Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, dronon, GreenReaper, and Rakuen Growlithe.

On July 27th, 2022 it was reported that a West Virginian man by the name of Michael Herman, known in the fandom as Cani Lupine, was arrested for making terroristic threats toward state lawmakers as they look to enact more stringent laws surrounding the termination of pregnancies. More specifically, his charges surround threats of using gun violence to affect the outcome of a legislative session. He is being held on a $30,000 bond.

Cani Lupine gathered infamy within the fandom and was known for utilizing violent rhetoric towards those within the trans* community, as well as racist language and threats against other furs.

The now-Ursa Major Award-winning animated YouTube series Helluva Boss has begun its second season on YouTube, with "The Circus" available now. Warning: The episode linked to contains "Graphic Violence, Strong Language, Sexual Themes, Flashing Lights" and "Rampant Demon Horniness" according to the episode's opening itself. The show, created by Vivienne "Vivziepop" Medrano, tells the story of the demonic assassination startup business I.M.P.

The last episode of Helluva Boss, "Ozzie's", was posted back on Halloween of last year - listed as a "Finale Part I", so a "Finale Part II" was surely forthcoming. An update on the show's Twitter account explains the situation:

The Good News is the episode we have been working on for basically 8 months now is finally at the finish line-but the Bad News is due to forces quite literally out of my control we unfortunately don't know when we are able to actually release it ... at this point.

But you will see it!

Update 6/25/2023: Nearly a year later, the episode has finally been released to YouTube. As of yet, no official reason for the delay has been given, and probably never will be, but surprise guest voice actor Kesha very recently settled a court case, which was probably behind the lack of release. Meanwhile, Season 2 is approximately halfway through, with the fourth episode, "Western Energy" releasing last May, with a fifth episode already being teased and possibly even itself delayed by the release of "Queen Bee".

Hello and welcome to another episode of Digging Up Positivity! The summer is in full swing. And we have many amazing conventions and fundraisers out there! A lot of furs amongst us have shown that their generosity knows no bounds! But otter than that, we have some cool animation news and our special guest for this month is Keenora. A friendly German wolf known for not just his crazy antics in fursuit but for some lovely charity initiatives as well. And of course, at the end of this episode I will tell you who won last month's raffle: A license for Clip Studio Paint, the software I, together with many artists use for my art. But first, the latest charities!

"You couldn't make a Mel Brooks movie today. I saw Blazing Saddles yesterday."
-SR-71, "Politically Correct"

With all the delayed releases for movies in the last couple of years, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank fits right in. Of course, it's been delayed a bit longer than most. It was originally supposed to come out in August of 2017. It's been juggled around distribution companies in the last five years, and somehow managed to avoid the straight-to-video route, or the more modern straight-to-streaming path that even Pixar couldn't avoid recently. It's managed to keep hope alive, and now it's finally hitting theaters, and with a plushy summer month release date, too.

Directed by the duo of theatrical feature first time directors Chris Bailey and Mark Koetsier along with veteran Rob Minkoff (with directing credits on The Lion King and Mr. Peabody and Sherman), the movie is set in a cartoon version of feudal Japan inhabited by anthropomorphic cats. When an evil local governor (voiced by Ricky Gervais) decides he wants to get rid of a small village, he finds out he is tasked with finding them a new samurai to help them fight off his own thugs. Thinking outside the box, he decides to send them a replacement samurai that will, by his very nature, offend the sensibilities of the townsfolk so much that he might be the last straw that finally destroys the town. He sends Hank (voiced by Michael Cera), a dog.

If this set up sounds familiar, it should. The movie is a funny animal take on the 1974 Mel Brooks Western spoof Blazing Saddles, but also for some reason set in Japan. Paws of Fury was originally even entitled Blazing Samurai. What the heck are you worried about? This is Edo Japan! You'll be able to sue him! Mel Brooks even shows up to voice the shogun, so he seems to be well aware of what they are doing and completely fine with it. Who says you can't make a Mel Brooks movie today?

The Zeitgeist was markedly different mid 2019 when the local furry community started looking forward to their next annual get-together. Compared to Camp Feral in some quarters, the recipe was just about perfected back in 2017. An intimate, all-inclusive convention where the emphasis is on community and group activities. South-Afrifur is the brainchild of the visionary that was Ivic Wulfe that saw the first proper furry convention held on the African continent. Three years strong and going from strength to strength. But, of course, 2020 happened. And the fandom wasn't spared.

The organizers did the sensible thing and postponed the in-person meet not once, but twice, so that the pandemic could run its course. So profound was the isolating effects of the lock-down that an online only local convention Fursaverance saw its debut. There were cries of jubilation when it was announced that South-Afrifur would return in 2022. Covid would not be the end of the troubles, though. In May 2022 - just as the convention organizers went all-hands-on-deck - news came that Ivic Wulfe passed away.

In an Ashville, North Carolina park, two men were arrested over allegations of setting off an improvised explosive device, consisting of cardboard tubing and gunpowder, at the remains of the Vance Monument. They possessed these devices during the fourth of July celebrations occurring downtown. One of the two arrested, Chioke Fugate, is a person in the furry fandom known under the fursona name TechCoyote.

