Errrrr .... it's been long enough now that I have no idea! I think it might have been "Fuzzy Bones" because the different author thing rings a bell? I'm also pretty sure I noped out of it, so that might be the one. (I originally read "Little Fuzzy" and "Fuzzy Sapiens" as a kid - they were collected in one book, which was part of my parents' extensive library of paperback sci-fi - and didn't discover the existence of other Fuzzy books 'til I was an adult; then I found out what they were actually LIKE, noped out and went back to the original two.)

And no, I haven't read that one and had no idea it existed! Um, wow. Yes. That is really fascinating, especially the fact that I've never even heard of it and, yeah, no one mentioned it at all when Fuzzy Nation came out.