Well, that’s it, one from one of our correspondents:
“The Central Park Zoo’s beloved polar bear was euthanized Wednesday after a tumor was judged inoperable. Gus was 27 years old and weighed 700 pounds; he came to New York in 1988 after being born in Toledo, Ohio. He was an icon to a generation of New Yorkers and was visited by 20 million tourists in his 23 years at the zoo. He had battled health problems, and surgeons found a tumor near his thyroid during an operation that had caused him to suffer from loss of appetite and difficulty swallowing food.”
Poor Gus was one of the bears I studied in New York, while going nuts, caught between fiction and fantasy, trying to write Scream of the White Bear, and treated like a suddenly foreign species by my ex, editors and publisher. I’m sure Harry N. Abrams will be knowing about it all, like Justice Cynthia Kern or attorney Edward Davis, if not actually pleased! Perhaps Abrams should euthanize their authors too.
DCD
Phoenix Ark's Blog 
I’m sorry that he’s passed. I’m also sorry that a source of inspiration has perished. Many of ‘my’ animals have died (in 20+ years going to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo). Though separated by glass, they become a part of you, figuratively but also by imagination, which as you know, is very strong indeed.