Housepets!

Oh wow, Poncho knows her! Nice flashback, good that was right Gale who cured him, and at least, we see that Poncho was young when he got that very bad injury (but, how did he got it?). Poor him. No scar on Gale's face, too. Uncle Deadeye has a bandage, so probably, he lost his sight recently before that... Eheh, well, she could stay better than hanging upside down, actually. Come on, now free her, let her free all the wolves, and start a talking all together to peacefully solve your old grudges.

"Soooooooo, while I'm just hangin' around makin' small talk, wolfie, I see you've still got your scar... Wanna ask me about mine??"

fenrirblack wrote:I can’t believe he did it. Rick actually pulled The Transference trope. I would have bet anything that all that speculation about Poncho in a relationship with Gale was pipe dream of epic proportions. Now she’s either going to break his heart or they will end up in heartbreaking situation. I don’t see this ending well.

Champion Wallace wrote:Given that Gale was an adult when Poncho was a pup I'd say he probably doesn't have any romantic interest in Gale and it's more likely he's embarrassed to have plotted against someone who was nice to him as a child. Ya know, its very convenient that there was a plot driven reason for Poncho to be without the poncho that covers up most of his scar right before we see a flashback to how he got his scar...

*cough* I pointed that out the other day *cough*
It’s not unusual for young boys to develop romantic feeling towards “older” women. Whether or not those feeling are “real” or remnants of a time once forgotten now that he is older we shall see.

Excuse me while I faint again from the soul crushing defeat of being wrong about so many things. *collapses*

Sorry for stepping on your line. If you don't mind, could you provide a definition of The Transference trope. I tried googling it but was met with a lot of flak.

NHWestoN wrote:Interesting to see three generations of the Pack - all much younger - in one frame. Nice plot turn, Rick.

Poncho is Jack’s younger brother so there would be only be two generations shown. As he is here Jack looks more like a teenager then a parent or uncle.

AlyxVixen wrote:Did anyone else notice that Jack's ear notch (and possibly missing arm) jumped to his left side during the flashback memory, given it's normally on his right?

Initially I took the third panel as a blatant way of showing Poncho got his scar before Jack lost his arm, but upon further inspection there are multiple interpretations. As you said the ear notch is on the wrong ear. You can still only see one arm on Jack because Poncho is in the way so one interpretation is Poncho's memory mixed up his brother's left and right side so we get no information on if Jack had lost his arm by that point. Something else to note is Jack's tail is normally scraggly but in the flashback its healthy and fluffy. Another interpretation is if whatever scrape Jack lost his arm to also injured his tail then that would lend credence to the theory he still had both arms when Poncho got his scar.

Has Poncho always had that scar in this comic? I totally never noticed it until just now.

I'm confused. Where is Jack in this strip?

I also wonder why Uncle Deadeye has a blindfold on.

Nobody wrote:Has Poncho always had that scar in this comic? I totally never noticed it until just now.

I don't think we've ever seen Poncho without his poncho.

Edit: I found it!

Nobody wrote:Has Poncho always had that scar in this comic? I totally never noticed it until just now.

Yes, he had. In his forth appearance here we see him show it for the first time.

Bill in OK wrote:I'm confused. Where is Jack in this strip?

Jack is the wolf who's rising his right arm saluting Gale, in the third panel. Yeah, he had his right arm and an intact tail back in those days.

Bill in OK wrote:I also wonder why Uncle Deadeye has a blindfold on.

As I've already supposed, I think he has it because he got blind not much time before Poncho's injury. Apparently, it seems because of some bad injury got to the eyes...

Bill in OK wrote:I don't think we've ever seen Poncho without his poncho.

Actually, this is the first time we see him without wear his poncho, but in several previous occasions, we've already got to see his body scar.

Champion Wallace wrote: Sorry for stepping on your line. If you don't mind, could you provide a definition of The Transference trope. I tried googling it but was met with a lot of flak.

