Happy New Year to all FMLers. May your ferrets and you be blessed with good health, good times and good memories. It's heart-wrenching to read about ill and departed fuzzies. There are so many darlings who have weaseled their ways straight into our souls, then stolen our joy away with them when they've left for the Bridge. But if there's any "God" or "Good" to existence (and after being owned by ferrets, we must KNOW there is!), we'll find our fuzzies' "Joy Stashes" on the day we join them. Meanwhile, I am thankful for all the people...caring vets, heroic shelter operators, responsible and dedicated breeders, historical and dietary experts and "civilian" Ferret People in general...who share this most compelling of loves. It doesn't matter, it seems to me, if ferrets are third or not in popularity to date, because the love they elicit is unquestionably First-Rate. Now....a ferret "ghost-story." My wonderful Bumble B. Bobbitt went to the Bridge on December 2nd (and I want to take this opportunity to thank all the people who sent condolences, because I've been just too heartbroken to reply individually). Since Bumble left me, I've often thought I've glimpsed him peeking around corners or half-open doors, and mentioned this several times to my Significant Other. (He's a CPA and consequently seldom sees ghosts.) I bought the great 1999 ferret calendar, of course, and just after midnight on New Year's Day, while my SO was preparing to crash in the bedroom, I hung the calendar above his favorite chair in the family room, directly across from a porthole-sized mirror on the opposite wall. Noonish on New Year's Day, SO arose, trudged downstairs, sat himself down in his chair, glanced up----and saw what he thought was Bumble B. Bobbitt looking at him from the opposite wall...the January ferret looks remarkably like Bumble and his face was reflected dead-center in the mirror. My SO sprang from his chair while "vocalizing loudly." Bumble would have loved it! [Posted in FML issue 2546]