The “Mollisan Town quartet”, by pseudonymous Swedish author Tim Davys, is (are?) four hard-boiled complex crime thrillers, each set in one of Mollisan Town’s four districts, with a stuffed-animal cast. Hey, if regular animals can be anthropomorphized, why not plushies?

“Amberville” (February 2009); hardcover $19.99 (343 pages), Kindle $8.99.
“Lanceheim: A Novel” (June 2010); hardcover $21.99 (371 pages), Kindle $9.99.
“Tourquai: A Novel” (February 2011); hardcover $19.99 (325 pages), Kindle $9.99.

The first three novels were published by Albert Bonnier Förlag in Stockholm in 2007, 2008, and 2010, and published in English by HarperCollins one or two years later; all three are translated by Paul Norlen. The concluding novel, Yok, is scheduled for July 2012.

Residents of the village of Hedge End, in southern England, called police after spotting a white tiger in a field near a local golf course. Armed officers and a police helicopter responded, along with staff from nearby Marwell Zoo.

As the police on the ground approached the tiger, they saw that it was not moving, and themal imaging equipment in the helicopter showed no body heat. At that point, the downdraft from the 'copter caused the tiger to roll over, and police realised they were stalking a life-size plush toy.

Police later commented, "It is being treated as lost property but we don't know how it came to be in the field and whether it may have been a hoax."

Ever wanted a hand-sewn bat plushie by noted author Edward Gorey? Now's your chance, as Bloomsbury Auctions is running an estate sale. [tip: Higgs Raccoon/OzFurry]

The focus of the auction is fur coats, including a tanuki coat. However, there's a variety of other lots, including the aforementioned bat – a present for illustrator James Marshall, reminiscent of the lead character in The Gilded Bat. There's also a plush Figbash of the kind which accompanied the 26 lettered copies of The Raging Tide, a choose-your-own-adventure-style book by Gorey.

But you'd better get down to the New York auction house at 6 West 48th Street quickly – bidding starts at 11AM Eastern today. (Bids also accepted at Live Auctioneers and the-saleroom.com)

German fursuit builder, author and Zeta-Pride organizer Fjordwolf tells us of the solitary life of one fur and his dog in A Furrytale. [Diadexxus/furrymedia]

Also recorded by Oddisee is The Naked Bunch, following a group of naked hikers in the Alps.

Fjordwolf's book, Mein Fruend Nobody ("My Friend Nobody"), is currently sold out; however, a sample story is available. He has also produced several music videos involving fursuiters.

As reported on Gadling, Paris-based "Furry Toys Tours" offers to escort your favourite plush toy around the French capital and photograph them in front of various landmarks.

The basic one-week package costs 100€, and takes in such sights as the Eiffel Tower, the Seine bridges, and Notre Dame cathedral. The price includes thirty photographs, a certificate, a surprise souvenir, and shipping of the plush toy back to its owner.

Meeko, a popular plush toy, now on display

New York City, USA – The Museum of Sex, which first opened in October 2002, has covered many controversial topics - from Chinese erotica and male objectification to pin-up photography and sex workers. Now they are extending their coverage to the erotic side of the furry fandom with a new exhibition: Kink: Geography of the Erotic Imagination.

Opening February 7, the show was patterned after the 2000 book Deviant Desires,^[1] and features costumes, props, photographs, videos, recreated environments and original artwork from the leather, bondage and shoe fetish communities, as well as "more exotic destinations" such as ponyplay, adult babies, macrophilia, sploshing, medical play, mudlarking, body expansion - and lastly, furries.^[2]

The exhibit's curator (and book author) Katharine Gates gained notoriety within the fandom for her book, as well as an interview in the Vanity Fair article Pleasures of the Fur.^[3] This, along with coverage like Sex2K's Plushies and Furries, led to a tightening of media policies that remains to this day, particularly at Midwest FurFest.

(From here)
Columnist
dwiesend@uwm.edu

I have written about many diverse subjects in the genre of sexuality, but this takes the cake. Let me tell you a little bit about a subculture of people who call themselves “furries.”

An untamed jungle cat - albeit a soft and cuddly one - scared the stuffing out of some suburban commuters passing through the Bronx yesterday, prompting cops and city officials to try and catch the tiger by the tail.

It wasn't too hard.

"The police wanted to know where the tiger was," said German Ortiz, 34, the super of 1194 Brook Ave. "I told them, 'It's mine, but don't worry, it's not real.'"

Read the rest of the article from the New York Daily News

If you haven't nosed around the toy section at your local Target, you may want to! Mattel has put out a line of rather detailed, roughtly 3-inch-high poseable plush figures entitled (I kid you not) "Furryville." While not yet up on the Target website, they were apparently featured in this year's Toyfair.

This in and of itself is no big deal, as there have been anthropomorphic figures aimed at children for a long time (Calico Critters & the Sylvanian series); but this series in particular has a broad range of species...

Thanks to all the FurJournal members who donated a few months ago, this furry-based journal site finally received the adoption package after having adopted a snowleopard.

Unfortunately, the snow leopard itself didn't come in the box, but if you're interested to see what we did get you can see them all here

Have you hugged your local halitosis strain today? Spent any good time cuddling with the common cold? Or had a good time with beer yeast? Geek outfitter ThinkGeek is selling plush microbes, plush critters modeled after nine strains of microbes enlarged over 1,000,000 times. The perfect gift for the furry with everything.

So. Any anthropomorphic microbes out there?

The general consensus I (the submitter) get is that the name and logo for the Firefox browser does not by itself constitute being furry.

However, I do think that this is: according to this article, the Mozilla Foundation will now begin selling Firefox plushies. So just in case this is your sort of thing, now you know.

This fits into so many categories, but...

UN Iraqi weapons inspector Jack McGeorge likes whips and chains and other ties that bind. In fact, he's a founding member of the Washington DC area Black Rose society and a former chairman of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. So, when the Washington Post discovered that he may not have a degree in weapons inspecting, they reported instead that he was a pervert.

The furry angle to all this is a very amusing interview that CNN did with Dan Savage discussing the situation. I guess we made a heck of an impression on Mr. Savage as somehow he and Anderson Cooper of CNN started discussing Plushophilia and furry conventions. You can read the transcript on CNN's web site.

Read more about why you should be outraged by the Washington Post (and not Dan Savage).

A group calling itself the Fairy Troop has been supporting a strip club by dressing up as stuffed animals.

The fine folks at MIT surgically merged an Ethernet switch and a teddy bear. The bear now has glowing power/uplink eyes, an ethernet jack in each paw, and a Matrix-style uplink in the back of its neck. It's neat }:>.

Main project page is here.
A cool close-up of the bear is here.