It's alright I'm just joking with you.
Anyway Transference is kind of the opposite of the Florence Nightingale effect. It's when a patient falls in love with their health provider like a nurse or therapist. There was an episode of Reba about it. It is Freudian so it's sketchy at best but there is some truth to the trope used in media. It's probably a lot more common in Lifetime movies or soap operas.
If you want a legitimate definition here is one from one of my psychology books. Transference- in psychoanalysis, the patients's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).

Ouch, a gash like that would require advance medical treatment rather then a simple stitch. Glad it did not get infected (i guess she knows about disinfectant and such)

Through the annoying part is that this could be avoided by simply talking.

"hey what are you wolves doing here?"

"oh we're just camping for a short while"

"I dont like that"

"we can work something out"

D-Rock wrote: Title Text: it's not sepia tone because it's the past, it's because it's from a canine-eye perspective

Canine vision encompasses roughly the same color spectrum as ours, it's just a bit more blurry around the edges.

Liam wrote:

D-Rock wrote: Title Text: it's not sepia tone because it's the past, it's because it's from a canine-eye perspective

Canine vision encompasses roughly the same color spectrum as ours, it's just a bit more blurry around the edges.

Well, there's an answer for that. https://youtu.be/cxLEOcTrO_Q
I mean, it was meant to be cheeky.

Liam wrote:

D-Rock wrote: Title Text: it's not sepia tone because it's the past, it's because it's from a canine-eye perspective

Canine vision encompasses roughly the same color spectrum as ours, it's just a bit more blurry around the edges.

Dogs are dichromats, they have two kinds of cones as opposed to the three kinds most humans (and other trichromats) have.

"Most" humans because a lot of people have only two kinds of cones, or have a defective opsin in one of their cones that duplicates the effect of red cones, so they're dichromats.

Incidentally, some humans are tetrachromat. They have four kinds of cones and can see colors that we are blind to. Because it is so rare (only two individuals have been identified that can probably distinguish colors based on all four cone types), there are no names for these colors.

Birds are tetrachromat too, and in addition their extra cone type extends into the ultraviolet. The only known mammal that can match this is the reindeer. That's a useful plot token for those of you with avian or reindeer fursonas.

Wait if wolves can see red then that would mean that the brown around Ponchos scar when he’s being sowed up is blood.

Something that’s been bothering me is something Wallace said about King’s story and I think he’s right. King has had literally no purpose in this chapter other than a Vechile to move the plot. It was his suggestion that inspired the camping but beyond that he’s only served as comic relief. So going on that idea it makes perfect sense that King’s story was in fact a message about what happened to Poncho.

Look at the scar. I think If an animal did that they would have to literally have dragged a claw through Poncho's flesh to get it to be that big and long and curve it around his side like that. And it’s only one so unless someone used a blade to carve Poncho it must have been some kind of accident. Given his age it most likely was during his coming of age test. Of course that still doesn’t explain what happened to Jacks arm or Gale’s face. I can think of a hundred theories from being crushed by a rock to territorial disputes. Given the other injuries they all have the best explanation would be that living in the wild truly does suck.

I still stand by my theory that there is history between Gale and the wolves that extends past her medical treatment. Whether it was territory or some kind of betrayal we have yet to see.

Whoa I just noticed that it’s raining. I thought that was the cave wall but it’s not. That would imply that Gale may have stumbled upon Poncho and treated him on the spot. Not because it’s her job or anything but out of the goodness of her heart. Maternal instinct maybe? Which means she may have stumbled on him and dragged him to that cave where she sowed him up. Poncho is wet so he was out in the rain for a period of time which further indicates that it was some kind of accident.

Something else I thought about that kind of funny is when Fox was kidnapped and said that he didn’t want to be feral because he did not want to bleed out and die whenever he got injured. This strip made me think of that.

Why Uncle Deadeye? Of all the wolves why him? Why would he go with Jack to get Poncho? Uncle Deadeye is Miles Uncle. I don’t think Jack would have married Elaine at this point which is how I thought Jack and Poncho ended up in the pack in the first place but this puts a new twist on things. It actually shows how very little we know about how the pack came to be. Jack and Poncho might have come before Elaine and Lucretia and it was because of Jack that Miles ended up with Lucretia. This is why backstory matters!

fenrirblack wrote:Wait if wolves can see red then that would mean that the brown around Ponchos scar when he’s being sowed up is blood.

