SOS had a majority of members attending Ferrets 2002 in Las Vegas. And the majority grew even larger, because we welcomed Judy Cooke into our midst during the event. Gave her the little SOS life-ring pin and everything! It was such a great ferret event, it was fun from the moment I got on the plane (after having both my suitcase and huge box searched, cut open, rummaged through, poked and prodded at while some guy who couldn't remember who was who hung onto our tickets) until I got back to the airport to go home and had to sit on the floor for an hour waiting for my airline to open! One of the most wonderful things to happen was that SOS had been contacted by a terrific artist, who offered to donate a painting to SOS as a fund raiser. Selena Siu brought her painting, a woodsy setting of a ferret resting under a large mushroom for us to auction. Everyone was estatic over the wonderful talent Selena posesses, and we were thrilled to be able to show her work. The lucky high bidder was FerretWare's Hildy Langewis. We also had Doodlebug's little signature to use as a fundraiser for SOS. Our very own little television star! Doodlebug (for those of you who may have just returned from your vacation on Pluto) appeared in a South West Airlines commercial recently. He learned all his lines, hit his mark everytime, and REALLY, I'm just SURE, was the best animal performer in the commercial. I only hope that everyone had as great a time as I did at Symposium. It was wonderful seeing again the people I've met at shows, and equally wonderful meeting new people. I have a lot of pictures! A big THANK YOU to everyone who worked so hard to make it a success! Hugs to all, Georgia, the left coast one... PS: And a special thank you to whoever it was who put that on my name badge! [Posted in FML issue 3687]