I am not much of a reader of comics but this caught my eye as Mr B, their bunny passed away. It is tough for me as I have had my cat, Chan, pass away about a month ago and its still hard.
Doubly hard as I do have a pet rabbit and it may hit home in the future - far far future (so I refuse to let my Mrs Bitties see this comic week)
Aprils way of coping mirrors me as I held my Chan as she passed.
Sorry all…needed to say something
Goodbye Mr B. I am sure April will miss you as much as I miss Chanel.
Since I’m Co-owner/servant of Payton el Bun Conover who is well into middle age, since he’s 6 years and 2 months old, the strip was a bit tough to read. But it brought back memories of when Farley died saving April’s life and while that was an awful event, it was also beautiful and extremely touching without being the least bit smarmy.
I remember that. I had a co-worker who was outraged over Farley’s death. She wrote letters to the local paper and to Lynn Johnston. Her complaint? The comics are supposed to be funny and FBOW somehow broke an unspoken contract by making her cry.
I think FBOW does a good job of tackling hard topics in a kind, and sometimes gently humorous, way. I think it can be a good way of introducing topics like pets’ death in a non-threatening way.
Sorry about Chanel, TigoleBitties. I have lost enough pets to know how hard it is.
[hijack]
And ** Global Citizen**, what you said:
is pretty damn snotty. If you want to say something, say it or shut up. If a thread where someone is grieving is not the place to say it (and I think it is not), shut up or start your own thread. Just MHO.
we were discussing this over thanksgiving. having april deal with mr b’s death will help many parents speak about death with their kids. it is always difficult to explain a pet’s death with a child.
one friend of mine has a 2 year old and a 4 year old. this year their dog was diagnosed with cancer and they made the very tough decision to have him put to sleep. the dog was named farley after the dog in fbfw. the two year old talks about farley every day. the four year old doesn’t mention him at all.
she has shown them the mr. b series and they are able to talk about farley and what happened to him.
april was way too young to completely understand farley’s death. his death hit elizabeth and michael harder.
Oh, come on, I bet ya got some hunks of cow, and chicken parts in yers. Jeeze, ya can buy rabbit at the freakin’ Wal-Mart down the street from my house. It’s in the meat section next to the lamb. It’s not like she served him up for dinner or nuthin’. (Damned funny, if you ask me.)
They talked about how elderly he was; they’ve had him for some time now (he was originally Elizabeth’s pet) and they didn’t really know how old he was, since Elizabeth got Mr. B at a trade-swap place (I think). This is really the first time that April has had to deal with death close up; I don’t think that she remembers her maternal grandmother very much. The FBOFW home page is a pretty great site, btw. There are “letters” from each of the main characters every month, that are done in character. Worth checking out if you like the comic.
Yeah, I know about all that. But the hamburger in my freezer came from a supermarket, and those people got it from a meat packer, and presumably everyone in that chain of command took steps to keep the meat free of contamination. Mr. B has been all through the house, picking up people germs and Edgar-the-dog germs and dirt-tracked-into-the-house germs, and sleeping next to his own droppings, and now he’s in the freezer next to the leftover turkey! Brrr…
Today’s strip reminded me of when my gerbil Josie died. It was january and the ground was too hard to dig a grave so my mom put Josie in a Crayola caryon box and stuck it in the freezer. Then my mom’s friend Mrs. Murphy came over and my mom asked her to get something from the freezer. The next sound was a screech.
Obviously, you’ve never talked to anyone who’s worked in a meat packing plant. We haven’t come all that far from the world of Upton Sinclair. Why, yes, I do like my meat well done, thank you. (Besides, she wrapped Mr. B. in a blanket and put him in a box, so he’s probably not contaiminating anything. IAC, it’s not like all the other food is naked in the freezer, it’s got plastic wrap and other such things around it.)