Something that’s been bothering me is something Wallace said about King’s story and I think he’s right. King has had literally no purpose in this chapter other than a Vechile to move the plot. It was his suggestion that inspired the camping but beyond that he’s only served as comic relief. So going on that idea it makes perfect sense that King’s story was in fact a message about what happened to Poncho.

Look at the scar. I think If an animal did that they would have to literally have dragged a claw through Poncho's flesh to get it to be that big and long and curve it around his side like that. And it’s only one so unless someone used a blade to carve Poncho it must have been some kind of accident. Given his age it most likely was during his coming of age test. Of course that still doesn’t explain what happened to Jacks arm or Gale’s face. I can think of a hundred theories from being crushed by a rock to territorial disputes. Given the other injuries they all have the best explanation would be that living in the wild truly does suck.

I still stand by my theory that there is history between Gale and the wolves that extends past her medical treatment. Whether it was territory or some kind of betrayal we have yet to see.

Whoa I just noticed that it’s raining. I thought that was the cave wall but it’s not. That would imply that Gale may have stumbled upon Poncho and treated him on the spot. Not because it’s her job or anything but out of the goodness of her heart. Maternal instinct maybe? Which means she may have stumbled on him and dragged him to that cave where she sowed him up. Poncho is wet so he was out in the rain for a period of time which further indicates that it was some kind of accident.

Something else I thought about that kind of funny is when Fox was kidnapped and said that he didn’t want to be feral because he did not want to bleed out and die whenever he got injured. This strip made me think of that.

Why Uncle Deadeye? Of all the wolves why him? Why would he go with Jack to get Poncho? Uncle Deadeye is Miles Uncle. I don’t think Jack would have married Elaine at this point which is how I thought Jack and Poncho ended up in the pack in the first place but this puts a new twist on things. It actually shows how very little we know about how the pack came to be. Jack and Poncho might have come before Elaine and Lucretia and it was because of Jack that Miles ended up with Lucretia. This is why backstory matters!

As for Uncle Deadeye ~ it's pretty much indicating that Jack and Poncho have known the pack for a long time from this picture and they have been moving in with Elaine at this point. i'm also speculating that Jack at this point lost his arm when him and Elaine eloped. Why they eloped though is another story.

As far as the scars go, i was going to say something along the lines of humans attacking them since most of the scars look like swipe marks, but i'm starting to think with this comic here that these look more like natural outdoor scars and may have happened because of scraping in general. Maybe a nasty scrape from falling or being blinded by something.

I'm too use to those stories that cats and dogs see black and white. I like this color. More realistic. Cats are supposedly looking at the world these days like we're in a fish bowl from my understanding. x3

fenrirblack wrote:Wait if wolves can't see red then that would mean that the brown around Ponchos scar when he’s being sowed up is blood.

Fixed!

fenrirblack wrote:Whoa I just noticed that it’s raining. I thought that was the cave wall but it’s not. That would imply that Gale may have stumbled upon Poncho and treated him on the spot. Not because it’s her job or anything but out of the goodness of her heart. Maternal instinct maybe? Which means she may have stumbled on him and dragged him to that cave where she sowed him up. Poncho is wet so he was out in the rain for a period of time which further indicates that it was some kind of accident.

It is raining kinda hard out there and Gale doesn't have a drop on her. It might be because of the art style, but I take it to mean Poncho came to her and she didn't leave the cave. I don't know if this is relevant, but the cave she is shown in here is different then the one she was hanging out around present day. Here there is flat ground around the cave, but in her introduction she was by a cave on a hill with the ground sloping away. Maybe one of those isn't her home or maybe when the wolf pack left she moved into the wolf's cave.

fenrirblack wrote:Why Uncle Deadeye? Of all the wolves why him? Why would he go with Jack to get Poncho? Uncle Deadeye is Miles Uncle. I don’t think Jack would have married Elaine at this point which is how I thought Jack and Poncho ended up in the pack in the first place but this puts a new twist on things. It actually shows how very little we know about how the pack came to be. Jack and Poncho might have come before Elaine and Lucretia and it was because of Jack that Miles ended up with Lucretia. This is why backstory matters!

