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]