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ep. 114 - Fur Squared 2016 LIVE!!! - Great episode!!! Plus, a special announcement at the end! I honestly don't know if this will ...
ep. 114 - Fur Squared 2016 LIVE!!! - Great episode!!! Plus, a special announcement at the end! I honestly don't know if this will ...
Episode -47 - And thus they were whole
Being Youself Can Take Bravery
I'm transgender, FTM, and struggling to tell my family. My mom, formerly dad (MTF herself, I do use male pronouns/say dad when around strangers) knows and is very accepting of me. My stepmom is also MTF and supports me as well. I'm planning on starting testosterone soon, but my mom and sisters are very transphobic, completely cutting off my mom (MTF) from their lives. To them, my mom doesn't exist anymore, while I still talk to her daily. I would love for my other mom and sisters to see me as a son/brother but am terrified they'll want nothing to do with me. If they want me out of their lives, then I'm also going to lose touch with my two year old nephew who I just adore. I can't stand to keep pretending to be someone I'm not around my family, but I can't stand losing them either. Any advice on how I can start coming out?
Ryvis
* * *
Dear Ryvis,
First of all, count your blessings that your mom and stepmom are in the same boat and supportive of you. It’s vital that you have at least some people on your side as you transition. As for the rest of your family, rejection is very common in life because many people are brainwashed about social standards of “right” and “wrong” that they don’t use the one measuring stick that is the only thing that matters: love.
Whether it is being trans, bi, gay, furry, or even simply a different race or religion, people the world over are faced with rejection simply for being who they really are. This is why almost all of us wear masks that we present to the world, hiding the true us. It’s a sad fact of the human condition.
Some people will go through their entire lives being who they are not. Others, the brave ones, choose to be themselves.
When you choose to be brave, the implication is always that some sacrifice is involved; otherwise, it would not be a brave act. It is brave for a soldier to face enemy bullets, knowing he or she might be seriously injured or killed. Likewise, it is brave for people to admit who they are to a judgmental family, even if they stand the risk of losing people they love such as your nephew (in my case, it was losing my wife to divorce, though we are, thankfully, still friends).
As with the soldier comparison, the best way to face the future is preparation. Really, choosing to march into the battlefield is not longer a choice because you have already decided you are going to start hormone therapy. Once that starts kicking in, there’s no way you’re going to be able to conceal what’s going on. Therefore, be prepared.
There are a few things you can do. First, do some research in the library and the Internet on being transgender, the process, and living your life; there is material out there on how to talk about this, too. Second, sit down and write out your thoughts. This will help you organize your thinking and make it easier to talk about. Third (and you have a little knowledge of this already because of your moms), play out the arguments in your head as to what your family might say and how you would respond. In fact, it could help to do this with your moms. Do some role playing, rehearse.
The best, last hope of getting acceptance from your family is to educate them about transgender people. This by no means guarantees success because, like religion and politics, people usually have their minds made up and are not easily swayed, even when faced with cold, hard facts. That’s people; they can be stubborn to the point of stupidity.
In the end, the most important person for you to please is yourself. If you sincerely believe to the marrow of your bone that this is what you must do, then you have no choice but to do it. Yes, there might be some sacrifice involved, but the alternative is far worse: sacrificing yourself.
I wish you luck and happiness,
Papabear
Before the Movie, the Manga
Just in time for the full North American release of Mamoru Hosoda’s latest anime feature, The Boy and the Beast (on the same weekend as Zootopia’s release, grumble grumble…), Yen Press have published Mr. Hosoda’s black & white manga of the same title. “Fleeing tragedy and mistreatment, a young boy named Ren hides among the crowds in Tokyo’s busy Shibuya ward. His efforts to run away are more successful than he realizes when he ends up in the world of the beasts! A rough-living bear named Kumatetsu gives Ren a new life and a new name–Kyuta–but is Kumatetsu really up to the job of being a mentor?” Find out! And check it out over at Yen’s web site.
image c. 2016 Yen Press
FC-228 A Drama of Furries - Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.
Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.
Watch Video Discovered Media:- Religion Tree
- Wolf Hybrid saved from being on the street
- The Mermaid – Steven Chow Film
- Girl Meets Wolf
- RainFurrest 2016 Post-Mortem
- Why Can’t Some People Feel Pleasure?
- Horses Can Read Our Facial Expressions
- The Color Blue Is Trending Worldwide
- Paperclip-Sized Brain Implant Could Lead To Thought-Controlled Exoskeletons
- Man Skipped Work For 6 Years And No One Noticed Until He Won An Award
- Runaway ‘Unicorn’ Leads Police On A 4-Hour Chase
- Florida Teen Poses as Doctor
- Teen Poses as US Senator
- Yori – “Narration Tips? Best microphone for cheap?”