One thing to remember is Elaine and Jack eloped so that meant Elaine's mother either didn't get to know Jack enough or she got to know him too much. I don't think this is how it works in wild, but it could be possible most of the wolfs we see in the comic lived together in the woods around Babylon Gardens peacefully even before they were all related to each other. A third possibility is something a little unsavory but I'm still surprised I've never seen suggested, that is maybe the wolf pack has it's share of inbreeding. I'm not saying I believe this, but it's not impossible for Deadeye to be Jack and Poncho's father or something.

Argent wrote:"Most" humans because a lot of people have only two kinds of cones, or have a defective opsin in one of their cones that duplicates the effect of red cones, so they're dichromats.

Incidentally, some humans are tetrachromat. They have four kinds of cones and can see colors that we are blind to. Because it is so rare (only two individuals have been identified that can probably distinguish colors based on all four cone types), there are no names for these colors.

Birds are tetrachromat too, and in addition their extra cone type extends into the ultraviolet. The only known mammal that can match this is the reindeer. That's a useful plot token for those of you with avian or reindeer fursonas.

Human tetrachromats don't actually see more colors per se; rather, they have an easier time distinguishing between colors. Indeed, color blind people still see the full spectrum, but they struggle to distinguish between various shades.

Human tetrachromats in particular are not exactly remarkable. Their "tetrachromat" nature is simply because they have slightly mutated genes, so they have two sets of receptors which are very close but not quite identical, which gives them somewhat better color resolution. They don't really see more colors, because the two receptors are both coding for the same "color", but the slight differences between them give them better ability to distinguish between colors in certain parts of the spectrum.

Ultraviolet and infrared, on the other hand, are indeed things outside of the usual bands of colors; however, it isn't really clear how they'd be interpreted. Humans can actually see UV light (well, some of it, anyway); there's a portion of the UV spectrum which human eyes will react to, but which ordinarily don't because the lens absorbs it. If you remove the lens, the UV light can get through and people can see it - it looks blue, because it is absorbed by the receptor which absorbs blue light. This is why Monet started painting some white flowers with a bluish tint after his lens was removed to deal with his cataracts.

It isn't really clear what a true tetrachromat would see, and whether the color spectrum would actually seem like it would have additional colors in it, or if they would simply be better at distinguishing shades like human tetrachromats (but with even better resolution).

So that's where the scar came from.... huh...

Titanium Dragon wrote:Human tetrachromats don't actually see more colors per se; rather, they have an easier time distinguishing between colors. Indeed, color blind people still see the full spectrum, but they struggle to distinguish between various shades.

Colors are not points on a spectrum.

There is already one color that humans can see that is not "on the spectrum". Purple can't be found in the rainbow. It's not something you can map to a frequency of light: it's a combination of peaks near each end of the spectrum that can not be duplicated by any single frequency. It is literally a pigment of the imagination.

It's supposedly possible to fake the effect of purple with low-intensity near-ultraviolet, but if you raise the intensity of the light it is revealed as an optical illusion, it was just a very dark blue. It's even arguable that this is a trained response, that this alleged dark purple we refer to as "violet" is not actually in the spectrum... it's just placed there to satisfy the narrative that all colors are in the rainbow.

Tetrachromats would be able distinguish other combinations of peaks that trichromats (whether biological eyes or digital cameras no matter how accurate) couldn't tell from a monochromatic source. If these are not "colors" then neither is purple.

I assumed Jack and Elaine eloped because Elaine's mother knew Jack ONLY TOOOOO WELL ! .....

NHWestoN wrote:I assumed Jack and Elaine eloped because Elaine's mother knew Jack ONLY TOOOOO WELL ! .....

And we know she's phenomenally strong. Perhaps she 'wounded' Jack?

CHAOKOCartoons wrote:It may seem kinda small but has anyone noticed gale seems to have a lot of human tools? She has a spade, she has a first aid kit, rope, assumedly a shovel considering the giant pit (or she's just a really really good spader which honestly I'd believe). It's probably from campers leaving stuff behind (hopefully), but it's an interesting character quirk. She also seems pretty handy with em, learning how to stitch a wound isn't the simplest thing to safely learn on your own.

