Freefall

Wet dog smell is bad enough, but an alien squid who apparently never bathes? Yeah, no.

The ammonia he constantly exudes keeps him clean (too lazy to look up the strip).

Yeah, but ammonia itself is pretty stinky. Sure, mostly microbe-free, but stinky as all get-out.

Which, in retrospect, makes me wonder just how incredibly delicious Sam is. I mean, I've smelled strong ammonia before, and I sure as heck don't feel like chowing down on anything while smelling it. I can only imagine just how good something must taste to get something to ignore that smell.

^_^ Sorry... if I had properly linked the strip, it would have noted the stinkiness and how Sam doesn't see that as a design flaw, but a feature.

Not entirely certain how most species view the smell of ammonia... my association with it is excreted waste, something generally frowned upon in polite society. But that's also something many animals have less issue with.

Edit: Ask and ye shall receive. Most critters also dislike the scent of ammonia although the reason why puppy pads smell of it is that the animal associates it with a place to eliminate waste.

edited 20th Apr '17 8:13:03 AM by FuzzyBoots

So all those preditors wernt trying to eat Sam.

Oddly enough, for a long time, Emus were believed to be one of the only birds with a sense of smell, although around 2008, researchers showed that brain activity indicated that birds do indeed have a sense of smell. The myth that they didn't basically dates back to John James Audobon, whose experiments failed to produce any evidence that birds paid any attention to scents. More accurately, his experiments were to determine whether vultures were attracted to the smell of rotting carcasses (which they are not), but it got Flanderized to "birds don't have a sense of smell".

What animals have we seen actually trying to eat Sam? I know he complains about cows, but the only evidence I remember in the comic are crickets and the emu, although I'd swear he's gone fishing with a bit of facial tentacle before.

Winston's little dog, as well.

I was never really clear whether that was a "try to eat" situation or a "worry at the ankle of the obvious hostile invader" thing.

Sam's deliciousness may be something exaggerated for comic effect, admittedly.

Ammonia in general is not something that's particularly great for the vast majority of lifeforms on Earth (there are some microbes that can handle it just fine; life always finds a way); I've even been led to believe that one of the evolutions that humanity's ancestors did to help stave off early competition/predators was an increase in the amount of ammonia and other nitric compounds in our urine - we just became too stinky for other animals to want to bother with us.

Well, it's hardly the first time an animal has evolved to use its urine as a defense mechanism.

I do it all the time.

Better way to get out of awkward dates than chewing your arm off.

You evolve to use your urine as a defense mechanism all the time? Uh...

edited 20th Apr '17 4:23:38 PM by TotemicHero

You should see the Lion's expression when the urine stream hits his nose.

Say it with me: Dawwwwwww◊...

I dunno, Winston... seems a bit ambiguous to me.

I might have considered a minor "she's achieving lift with her tail wag" gag.

I can't help but think that a relationship between Winston and Florence is fraught with complications. It can't be completely healthy for him to be dating someone that he can't help but regard as one of his patients. But hey, I really am rooting for them.

I would like to think that he'd start referring her to a different veterinarian (I mean, given what they're trying to do on Jean, it'd be really weird if he were the only vet in his position). As is, large mammalian care isn't his specialty anyway; she really should be seeing someone a bit more knowledgeable about her anatomy.

Well, many a passionate fictional relationship has begun with the Florence Nightingale Effect, even if it's gender-flipped in this case.

edited 21st Apr '17 7:58:19 AM by Fighteer

Doctors of human anatomy must view everyone they're in a relationship with as a patient, but it isn't mentioned as a reason not to date.

Oh, I'm sure he'll be getting very familiar with her anatomy...

I think that they're both quite aware that a possible relationship is fraught with all sorts of complications.

Complicated interactions is what this comic is about.

They were both having doubts right from the very beginning. But neither of them is a quitter.