As Pittsburgh convention Anthrocon approaches this June, many furs are opening up their wallets, counting up their change, and announcing to friends whether they can be expected this year. Unfortunately Fernando's Cafe, a business dear to attendees, have done the same and found that they will be unable to stay afloat until then. The cafe intends to close its doors on April 27.

Toronto-based furry convention Furnal Equinox has released its February 2012 newsletter, with details of sponsor benefits, DJ schedules and interviews with its guests of honour.

There are only two weeks remaining to preregister for the convention. The deadline is Sunday, March 4; memberships start at $40 Canadian.

That's right, folks, we need your help! The t-shirts we so adore each year are still blank slates in need of love. We're calling upon all artists, established or not, to submit their artwork for the annual Morphicon t-shirt contest.

Entries must be rated G to PG-13, and must relate to this year's theme, Fables and Furry Tails. The deadline is March 15th and you could win a Patron or Sponsor level registration.

We look forward to seeing what kind of wonderful art you can come up with!

A group of fans near Baltimore, Maryland plan to start their own furry convention, and are looking for naming ideas – for which they appear to be willing to pay. [skippyfox]

Prizes on offer include a $50 gift card, free admission, a t-shirt and a "super special" ribbon. Entries (one per person) must be in by Tuesday night.

Toronto-based furry convention Furnal Equinox has released its first newsletter of 2012.

The convention is actively seeking contributions from attendees in the last 50 days before the convention, including conbook submissions, panelists and volunteers.

Seattle area furry convention Rainfurrest has issued a call for entries for this year's charity anthology. [tip: earthfurst]

The group is looking for G–PG short stories of 5,000–8,000 words under the theme "Steam Punk, Weird Science/mad science". Draft submissions are due by February 2.

Proceeds are to go to the upcoming convention's charity. Contributing authors will receive a copy of the book.

2011's entries were collected in Stories of Camp Rainfurrest, with stories by Gene Armstrong, Sorin, Garret Biggerstaff, Daniel and Mary E. Lowd, Ryan Hickey, Kandrel, May Kay Biggerstaff, James Stringer and Trey Jackson, illustrations by Balto and Sarah Alderate, and a cover by WerePuppy.

This is a somewhat self-serving announcement, but MiDFur the 13th has just been held in Melbourne, and I (Fred Patten) have been inducted into its Furry Hall of Fame.

MiDFur's Furry Hall of Fame members are picked by prior inductees, which include Bernard Doove, Anthrocon/Uncle Kage, 2 Gryphon, Paul Kidd, Stan Sakai, BigBlueFox, Jenner and CynWolfie.

'One-time' Philadelphia holiday convention Furstivus appears to have been a success, despite being announced a mere six weeks before it was scheduled to begin.

Lead organizer SkippyFox yesterday reported 238 attendees, with 45 fursuiters in its parade.

Furstivus took the place of the New Year's Furry Ball, which is expected to reoccur this December. The event raised $3,243 for childrens' video gaming charity Child's Play.

The state is also home to Anthrocon and the Western Pennsylvania Furry Weekend. Anthrocon was formerly held just over the road from the Furstivus hotel — itself home to 1994's Furtasticon, the first East Coast furry convention.

Two galleries in downtown San Jose will be hosting open-to-the-public furry art shows concurrent with Further Confusion 2012, from January 12 (Thursday) to 21 (Saturday).

The stated objective of these shows is to get high-quality furry art out in the public, and to introduce San Jose's downtown gallery scene to the wealth of furry artwork. Local news media representatives will be invited to visit.

There is an open call for artwork, including con-badges, which will be printed by the show; the submission deadline is December 31. The shows are being organized independently of Further Confusion by its Art Track events lead, B. Root, creator of webcomic The Dawn Chapel.

The KALEID gallery and comic book publishers Slave Labor Graphics are hosting the shows.

Just in time for Christmas, Toronto-based furry convention Furnal Equinox has released its December 2011 newsletter.

A convention-sponsored Christmas potluck took place December 17, attracting more than 75 attendees and raising over $500 for the convention's charity, the Mississauga Humane Society. Early bird pre-registrations closed November 30; dealers tables are now sold out. The con also continues to search for conbook submissions, volunteers, panelists and DJs.

The December edition of the newsletter includes holiday wishes from the chair, special guests and events, the end of pre-registration on December 30, an updated pet policy, notice of changing hotel room rates, a call for submissions to FC: Unleashed, updated dealer information and instructions, a request for volunteers, and notice of the next staff meeting on January 7.

It's been a while since we posted an update, but now is the time. We hope that everyone is looking forward to June 1-3rd, with anticipation building and the excitement levels rising. The crew of What The Fur is hard at work, planning what we expect to be the best event yet.

In this edition: Hotel reservations are open; Early Bird pre-registration is still on, with a contest for those who sign up before January; dealer's den table availability; and requests for convention book submissions, programming and DJs.

Toronto-based furry convention Furnal Equinox has released its November 2011 newsletter.

Early bird registration and submissions for the Infurnally Yours Video Competition close on November 30. The convention also seeks conbook submissions, panelists and volunteers.

For this month, I’ve kept the tags to ten. Hopefully they catch the furry zeitgeist.