Neither knew it at the time, but a line had been crossed that could not be uncrossed- a running leap over a chasm of ignorance and misunderstanding between species and worlds...and a baby step taken into life's endless possibilities for wonder and joy and surprise that could no more be reversed than one's first taste of chocolate. A dog kiss.

The strip eventually appeared in over 1200 newspapers around the world until Berkeley retired the daily strip in 1989 stating that he wanted to terminate the strip while it was still popular. Breathed has been a supporter of the animal rights group PETA and illustrated the cover of their Compassionate Cookbook T-shirts and other merchandise. Breathed plans to focus on writing children's books.

Bloom County earned Breathed the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1987. Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed (/ˈbrɛðɨd/ BRETH-əd; born June 21 1957) is an American cartoonist children's book author/illustrator director and screenwriter best known for Bloom County a 1980s cartoon-comic strip that dealt with sociopolitical issues as understood by fanciful characters (e.