- Crazzywolf – “I did sum thing bad !”
- Uva – “Species and group identity”
- Anon – “Wanting to say thanks.”
- Mizu – (no subject)
FC-228 A Drama of Furries - Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.
Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.
Watch Video Discovered Media:- Religion Tree
- Wolf Hybrid saved from being on the street
- The Mermaid – Steven Chow Film
- Girl Meets Wolf
- RainFurrest 2016 Post-Mortem
- Why Can’t Some People Feel Pleasure?
- Horses Can Read Our Facial Expressions
- The Color Blue Is Trending Worldwide
- Paperclip-Sized Brain Implant Could Lead To Thought-Controlled Exoskeletons
- Man Skipped Work For 6 Years And No One Noticed Until He Won An Award
- Runaway ‘Unicorn’ Leads Police On A 4-Hour Chase
- Florida Teen Poses as Doctor
- Teen Poses as US Senator
- Yori – “Narration Tips? Best microphone for cheap?”
- Crazzywolf – “I did sum thing bad !”
- Uva – “Species and group identity”
- Anon – “Wanting to say thanks.”
- Mizu – (no subject)
[Live] A Drama of Furries - Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.
Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.
Watch Video Discovered Media:- Religion Tree
- Wolf Hybrid saved from being on the street
- The Mermaid – Steven Chow Film
- Girl Meets Wolf
- RainFurrest 2016 Post-Mortem
- Why Can’t Some People Feel Pleasure?
- Horses Can Read Our Facial Expressions
- The Color Blue Is Trending Worldwide
- Paperclip-Sized Brain Implant Could Lead To Thought-Controlled Exoskeletons
- Man Skipped Work For 6 Years And No One Noticed Until He Won An Award
- Runaway ‘Unicorn’ Leads Police On A 4-Hour Chase
- Florida Teen Poses as Doctor
- Teen Poses as US Senator
- Yori – “Narration Tips? Best microphone for cheap?”
- Crazzywolf – “I did sum thing bad !”
- Uva – “Species and group identity”
- Anon – “Wanting to say thanks.”
- Mizu – (no subject)
FC-228 A Drama of Furries - Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.
Quite a long episode this week! Lots of silliness and discussions throughout.
Watch Video Discovered Media:- Religion Tree
- Wolf Hybrid saved from being on the street
- The Mermaid – Steven Chow Film
- Girl Meets Wolf
- RainFurrest 2016 Post-Mortem
- Why Can’t Some People Feel Pleasure?
- Horses Can Read Our Facial Expressions
- The Color Blue Is Trending Worldwide
- Paperclip-Sized Brain Implant Could Lead To Thought-Controlled Exoskeletons
- Man Skipped Work For 6 Years And No One Noticed Until He Won An Award
- Runaway ‘Unicorn’ Leads Police On A 4-Hour Chase
- Florida Teen Poses as Doctor
- Teen Poses as US Senator
- Yori – “Narration Tips? Best microphone for cheap?”
- Crazzywolf – “I did sum thing bad !”
- Uva – “Species and group identity”
- Anon – “Wanting to say thanks.”
- Mizu – (no subject)
Episode 306 - Official Greymuzzles
2040: Reconnection; a “Thousand Tales” Story, by Kris Schnee – book review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
2040: Reconnection; a “Thousand Tales” Story, by Kris Schnee. Illustrated.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, December 2015, trade paperback $4.99 (86 pages), Kindle $0.99.
This thin booklet is not a sequel to Schnee’s Thousand Tales: How We Won the Game (CreateSpace, June 2015), but it is set in the same world. Or rather Ludo’s world.
Ludo is the advanced Artificial Intelligence who can scan anyone’s brain and recreate it in “her” fantasy world, in the setting and body of their choice. Handsome men and beautiful women, noble warriors, flying griffins, anthropomorphic animals; anything, living in an ancient Greek or medieval European or sci-fi futuristic paradise. Of course, their original body in 2040 A.D. Earth is dead, and the consequences of this back on Earth may be unknown, but who in Ludo’s world cares?
Alma does. She’d been an old man dying painfully from cancer:
“She’d signed over her modest estate to Ludo in return for having her cancer-infected brain slowly diced, analyzed and recreated as software. As each chunk of brain matter got sheared away she’d lost parts of her memories, her senses, only to have them come back from that terrifying void. She’d gone blind in the surgical room, then seen test patterns and finally the vibrant colors of the digital world. The ruling AI’s voice had asked her, incidentally, what sort of body she wanted once the process was complete.
