Diane, you said it beautifully. I would add two things... There have been several times when I feel I waited too long to let an animal go, and I still remember those times with sadness. I never felt that I let an animal go too early. When you feel it's time to let go, it probably is. In the past I used to let my ferrets sniff the body of the ferret who had died; not sure it helped. With Vivaldi, I did something different. I let all the ferrets share a meal of duck soup together with Vivaldi, so they could say goodbye while he was still allive. I feel this worked better. Ronnie [Posted in FML 6205]