Also, clever censor there Rick

So, my guess is that Gale and the wolves had a good relationship at one time. Gale's proficiency in human tools might be an indication of former domestication. What if she and the wolves were, say, I dunno, in a zoo together and somehow broke out of the exhibit? Or, at the very least, Gale did. It would explain why, at a relatively "young" age, she would know how to use medical equipment, simply by watching the vet tech at the zoo.

Normally I wouldn't jump to such wild conclusions, but Rick is known to give us foreshadowing at the beginning of an arc, and he mentions two things in a throwaway fashion. The first is the implication of "cat lover," which may be more than just coincidence of having her on screen, (but that's already been discussed to death in this plot thread). The other is "zoo exhibit." Hmmmmmm.....

It's quite possible that Jack's arm loss might have caused some other issues down the line, perhaps even something Poncho hadn't heard about (thus the garbage disposal story), but at this point in their "flashback history," whatever soured their relationship hadn't happened yet. Gale seems genuinely surprised to see Poncho but not at all when she sees Jack, and given her proficiency in sewing wounds, I wouldn't be surprised if Gale saved Jack in a similar manner - he certainly didn't get it sewn up at a vet's office.... This is a huge indication of what may have actually occurred down the line.

If sepia is dog vision, then suddenly Lackadaisy gets very bizarre.

Perhaps, with her demonstrated surgical skills, our favorite Puma was formerly known as "Flower-ence Nighting GALE" ... ?!

Why Poncho is blushing in the last panel ? Having some feelings for Gale ?

Xane wrote:As far as I know, there has never been any indication of who Uncle Deadeye is releated to, not even in alt-text or the descriptions from the old website. The only indication we've seen at all is Natalie clinging to him for protection and I'd say even that is barely canon since Natalie's current abrasive personality doesn't show any indication of being shy around strangers (unless they're really really attractive).

Miles/Daryl/Daryl and Lucretia's Mom/Lucretia/Elaine seem to be the original pack. Jack married Elaine and brought Poncho with him. Rodney/Snow/Uncle Deadeye/Natalie are unknowns.

That doesn't indicate one way or another whether they knew each other before they became a full pack together. They could have all been members of neighboring packs in the past. Jack and Poncho could have been transients with no pack. We just don't know yet.

Actually there are a few. First being the obvious “uncle” which comes to make sense when you see Miles refer to “cousin Rodney” then there is the biggest where Snow and Rodney’s cub called Deadeye “grandpa .” Natalie is the biggest unknown but due to her coloring and relation to Deadeye they must be related.

Argent wrote:There is already one color that humans can see that is not "on the spectrum". Purple can't be found in the rainbow. It's not something you can map to a frequency of light: it's a combination of peaks near each end of the spectrum that can not be duplicated by any single frequency. It is literally a pigment of the imagination.

One color? There's lots of colors not in the spectrum.

Look at a rainbow. There's no pink. That's because pink isn't on the spectrum.

Same goes for black, white, and gray.

The issue is the neurology of it.

Birds are true tetrachromats with four distinct peaks.

Human tetrachromats, however, have a putation on the classical type 2 opsin genes OPN1MW and OPN1MW2. The problem is that cones for both of these mutants are for the M/γ cones - in other words, they both peak in green, with pretty close peaks. While having both types of cones would allow you greater color resolution, think about how it would look neurologically - those cones are both "green" signals. While it might be possible to do a better job of distinguishing between colors, there's no reason to believe that you'd be able to "see" extra colors that others couldn't.

Conversely, tetrachromatic birds, having four distinct cone types, probably do see colors differently from humans, as it is likely that the cones have been programmed to "look" different in the brain, so to speak.

Argent wrote:It's supposedly possible to fake the effect of purple with low-intensity near-ultraviolet, but if you raise the intensity of the light it is revealed as an optical illusion, it was just a very dark blue. It's even arguable that this is a trained response, that this alleged dark purple we refer to as "violet" is not actually in the spectrum... it's just placed there to satisfy the narrative that all colors are in the rainbow.