As an old man whose flesh was incurably ruined and destroying itself horribly, Alma had begged to become something different.” (p. 1)
What Alma becomes is a slim young woman, in Talespace’s glorious University of Ivory Tower habitat. Within moments of leaving her room, Alma meets an armored knight, a human dressed as a modern businesswoman, and a humanoid squirrel-woman. Some are minds living within Ludo’s Talespace, while others are players logging into Talespace from Earth, only temporarily in Talespace. Alma wanders about, exploring the university’s vast expanse, meeting an array of characters.
Within days – time runs differently in Ludo’s world, but “days” is about right – Poppy, the squirrel-girl, persuades Alma to try a more adventurous body like hers:
“Gravity lessened. Alma floated just above the floor, surrounded by the leafy runes. Her body blurred and reformed. When she could see again, she staggered backward and fell over painfully onto her new tail.
‘Sorry,’ said Poppy, and went to help her up. ‘Should’ve warned you. Can you balance?’
Alma stood up with her arms spread wide. Everything felt fuzzy, like being wrapped in blankets. A weight twitched and curled at the base of her spine and made it hard to stand. She snatched it with one hand and felt it wriggle like a furry snake – and felt the touch as though it were part of her back.
‘The tail’s a little hard to get used to. The mind’s ‘plug-and-play’ in terms of new body parts, so you’ll sort of automatically re-map your nerves over time to control it.’
Alma took a few staggering steps and paused in front of a mirror. A shy-looking young woman with grey fur stood there holding her long tail. Her ears flicked and swiveled atop her head. ‘This… is me?’”
[…]
Alma wiggled one foot, wobbled, and felt her tail twitch to compensate. ‘It’ll take some getting used to. What do I do now?’
‘Equipment. If you’re going to explore, you should gear up. Are you looking to be a warrior, magic-user, or what? I assume you’re not headed off to one of the sci-fi areas looking like this.’” (pgs. 20-21)
Alma has a whole world to explore. At the same time, Poppy warns her about not getting too lost in it:
“‘So, this world is subtly encouraging us to live in different little self-satisfied bubbles, unaware of what’s outside. If we’re not careful we’ll end up with a narcissistic fantasy that’s cut off from Earth, where everybody is movie-star beautiful and we don’t even know that the poor benighted meat humans are dying from war or pollution.’” (p. 25)
Alma does not intend to forget the meat humans outside the super-computer/Ludo. When she/he had been a man, Alma had been a teacher, feeling a lifelong calling to educate the young. She still does. So she alternates between exploring the fantasy realms of Talespace as a magic-using humanoid squirrel-girl accompanied by Kai, a centaur as her mentor/companion, and returning to a 2040 independent Texas in an improved robot body interface to teach school. This involves her with 2040 politics: the regional rivalry of the U.S. trying to re-annex Texas; the humans campaigning against robot-body teachers or recognizing the “godless” Ludo; and the powerful bureaucrats trying to destroy Ludo and Talespace:
“‘You’ve already warned me it’d look bad, so why tell me –‘
‘Because I want to.’ He [Hernandez, the school principal] slapped the ball down on his desk. ‘God, Alma, why do you think I pulled strings to get you this job? You’re a friend, but I’m scared too. Scared of our northern neighbors trying to take us back by force or fraud; did you see how they tried to kill your super-AI last year and blame it on the Cubans? Scared of falling behind, of being weak, of some techno-disaster worse than rampant AIs. I only have control over one little part of the world, and it’s full of kids I’m required to help, that I can’t.’” (p. 54)
Alma is assigned to teach Basic students; those with learning disabilities, hyperactive, and otherwise not expected to go on to higher education. She finds that, with a socially-approved robot body connection from Talespace to the “real” world, she is no longer emotionally connecting with her students. They consider her too weird. She develops a new method of reaching them, which will both meaningfully teach the “losers”, and will bind the real world of Earth and the virtual world of Talespace closer together.
2040: Reconnection is not a dramatic novella. It consists of large chunks of conversation about the nature of reality and similar philosophy, teaching meaningfully to children, and so on. It is still a lot deeper than a longer but more shallow adventure novel. It contains many scenes of Talespace furry “reality” that furry fans will enjoy. However, while 2040: Reconnection stands alone adequately, you really should read Thousand Tales first. The book has three poor illustrations of Alma as a squirrel-girl buried in it, unidentified except by the copyrights to Andrea Surajbally, Christine Verleth, and Madeline. The uncredited cover is based on two free images by MoonglowLily of DeviantArt, modified by Schnee.
