No, my sister Linda did not get me a ferret for my birthday, although she’s been threatening to for years. I’m hoping she’s let go of that dream at this point (doubtful, if you’ve been following her posts in the comments for the past several strips), but since I was afraid this strip might make her act on those thoughts, I made sure to release this one after my birthday had passed. And although I didn’t get a ferret (whew!) I did get a new angry scarf. Sweet!

And as far as “Abraxas” goes, the closest I’ve come to a pet with that name is a humpback whale I adopted in college through the Adopt A Whale program, which, although it’s a great program and I recommend it highly, could not guarantee a happy ending for poor Abraxas. I’ll just leave it at that. 🙁