First, please forgive the typos.. I don't use spellcheck unless I am at work where it's mandatory.. so if it sounds like, looks like.. thats what it probably is. (Just and FYI.. when I say animal, I don't mean it as a bad thing.. I say animal because there are people who have cats, dogs, rats, birds, ferrets, horses, pigs.. etc.) I have two wonderful human children. I love them more than anything in this world. I cannot fathom anything bad every happening to them. They are my reason for living, and somehow as screwed up as the world is.. they make things seem alright. My animals are part of the family. When one of my critters passes on, it devastates me. It hurts very much. Many people view their critters as their children because some of them do not have human children. To say that their animals are not their children is a slap in the face to them. The love their animals with all their hearts.. those animals ARE their family. They ARE their children.. when one of them passes, it is like you and I losing our human children. When their animals get sick it IS like you and I taking our children to the doctors and fretting over them. Often times, these people are treated cruelly by a society that thinks that animals are just pets, nothing more than that. They get laughed at for spending lots of money to keep a sick animal alive, they get laughed at for crying when their animal passes... people act like they are insane because they keep pictures of their beloved pets on their desks at work or in their wallet. They get told that these animals aren't their kids.. and other hurtful things like "Why don't you just put it to sleep" when they have surgery done on their animal to save it's life. Of course.. lots of people with animals love them dearly and treat them like part of their family. That is just who we are. The FML is a GREAT place to pick up information and get help.. it's also a nice place to share stories of your fuzzies, share when they pass (course, I could be mistaken.. but when a beloved pet passes, don't you need help to recover from it? Isn't that what the FML is for? To help fuzzie people?), it's a place where shelters can raise funds to take care of the fuzzies that are abandoned, it's a place where all fuzzie lovers are welcome, regardless of your color, religious beliefs, how much money you make, etc. [Posted in FML issue 3904]