For those un-privy to the occasional discussions of this matter on the staff forum, I've been trying to reach Spike for about ten months. This process has been made somewhat easier by the fact that I know some stuff about her; made much harder by the fact that while my efforts turned up a lot of information, I wasn't able to absolutely, concretely confirm what might have happened to our Spike.

Ultimately I did track down a home address and phone number, sent a couple of post cards and left some messages, but received no response. In the end I'm forced to conclude that Spike had been given some very strong reason to leave the site behind (there is no evidence of this), or that something happened so suddenly she wasn't able to give us any warning.

If I knew, for sure, that the worst had happened, I would put together a little tribute for her. She'd been around this site since before even I was a part of it. And while I think it's safe to make the assumption, I can't stand the idea of jumping the gun like that on someone's whole life.

So Spike, if you're out there, you're on our minds.