UV light looks bluish-white or violet-white, because all of the cones are sensitive to it, but blue cones are more sensitive to it. A mixture of all colors is interpreted as white, or as being a light shade.

You're correct. technically there's no definitive proof about Deadeye's relationship when Miles's cubs call him "Uncle Deadeye" and Rodney's cub calls him "Grampa Deadeye", but it's generally a bad idea to assume that an author who is deliberately making this distinction in his work is doing so to obfuscate rather than enlighten

Panther wrote:Why Poncho is blushing in the last panel ? Having some feelings for Gale ?

The slang for Older Women, in that regard, is Cougar.

Well there's Poncho's scar, and Jack still has his arm... I keep getting the in impression there's a romance plot or something like that that we're missing here...

I do like how it was North Star who helped catch her and gets to be smug about it. I was really hoping this wouldn't be another "smart elders teach kids a lesson" cliche: too many of those these days...

Poncho could indeed be "crushing on a cougar" like Linus on his teacher, Ms.Othmar. Or maybe he's embarrassed by the way he's treated his former benefactor and the insipidity of his own question to the ensared Puma ("Well, so besides that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?").

my guess to the first aid kit, campers or something a prepper or military camp/installation left behind. It looks rather old, like early 1900's As for know how, my guess its the same as to how humans figured it out. I wonder if that is honey on his wound? pure raw honey, for those who don't know is a wonderful anti-microbial.

Titanium Dragon wrote:

Argent wrote:There is already one color that humans can see that is not "on the spectrum". Purple can't be found in the rainbow. It's not something you can map to a frequency of light: it's a combination of peaks near each end of the spectrum that can not be duplicated by any single frequency. It is literally a pigment of the imagination.

One color? There's lots of colors not in the spectrum.

Look at a rainbow. There's no pink. That's because pink isn't on the spectrum.

OK, I get your point about the neurological effect of multiple dyes in green cones, and I don't know enough about the development of the structures involved to argue one way or the other.

But pink is still not like purple. Neither are shades of grey. These are different levels of saturation of a single color, you can create a pink with a single peak. Purple requires two.

Also, I wasn't talking about ultraviolet, I was talking about violet - the end of the visible spectrum near ultraviolet. My point is that it's not purple. The rainbow is depicted with a "purple" in that area, but what's there isn't actually a purple.

Since Gale is apparently older than Poncho, if she falls for him...

Would that make her a cougar? X3

*stoned to death with bricks*

Douglas Collier wrote:Since Gale is apparently older than Poncho, if she falls for him...

Would that make her a cougar? X3

*stoned to death with bricks*

Being a Collier, would you have preferred coal?

How much do we know about Miles? Right now whatever is going on has Gale stuck between Poncho and Miles. Right now my theory is this is about something that happened before and it had something to do with territory. My guess the wolves fought Gale for something like land or space. That leads to this question, did Poncho know or know about Gale before this? Did any of the wolves?

The other side of that is if this is about territory (and honestly I don’t think it is) then why go through so much trouble to keep around the very ones that you want to leave? If this was about territory in the beginning I don’t think it is now.

Yamitora1 wrote:my guess to the first aid kit, campers or something a prepper or military camp/installation left behind. It looks rather old, like early 1900's As for know how, my guess its the same as to how humans figured it out. I wonder if that is honey on his wound? pure raw honey, for those who don't know is a wonderful anti-microbial.

Huh, I was thinking that the color of whatever that was was to hide that it's blood. Rick has yet to show that much, think all I saw was a nosebleed, but you can't really show the gravity of the wound without the blood. So I was imagining that the sepia filter was also to hide that. I'm aware of a game that needed to lower its rating, and the developers decided to add a gray filter to all of the kill scenes.

They were able to lower the rating to M with this method.

Dang, that wound
For a second, in the second panel, I thought an organ or a bone was out
But it's just scarred fur. I'm relieved ^^ But still, poor Poncho...
Also, it was well-planned of Rick to hide Poncho's scar (with his... poncho) to eventually reveal it much later as a backstory element. I just thought Poncho was into ponchos. XD