Article debating whether the Australian Thylacoleo, an extinct class of cat-like marsupials from the Pleistoscene era, is still alive in Queensland.

Direct URL:
http://www.forteantimes.com/exclusive/thylacine.shtml

Or, look for article 'Will The Real Thylacoleo Please Stand Up' in the Fortean Time's Web Page

In Interview with a Humanoid (NYTimes, free registration required), Nicholas Kristof writes about a human-animal crossbreed that was new to me (Cow-human), and about our post-human future.

ConiFur NorthWest
Fife, WA
October 4th-6th
www.conifur.org
---------------------------

ConiFur Hotel Closing

We have been just informed by the sales department at the Best Western Executive Inn located in Fife, WA, that they will be closing down effectively July 31st.

Unfortunately this means that our event scheduled to happen in the first weekend in October is in jeopardy. We are in communications with the hotel now and trying to arrange an alternative venue for our event. We are not sure what the result will be at this time, but we should know shortly and will announce it to the membership and public just as soon as possible.

If you are making reservations, we ask that you wait until an announcement is made regarding this. The 1-800 number for the front desk at the Fife location is turning away customers due to the reasons given. However, the national reservation center is unaware of the closure and is still actively taking reservations for dates that may turn out unavailable.

We apologize for the incovenience this may cause. We are doing everything possible to rectify the situation and will keep you folks informed as soon as we know anything.

Thank you.

Dan Canaan
Flinthoof Ponypal

ConiFur NorthWest

Mephit FurMeet 2002 is only 39 days away! August 30th - September 1st (September 2nd is Labor Day and a "hang out" day) There's a lot of things new and exciting, as well as a few reminders.

Okay, it's early for it, but Kay Shapero posted to alt.fan.furry:

Yep, it's official - Leslie Fish has signed on as ConFurence 2003 Filk GOH.

Long famed for her bardic prowess (if you have't heard her yet, you owe it to yourself to do so), Leslie is also the only person I know who's gone beyond writing about animal Uplifts to actually doing it... Yeppers, since starting it as a college project way back when, Leslie has been breeding a line of Aisian shorthairs for sturdiness and intelligence.. and lately she's added a polydactil strain. That's right, intelligent cats with thumbs...

I heard a book review this afternoon on NPR's All Things Considered for "You're an Animal, Viskovitz!", which sounds like it would be of interest to most furries, especially those who like "transformation" stories.

Find it at Amazon

Yerf is back!

Yes, the passage of Uncle Kage's Hair from Anthrocon 2002 has begun! You too can own a bit of history, and carry on the quest for coconuts at AC 2003.

http://www.furbid.ws/cgi-bin/auction.pl?miscfur&1028143536

Hi, everyone;

First off, it was very nice to meet so many of you at Anthrocon. I'd also like to thank the Anthrocon staff and volunteers for their professionalism and hospitality.

Seeing as how CACE is the next major event on the convention schedule, I'd like to remind everyone that our pre-registration deadline is next Monday, July 22rd. Registrations must be postmarked by that date to receive our low pre-registration rate of $30 CAN/$20 US.

http://www.cambridgephotos.com/misc2/

I'm not going to say anything. I'll let you judge for yourself. (Like if that doesn't happen anyways :))

Aint It Cool News has an article about the death of the company that created George of the Jungle's elephant, Mighty Joe Young, the creatures for Dinosaur, many of the dalmatians for 102 Dalmatians, and the dragons for Reign of Fire.

A person on a furry mailing list I'm on have found that someone had forged their credit card, most likely from one of the resturants they visited. Please check yours if you used it last weekend, especially for food.
Hopefully this is an isolated event, but better safe than sorry.

A border collie has taken up darts, according to an article in today's Sun newspaper (offline version only, it seems). Blue, a regular at the Boreatton Arms in Shropshire, has not yet mastered the technique of throwing them. But he has been allowed to join a pub team after diligently jumping on a chair, removing the darts from the board with his teeth and dropping them at the feet of the next player. "We save energy by not having to fetch our darts from the board," explains his owner, builder Geoff Davies. The collie has also shown a flair for pool: "He once potted a red from 12in away by hitting the cue ball with his nose."

The UK's Sun is carrying a story about a woman who called 911 after her dog collapsed, and is now being prosecuted for it, facing up to 30 days in jail.

An official is also quoted as saying "While we understand that many people regard their pets as members of the family, summoning lifesaving personnel via 911 is inappropriate to say the least." Am I the only one who thinks that this is definitely not the case?

The article is entitled A wild hobby brings out the beast in them by Dianna Marder

Take a look.