Panel 1: When pissed-off Elly asks Liz how she could have let Farley go out and get dirty, Liz angers her more by saying it was an accident. This is because Elly never wants to believe that her children aren't plotting her ruin because it takes all the fun out of yelling "BAD! BAD! BAD! Stop crying!!" at them.
Panel 2: Elly bellows that Farley was so pretty when she brought him home just five hours ago.
Panel 3: She then tells Liz that it cost sixty dollars to have him groomed and that she wanted him to stay groomed as long as possible before setting up the sitcom punchline by asking what she's supposed to tell John.
Panel 4: Liz makes a stupid remark about how five hours is as long as possible. This causes Elly's brain to go into safe mode resulting in the deer in the headlights stare her face is frozen in most of the time.
Summary: What we are looking at is another example of Elly thinking that children are horrible monsters who only pretend to feel regret because she doesn't want to remember that her 'But if I let them know I care about them, they'll just give up trying and sit in a puddle of their own filth and die' parenting style leads directly to their 'Why bother trying? We can never please her anyway!' attitude.