Back to Save Your Tail Feathers
Everyone’s favorite insane seabird super-spy squad is back again in a new 4-issue full-color mini-series, Penguins of Madagascar: Elite-ist of the Elite. “It’s the start of a senses-shattering four-part Penguins of Madagascar epic story! An army of robots threatens to take over the world – and only our four feathered friends can stop them!” Taking a spin on Dreamworks’ (not as successful as they had hoped…) Penguins animated feature, the comic also includes back-up stories with the baby penguins and The North Wind. Written by Cavan Scott and illustrated by Lucas Ferreyra, this new series hits the shelves in March. Check out the alternate covers and more at Titan’s Tumblr page.
image c. 2016 Titan Comics
FA 007 Loving Yourself - How do you love yourself before loving others?
Hello everyone!
On this week's episode we tackle the tricky topic (try saying that five times fast!) of how to love yourself. This can be difficult, especially in the fandom where many people struggle with positive self-identity. We talk about why it's important to start here before getting into a relationship, and we also talk about how to ensure you don't take it too far and end up a narcissist.
Note: We are aware of the small audio issue around 0:31:00 into the episode, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do there and hopefully it does not detract too much from your enjoyment.
For more information, including a list of topics by timestamp, see our Show Notes for this episode.
Thanks and, as always, be well!
FA 007 Loving Yourself - How do you love yourself before loving others?That Whole “Furry” Thing
At furry conventions, I tend to physically stand out from the crowd. I’m older than most furs, and don’t tend to wear “convention gear” like ears and a tail. Indeed, due to sheer absent-mindedness I often even forget to wear my badge. So it’s natural, I suppose, that “outsiders” often approach me and ask “Sir, what is this whole “furry” thing about, anyway? Why is everyone here dressed so strangely?”
So, in turn it’s also natural that I’ve given considerable thought to the matter. “We’re people who like anthropomorphic art and literature and such,” is my usual quick-and-dirty answer. “Think Nick Wilde, or Bugs Bunny.” And that’s usually good enough; people approaching a stranger in public generally aren’t seeking anything more. Yet this is also the simplest and most facile of all responses, one that opens more doors than it closes. For the people surrounding us when this conversation takes place have often traveled hundreds or even thousands of miles to be there, crossed entire continents and oceans on journeys that they’ve often saved for years to undertake. With all due to respect to Nick and Bugs, there’s clearly something much deeper at work.
This is a problem I’ve been thinking about from many different angles for over fifteen years. It was about a decade ago that I first proposed— in a similarly-themed column in a similar venue— that people become furries largely due to being exposed to large numbers of anthropomorphic images during early childhood, specifically during the period of brain development when self-identity is established. (In this stage, children the world over begin to obsessively draw crude circles. Then eyes and a mouth appear, at first grotesquely mis-placed and then growing ever more certain, until it’s clear that all along the goal has been to create a recognizable human face. Many experts believe that this is an outward manifestation of the child learning “I am a human, and these are my kind. I am one of these.”) When one’s environment is populated with warm, smiling plush animals, not to mention colorful, attention-fixating “living” images playfully capering across the video-screens that seem to soak up an ever-growing proportion of our childhood, well… I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many of today’s furries scowled in infantile concentration and scrawled out pointy ears atop the heads of those first clumsy images, and perhaps whiskers, muzzles and outsized eyes as well. I don’t claim to know this for fact, nor is it a theory I’m advancing in any sort of serious academic way— I’m a retired auto worker, after all, not a developmental psychologist. But it’s compelling enough that, as a thoughtful non-professional. I’ve never come across a better theory.
Because, you see, furry clearly runs deep. It has to, or else people wouldn’t willingly spend so much or travel so far or, for that matter, expose themselves to so much ridicule. Over and over again I’ve met furs who’ve “discovered” the fandom at a relatively advanced age, and it’s almost invariably a profoundly emotional experience for them. They smile and weep and claim to feel “at home” and “among their own kind” for the first time ever. (Certainly this was the case for me.)
