Kim Fox wrote: >Wanna hear the kicker? ........ He looks just like Buddy Looove. > >Tucker couldn't have come to me at a more perfect time. There really is >a time to every purpose under heaven. I've never talked about this before, but Kim's post prompted me to mention a very similar experience I had almost exactly a year ago. On the last Saturday in July, I heard that a ferret had wandered into a pizza place the next town over and ended up at the local pound. I called up to see if I could help, and ended up bringing some food over to the little guy. He was so sweet, I picked him up and he immediately started kissing me. He was obviously well cared for, so I figured he was someone's beloved pet and would be claimed. Since the pound is one town over from where he was found, I drove over and put up a notice in the pizza place for the benefit of anyone who might be looking for him. But no one called. The pound holds all animals for one week, then this guy was going to be transferred to a ferret shelter (thanks to Yvonne DeCarlo's efforts). Well, he ended up coming home with me the following Saturday, August 5th. But I wasn't planning to keep him, mind you, I knew I'd find someone to adopt him. I already had six rug-rats, plus a dog and a cat. Enough vet bills! Well, to make a long story short, he won his way into my heart and stayed. After his quarantine period and vet check-up, I introduced him to my crew, and he fit in perfectly. They all liked him and he loved having other ferrets to wrestle with! He's a big, chubby, playful guy. Not the brightest spark, but so sweet! He is a light sable, with a creamy undercoat and chocolately colored guard hairs. He has a hint of a white bib and the cutest little white knees. His coloring reminded me of a cup of coffee with lots of cream, so he was dubbed Java Joe. Java Joe's coloring was strikingly similar to Beuhler's, my other adoptee from several years ago, and they had similar body types too, very solid. As time went by, I noticed that they even had some similar mannerisms. What I didn't know then was that Beuhler was silently developing cancer, and I lost him one week before Christmas, December 18th. It finally dawned on me some time later that Java Joe had come into my life to fill the hole in my heart left by Beuhler. Every so often I'll catch a glipse of Java Joe yawning or playing or whatever, and I'll still see Beuhler's angelic little face. It makes me smile, because I don't think things like this happen by accident... Nancy and critters [Posted in FML issue 3493]