What a gyp
When I write the big story arcs like “The Search for Mr. Fuzzy” which just wrapped up, I usually only have the loosest of plots worked up, preferring to leave many of the details up in the air, to be figured out in the process of making the strips themselves. As such, a lot of elements happen almost by chance, such as the villains burning down Mistake’s house to cover their tracks. It just seemed like a cool twist at the moment but immediately inspired me to have his family, the Munez clan, leave town while Mistake was still missing so that at the end of the story, Mistake would have to move in with Dandy and be under the same roof. And, to be realistic, Herb Munez was so underused as a character that most readers didn’t realize that Mistake DIDN’T live in the same house as Dandy, so this clears things up even further.