The identity can be confirmed via videos they had of themselves at the gun range matching the person photographed in the mugshots used in press reports.

Fortunately, no one was injured during this event. TechCoyote is current being held on $15,000 bond and is charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction and going armed to the terror of the people.

About 2 years ago, I started to see a growing debate about 'feral' NSFW art, and it was mostly more calm. The first time was when FurryLife.online started to ban most feral furry pornography, which has sparked a lot of debate online here (in the comment section), Twitter, and some other online sites. In the discussions, there were a lot of folks defending it with a fair amount of logic, mainly explaining that human levels of intelligence creates a difference. There were also folks reasoning that many of such ferals being attractive were exactly the same reasoning why furry characters such as Nick Wilde would be considered attractive by many other furries, by the fact that they have animal parts.

After such drama emerged, it felt as if it was dying down, thankfully. However recently on about June 19th, a popular furry known as KaimTime has been publicly “exposed” after some furries found out that they had a “feral” focused NSFW Twitter account known as Feral Fawcet. As a result, angry furries accused the person of being into “zoophilia”. as well as many Twitter folks ending up doing the whole “if you support this, block me” style posts. There was even one popular YouTuber, Crying Blossom, who made a call-out video against KaimTime mainly for KaimTime having the separate Twitter feed with this art on it, and their response video defending their right to have this separate page and fantasy. All of this, likely because of a furry artist partly having an interest in having fantasies with anthropomorphic animals on all fours.

Klonoa is a franchise by Bandai Namco that got its first release in 1997 for the PlayStation. Having reached great sales in the Japanese market, it got modest earnings in the west, large enough to approve a sequel, Klonoa 2, for the PlayStation 2. Both games got great reviews, and are platforming classics, but unfortunately diminishing sales killed the franchise, with one last re-release of the first game back in 2008 for the Wii.

The franchise is now being revived after all these years with a new remake of Klonoa 1+2, with great care and respect for the source material. Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series comes out July 8th for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and Steam (PC). Consoles get a physical release in Europe and Japan, with US receiving digital releases only.

For whatever reason, May was pretty slow. Not the case for this June! Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, dronon, earthfurst, and GreenReaper.

A very big welcome to the June edition of Digging Up Positivity, it was a big month. A lot of good was done, and I hope that you enjoyed the countless of festivities around Pride Month, just remember, you be you and love is love! We saw how many of our friends banded together to help others, both big and small and in the spirit of making this world a better place.

This months’ guest is Star Raccoon! And he has a very special wholesome story to share about his job in one of those biiiig mouse theme parks in Florida, USA! And because I am always streaming on Monday, I am giving a way a license for Clip Studio, the software I use to draw. If you use a Mac or Windows, you can run this, so stay tuned till the outro to learn more. And together we'll learn who has won one of those lovely Thabo T-shirts from ArtworkTee (dot com)! But for now, the charities!

Furries have always been present at Baltimore Pride. They can easily be spotted walking in the crowds, entertaining children, adults, and pets alike, even walking down the side of the pride parade route. For the first time ever, though, the Furries will be participating as official entrants in the Baltimore Pride Parade. 

Mid-Atlantic Anthropomorphic Association, the 501c3 charity behind the Fur the More Convention, reached out to the Maryland Furs community a couple weeks ago to invite fursuiters and community members to join them in the pride parade. Accompanied by ThatCorgitude's Rainbow Dash Mustang car, the furs will walk the one mile parade route along North Charles Street from Art Museum Drive this Saturday June 25th. The parade starts at 1:00pm as part of a week long celebration in Baltimore, MD.

Ursa, we may have a problem. Or at least so it may seem. Over the past few years the number of people voting in the furry fandom’s popular choice awards appears to be dwindling once again, despite continual growth and booming attendance at our conventions - COVID aside - revealing the growing audience and community beneath this stagnation.

But if less people in proportion are voting, is there a reason for this? One option may be that the system may be lead to some strange victors based on popularity of a franchise or personality rather than other considerations. But is this just a coincidence or could it be how the system was inadvertently crafted?

This article’s goal is to highlight why the current system is so sensitive to favoring artists who self-promote or whose fans rally on their behalf, at the expense of voters that weigh more toward judging the quality of the pieces nominated without authorship considerations. It will then propose a small change to make it more fair to both types of voters and creators, without stifling out those who show up with a passion for their artist.

Be wary, this gets long and technical. But if you’re reading this up to this point, I’m sure you knew that’s what you were in for.

This game is going to be tough to review, in essence the game’s strength only remains a strength the less I say about it and what makes it so good. I suppose the best way to approach it is how it displays on its surface. A fox protagonist in a green tunic raises his sword and blue shield to go on an adventure. Many would instantly connect this iconography to the Zelda franchise.

The game can be Zelda-like for sure, but it’s important to know that not all of Zelda’s Link’s outings are created equal. So the best way I can describe this is that it’s a Zelda-like, also known as a “Hero’s Adventure” game, that feels very much like the franchise before it went into a heavy handed narrative focus.

Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, dronon, and GreenReaper.