Catspaw Crisis: Dear Lurking Tom, I guess it was about May of '99 when I had one of those "the guy's a goner" experiences. It was the first time that reality had struck our cyber-village and people found that the place wasn't so cyber after all. It was another of those moments in the growth of this site but the first that brought people's real feelings to the surface. After that we began to meet each other more in 3D and the virtual became far more real. Since then even more real world things have come to us including losing members and their spouses and friends to death as well as a wee baby we had all been looking forward to "sharing."

But we've shared some mighty joyous times as well including births and marriages.............And the best thing no matter what has always been the support that comes from people here. I have found myself laughing with and crying for friends unmet, many of them I will probably never meet. The "Catspaw Crisis" moved us from a message board to a community, a real one.

Spaw