Just wanted to thank everyone for the nice e-mails and virtual postcards regarding Buddy. I will print each one out and include them in his journal before I close it out. Some of you might remember that I start a journal for each one of my pets; I use one of those bound notebooks you can get at most book stores. Inside I record all information, shots, amusing stories, photographs, old rabies tags, etc. I also record the cause of death when possible, as well as the deposition of the bady. Today a vet-student friend of mine did Buddy's necropsy, and found he had an invasive cancer that had affected most of his major organs. She made some slides, but we won't view them until later next week. One of the vets at the school remarked that it was unusual for an animal to survive so long with that degree of organ involvement, but Buddy was a strong and hardheaded guy. My vet school friend will study Buddy's body to learn ferret anatomy, and when finished, will return the bones to me. I will place his osteological remains in a comparative collection to be used in efforts to understand the origin of the domesticated ferret, and for some studies I am doing on the differences between the bones of domesticated ferrets and wild polecats so they might be recognized in archaeological samples. Some might think this bizarre, but I've already legally donated my own skeleton to science, so I'm not doing anything with my beloved pets that I don't do to myself. I believe some good will come of the respectful scientific use of the remains, Buddy's or mine. One of my e-mails remarked about all the nastiness that has happened to me recently. Well, that's life. I went a long time with very little adversity, so now it is balancing out. I could say stuff like, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," or "your reaction to adversity is a reflection of your character," or even "Sh*t happens," but since I AM a character, am full of sh*t, and am a weakling, it doesn't matter. I just plow through it the best I can, knowing sooner or later the pendulum will swing back. I simply cannot thank everyone by name in the FML, but I especially wanted to thank "Rudy" Bob Rudlich for his very helpful suggestions, Troy Lynn Eckart for just being the delightful sprite she is, Bev Fox who mails wonderful jokes to cheer me up, Debra Nelson for being such a good friend and doing the same, and for the rest of the FML for all the Limericks and "Bumper Stickers;" they are fantastic therapy! Bob "Mo' Bob" Church (AKA: Ferretimaniac) and his 17 remaining Fuzzbutts: Apollo, Ballistic, Bear, Chrys, Crystal, Daye, Foster, Fraggle, Moose, Nosette, Razz, Sam-Luc, Sandy, Simon, Stella, Tori, and Trillian (In memory of Gus and Buddy) [Posted in FML issue 1865]