Sooner or later, around this time of the year, someone will call me the "tooth fairy."

Hasn't happened yet this year, but it will.

After mailing out hundreds of letters asking deer and elk hunters to save and send in the two front incisors from their animal for aging, the teeth have been coming in. Had one or two sets in the mail just about every day for the past two weeks.

As in the past, about half actually follow the recommended instruction of using a padded envelope. About half don't. So far, no lost teeth.

Usually I lose a set of teeth or two every year in the mail. Padded envelopes are handled by hand, but plain paper envelopes may be processed by one of the Postal Service's high-speed sorting machines.

The type currently being decontaminated for anthrax.

Just as the machines may squeeze dust out of envelopes, they also occassionally squeeze out any large items enclosed.

Like deer or elk teeth.

And all I get it an empty envelope, with twin rips on one side. And hunters who are disgruntled the following March when they don't receive the letter telling them how old their animal was.

Always wonder what the postal workers at those machines think about the teeth they find left behind. Elk teeth are obviously large animal teeth, but deer incisors are quite similar to human. Except for the longer, curved roots.

Went to the sporting goods stores that serve as drop points to collect the teeth they'd gathered so far. Got to hear one gent's tales about his 21-day hunting trip to Zimbabwe. Actually pretty exciting, to hear him tell it. Like following on the guide's heels to suddenly realize there's a lioness staring you down from 70 meters ahead. And turning around to find three other pride members even closer on your right.

The local taxidermist/meat processor is also a drop point for teeth. The most productive, naturally. Today's stop included the usual visit and review of the more recent specimens brought in.

Taxidermy mounts only use the hide and the plate of skull that connects the two antlers or horns. The rest of the head is discarded.

In this case, in a basin just outside the front door. Not for the faint hearted. Noticed an unusual head in the basin as I went in. Seems a couple fellas bought a bison calf from one of the local bison ranchers. And brought the carcass in for processing. Taxidermist plans to make a bison jacket from the hide, to match the buffalo robe coat he made from his own bison. Hence the black head with stubby horns in the waste basin.

And hence the bison head now in my rig, waiting to be boiled and cleaned for the youth programs (didn't have a complete bison skull, and this one is actually small enough to carry around).

Oh, and on a final bad note of the day... spent lunch break in the living room, so the masked heeler could get some truly restful sleep, without that damned cone on her head. And had to make a short trip to the latrine. And didn't bother waking her to put the cone on.

You guessed it. By the time I was back, she had chewed the remaining three staples out of her butt. No problem with two of the staples, as the incision had completely healed, but a small gap opened up where the third had been. It's scabbing up nicely, so no visit to the vet. But she'll have a small bald, scar on her rear end to remember me by....