what could be a better mouser for your house than a mountain lion?
Okay, so I’m a bit sarcastic today.
The Daily Trail 
The mountain lion goes by many different names? Sounds pretty sketchy to me. Are they running some kind of con?
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I had an appointment in a building where the instructions were weird because the practice is amazingly bad at communicating. In the elevator, there was a paper sign up with the floors & what was on each. Except that the horizontal lines were between the floors and what was on them, so of course I misread it.
Point is, 13 meters is a really big mountain lion.
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A paper floor directory? Sounds like a cheap landlord. No wonder they mislabled the floors!
But, to be fair, I think she was referring to the leaping length, not the body’s length. Otherwise, I agree. Still, 13 meters (@45 feet) is quite a distance for a jump. I meant to look it up last night, but forgot. So here is what I found, after consulting several nature sites (including Dept of Interior):
Mountain lions can jump 15 to 18 feet vertically and 30 to @40/45 feet horizontally (in a running leap). Some go 40 and some go 45. That’s the difference of a meter and change. The vertical jump is mostly for climbing trees. Either way, sounds like bad news for the pursued.
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Sure, Mark was talking about the leap. But that’s not what she drew.
I shake my cane at this world where instead of clearly labelled controls, there are a multitude of buttons with inscrutable symbols and the manual is poorly written for a different model than I purchased.
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