Dave,
 
I can't say anything without sounding cliche.  One never can in these
situations..."My heart goes out to you." "You know we're here for you." I
don't know what, if anything, these do to help you, especially having
probably not recovered from the loss of Toby.  So I will tell you a story.
 
A long time ago, before ferts and humans kept company, a fert was walking
along, sniffing for rabbits for dinner, when all of a sudden he spied a
very large, and kinda funny-looking animal on the other side of a clearing.
You guessed it, it was human.  But the fert didn't know this, and being a
fert, he had to investigate, of course.  At the same time the human, who
had been hunting along for rabbits for dinner, spied a small, furry-faced
animal on the other side of a clearing.  You guessed it, it was the fert.
But the human didn't know this, and being a human, he had to investigate of
course.  So the two walked slowly into the clearing, sniffing and peering
and looking altogether suspicious of each other.  But when the fert saw
the kind eyes of the human, and when the human saw the intelligent eyes of
the fert, they realized that they needn't be suspicious.  They introduced
themselves and sat down in the clearing together.  They played and laughed
and when a rabbit came a long, they caught it and shared it for dinner.
The fert looked at the human like he was crazy when he cooked the meat, and
the human looked at the fert like he was crazy when he ate the meat raw,
but that didn't matter.  These two, fert and human, became fast friends,
and stayed together, hunting rabbits and playing in the clearing for many
years.  But a time came when the fert told the human that he would not live
much longer.  He told the human of a beautiful place where he would go and
wait for the human.  But the human refused to believe it.  He hung his head
and cried and yelled that he wouldn't let it happen.  From heaven, a ferret
angel saw this and asked God if there wasn't anything that could be done to
ease the pain of parting.  So God told the little ferret angel what she
could do to help, and off she went.  While the friends were sleeping, the
human holding his fert friend in his arms, the angel quietly stole a piece
of heart from each of them.  The human's piece she put in the fert's stash
so that he would find it when he passed.  The fert's piece she put back in
to the spot the human's piece had been taken from.  Shortly after the
angle's visit, the fert did indeed pass, and ran to his stash and grabbed
all of his things to take with him to the Bridge.  Among these was the
piece of the humans heart.  When the human awoke, his little friend had
passed and he felt a terrible ache in his heart.  He cried for a very long
time, but when he had calmed down a bit, he noticed an odd sort of feeling
in his heart.  When he looked closer, he found the little piece of his
friends heart, along with a message from the angel.  "Two so true a friends
will always be rewarded by the memory of the love you shared.  And to help
you remember, you will each take with you a piece of your friends heart, to
remind you and comfort you.  You can never lose it, though you may forget
it.  But it will always be a part of you."
 
Melissa
[Posted in FML issue 3004]