Peanuts Daily 4-7-64 (United Feature Syndicate, 1964)

Snoopy has faced the Red Baron, dark and stormy nights, and the crushing burdens of literary ambition -- but a rabies shot is where he draws the line. Here, man's best friend becomes tree's best friend, clinging for dear life while a full neighborhood tug-of-war forms behind him. Schulz turns the simple dread of an ordinary shot into a four-panel epic, using a panoramic layout to pack the daily with an unusually large cast of Peanuts kids.
Charlie Brown has practically recruited the whole block to pry Snoopy loose, including Sally, Lucy, Schroeder, Pig-Pen, Frieda, Patty, Shermy, Violet, and even 3, 4, and 5 -- yes, those are their names. 3 and 4 are the dancing twins from A Charlie Brown Christmas, part of Schulz's wonderfully odd numbered family. The rabies-shot sequence taps into one of Snoopy's great recurring modes: the melodramatic avoidance of ordinary responsibility. No Red Baron fantasy, no costume, no grand adventure, just the terrifying possibility of a needle, treated with all the emotional gravity Snoopy can muster. The storyline proved memorable enough to be later adapted in the Peanuts Motion Comics animated segment "Mother's Day." The result is one of the most desirable Peanuts dailies we've ever offered!