Great article Bob, thank you for taking time to do this. I recently made use of *the clipboard and records*. My ferret had adrenal surgery, and all went well. I did become concerned about 5 days later, as he had dropped an additional bit of weight. I called my vet, and the first questions were, *how much has he lost, eating well, poopies normal, what is different, if anything*? I had recorded each days weight, approximate food/water intake, normal looking poops, activity level, (mostly sleeping). The day he started the 2nd little drop in weight was the day after I allowed him out of the recovery cage to do a little exploring and then snuggling with his cage buddies. A little extra soup took care of that. Records are really helpful, to me and my vet. Ardith [Posted in FML issue 4403]