One of the simple joys in my life has always been reading the comics. Peanuts was my first great love, though I’ve always had a particular soft spot in my heart for the earliest strips, where Snoopy still walked on all fours and acted like a dog. Later, I fell for the family strip For Better or Worse and the ever-popular Calvin and Hobbes. But one strip has almost taken the space in my heart formerly reserved for Good Ol’ Charlie Brown: Mutts by Patrick McDonnell.
Mutts is a simple strip. A gentle strip. It features two animal friends, Earl the dog and Mooch the cat, and an assortment of their friends, both animal and human. It doesn’t stray into political issues or pop culture- though animal welfare is always front and center, from the yearly “Shelter Stories” that encourage pet adoption to frequent calls to make “humane choices” when eating (I have not yet gotten on board with the Vegetarian Agenda, however). In short, Mutts is a joy to read, a treat for the heart.
