TDPAA = ADAPT

TOBUA = ABOUT

HOYTER = THEORY

SPULCT = SCULPT

CARTOON ANSWER:

WHEN FIREFIGHTERS RESCUED THE KITTENS FROM A TREE, THEY AVERTED A – – –

APAOTHERSCT = “CAT-ASTROPHE”

Good morning Jumble friends and happy Monday! If you do the Jumble during the weekend, you’ll no doubt remember Saturday’s puzzle which had a very challenging surprise answer paired with a stellar cartoon. If you happened to skip it, do yourself a favor and seek it out. It was so much fun that you don’t want to miss out!

Monday’s are usually a cakewalk, so with that mindset I began my solve. The first two clue words were no trouble whatsoever. THEORY took only a few seconds to decipher and ended up being my pick for the most difficult anagram of the day. If you had trouble solving it, my suggestion would be that when you see a “Y” in a Jumble, you should try making words that end in “Y”. Of course it doesn’t always work, but if your drawing a blank it doesn’t hurt to give it a try. Moving along to the final clue word, the S and T were in their correct location making SCULPT instantly visible. And just as quick as I began, I was ready to venture over to the cartoon.

The setting for today’s panel is a scene that really warms your heart but in reality very rarely occurs. We see a firefighter climbing up a ladder to rescue a kitten that’s “stuck” in a tree while the other firefighter hands one over to its owner that’s just been “saved”. The owner in this case is a stereotypical “cat lady” that looks a bit crazy standing there in her house lounger dress and slippers. She’s thankful to have her fur-babies back and maybe this time she’ll keep a closer eye on them.

My favorite detail of this piece was very small but definitely caught my eye. If you look at the right arm of the firefighter on the ground you’ll notice that he has an American flag patch on his arm. Some might think that Jeff made a boo-boo by having drawn it backwards, but you’d be incorrect! The flag displayed on the right shoulder of a uniform must ALWAYS have the blue star field be in the highest position of honor which is towards the front. An easy way to think of it is by thinking of the patch not as a “patch” but as a loose flag attached to his arm like one on a flagpole. As the firefighter walks forward, the blue star field advances first leaving the red and white stripes to flow to the back. Great job, Jeff!!!

The solution to this jumble was an instant solve for me after reading the dialogue and sentence. The letter layout definitely kept the answer well hidden, but the visual clues were more than enough to get the job done.

Lastly, it’s the beginning of a new month so that means it’s time for another prize giveaway! The prize this month is going to be fantastic so keep an eye on the homepage where I’ll post all the details later today. Have a marvelous Monday and I’ll see you tomorrow!