Hello, everyone.

Well, as you all know, Shakespeare is predictably one of the most well-known and loved of the Whiskers family. I certainly did not hesitate to place him at the top of the list of my favorite meerkats on the said show.

But what happened to the poor fella'? As much as I probably should admit it, I absolutely refuse to believe that he has passed on. For one thing, it simply wouldn't be fair. And for antoher thing, there is really not much evidence to suggest that he really did die. My reasons?

1)In order to defend the pups and keep them alive, Shakespeare would have had to protect and keep himself intact, as well.

2)There were plenty of escape holes for him to get out of.

3)If he did escape, he may have joined another meerkat group if he was unsuccessfull in locating the Whiskers, although...this is highly unlikely. One of the posters on these boards mentioned that the meerkat "Hannibal" may be Shakespeare. I wonder if this could be true...?

In any case, I hope that he comes back soon. If not, then...well...it seems as if the Whiskers family will never be fully "complete" again. That little knight in shining armor always brightened up my day.

Your thoughts?

I have to admit it - I cried when sweet little Shakespeare disappeared. I want to know where he is too...I have faith that he's still alive somewhere...he is too courageous to be gone.

I could barely sleep that night I LOVE SHAKIE TO DEATH and to find him missing just hit me like a bullet in my stomach

I emailed the animal planet and asked them to please tellus what happened to Shakespeare. so far they haven't emailed me back.. I will let everyone know when they do and what they say.

I sure miss that brave little guy.

I e-mailed, too, and got this reply:

Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 10:01 AM
From: viewer_relations@discovery.com
To: memerrifield@charter.net
Subject: Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor
Size: 3 KB

Thank you for contacting Animal Planet. We are sorry to say that we don't
actually know Shakespeare's fate. After his fight with Big Si, neither our
cameras nor the on-site researchers could find any trace of him. We
watched carefully for days to no avail.

Shakespeare was very dear to all of us here at Animal Planet. While we
will never know the extent of an animal's emotions, we do know that he was
willing to lay down his life to protect his little brothers and sisters,
and that he managed to fight off one of the area's largest and most
aggressive males. We're all looking forward to seeing Shakespeare's little
brothers and sisters grow up, and will think of him whenever one of them
does something as brave and kind and selfless, just like their big brother.

With access to the Internet, you have information about our programming,
including Meerkat Manor, at your fingertips. Just visit www.discovery.com,
go to the Animal Planet Fan Site section and click on Meerkat Manor. You
can meet the family, watch Sneak Peeks, adopt a meerkat and obtain
information about the show.

For more information about schedules and programming, please visit our
website at www.discovery.com.

A reply to this message is not necessary. If you have any further
inquiries or comments, please contact us via our webform at
http://extweb.discovery.com/ViewerRelations. Thank you again for
expressing your interest in our programming.

Sincerely,
Kari
Viewer Relations
Discovery Networks

Sob..

I finally received an email back from them and they told me the same thing they told marymerri.

Wow -- thank you for all of your replies, guys!

My goodness. It seems as if the disappearance/loss of Shakespeare is official. I am truely saddened by this news out-break. We will all miss him dearly, as he was the heart and soul of the Whiskers family -- he was one of our family. However, I still have my hopes that he will one day appear over the horizon as suddenly and as quickly as he left....

When I obtain another pet, I'm going to name it Shakespeare.

I got on the internet and typed in meerkats and got some information about meerkat manor. I printed off a article about Shakepeare that was interesting.It doesn't have answers to what happen to him, but some of you may like to read it. Maybe some of you have all ready read it. Just go to google and type meerkats, then click on wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Scroll down to meerkats in popular culture. Click on meerkat manor, scroll down to characters. Look at the end of Shakespreare and click on 2. This will take to you the article I have.

On the site I mentioned above, before you click on the 2, read the information on Skakespeare's character. they say he was Zaphod's son. I know many have said he was Yousarrian's son.

Pronker, Do you know?

hi everyone
I KNOW SHAKY WILL ALWAYS BE IN OUR MEMORY AND TOSCA BUT EVERYTIME I LOOK AT LITTLE MITCH HE REMINDED ME OF OUR BELOVED SHAKY HES COURAGEOUS LIK HIS BIG BROTHER DETERMINED AND VERY PROTECTIVE WITH HIS OWN FAMILY . IT SAD TO KNOW THAT HE WONT BE IN THE SHOW ANYMORE I HOPE AND PRAY HIS OKEY WITH HIS OWN MOB


LOVE YOU LOTS SHAKY

FINNALY they admitted they don't know what happened to Shakespeare. That's all they needed to do. It's fine to me. after, all a confession is a confession.