Karen Vance wrote about wanting to identify the gift she received; fake fur
or...?  I cannot tell from your e-mail address where you live, but at any
large university, the Biology (or Zoology) Dept.  will probably have a
mammology specialist, with a collection of animal skins, and could identify
it for you.  If you live near a U.S.  border, the US Dept.  of the Interior,
Fish & Wildlife Service, should have an office which deals in identification
of items brought across the border (legally and not); you'd be amazed the
things they collect from unwary or unethical border-crossers.  Finally, any
large Natural History Museum and many large zoos will have mammology
collections and mammologists who could probably identify a skin.  Let's hope
it's a faux-fur just for fun!
[Posted in FML issue 1432]