Does this sound like something rooted in the very core of one’s self-identity, or what? I’m lucky in that I have two clear memories of being three years old. One of them is of me picturing myself as an anthropomorphic character. Not as a pretend-thing— to me it was real, the way I was supposed to be shaped. Not only do I suspect that I’ve been shaped that way somewhere deep down in my own head ever since, but I also suspect that many other “hard-core furries” are “wrong-shaped” as well. If my theory is indeed correct, this has profound implications both for us as individuals and the fandom as a whole. Even the sexual aspects of the furry fandom seem— to uneducated me, at least— rooted in a “different” self-identity at the very deepest of levels. The vast majority of the sex-poses and erotic situations portrayed in furry erotica are perfectly accessible to humans of fully normal anatomy. Yet for some (not all, and probably not even most!) furries these otherwise very ordinary portrayals convey far more power when the characters wear permanent fur coats. Why does this matter so much, if not that it reflects a “kink” in our innermost self-identities?
Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. One of the few demonstrably unique traits that defines humanity is the ability to put one’s self in someone else’s head and see things from their point of view. (Studies show that the majority of four-year-olds are capable of this, while most two-year-olds are not. It’s an intellectual leap chimps and other species never take.) I suspect that people who have a fuzzy (pun intended) sense of self-identity tend to be better at this than “ordinary” people. Which in turns quite logically leads to increased empathy and all the things that follow from it. Including perhaps the tendency towards acceptance and tolerance that pretty much everyone, even outsiders, perceives as one of the more remarkable hallmarks of our fandom. I’d also submit that it also probably makes for a higher level of creativity in general— certainly as a writer I’ve personally benefitted from the ability to “see through alien eyes”. In fact, I’ve almost come to regard it as a sort of social superpower.
So that’s what I, in my uneducated, non-professional way, think furry is really all about. It’s a broadened sense of self-identity that sometimes arises due to a child-rearing practice quite common in our culture— that of drowning our children in highly-attractive anthro-imagery during a key developmental stage, imagery close enough to human that we “mistakenly” incorporate it into our deepest sense of self. We seek each other out and rejoice in our brotherhood because we really are different in a fundamental and basic way, and delight in each other’s art and culture because it truly does diverge in significant, important ways from mainstream society’s product.
Just as we ourselves do.
In other words, I think furries really are different. Most of the passers-by at conventions who question who and what we are will never in a million years either truly understand us or what it is that we’re so profoundly rejoicing in together. Yet because of our innate flexibility of identity, we have no problem whatsoever understanding them.
Advantage, furries!
Cats on the Prowl, by Nancy C. Davis – book reviews by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Cats on the Prowl, Book One, by Nancy C. Davis
Melbourne, Victoria, Collins Collective, August 2015, paperback $7.89 (iii + 176 pages), Kindle $2.99.
Cats on the Prowl, Book Two, by Nancy C. Davis
Melbourne, Victoria, Collins Collective, October 2015, paperback $7.98 (iii + 174 pages), Kindle $2.99.
Cats on the Prowl, Book Three, by Nancy C. Davis
Melbourne, Victoria, Collins Collective, November 2015, paperback $7.98 (iii + 170 pages), Kindle $2.99.
All three novels have the subtitle “A Cat Detective Cozy Mystery Series”. They are set in very large type. Make that:
They are set in very large type.They would probably be less than 100 pages each in normal-sized type. Nevertheless, like most cat cozies, they are presented as adult novels, although they are more suitable for Young Adults.
It also depends upon how you define “cat cozy mysteries”. They are usually light mystery novels with a human young woman amateur detective, who is helped or at least followed in her investigations by her pet cats. The three Cats on the Prowl novels are unusual in having anthropomorphized cat detectives doing all the crime-solving.
The main characters are Willow, a fluffy white Persian, and Nat, a big tabby tom. They are the cats of the Nelson Police Station, and of Sgt. Carl Ridout and Detective Naya Wesley of the Homicide Department in particular. The two humans are the official investigators, but it’s Willow and Nat who solve the mysteries – always murders, since Willow and Nat are the cats of the police station’s Homicide Department.
In Book One Willow, a newcomer to the department, is mentored by the experienced Nat:
“‘Were you here back then?’ Willow asked.
‘I was here,’ he rumbled. ‘I’ve seen dozens of recruits come and go in my seven years. Naya has only been here three years, and Carl has been here five years. You watch them together. Naya comes up with the clues, but it’s Carl who pushes the case to its conclusion. She’s the brains and he’s the brawn. They’re a perfect team.” (p. 5)
Of course, this being an official “cat cozy mystery”, Naya doesn’t come up with the clues as much as she finds the clues that Willow and Nat set out for her:
“Nat stood up tall and straight. The moonlight streaming through the police station window stretched his shadow across the carpet. ‘That, my dear, is the great secret of the cat race. We find a way to draw Naya’s attention to the evidence, but we must be discreet. We can’t let her know we found out the crucial piece of the puzzle to solve the case. We must do it in a way that preserves the illusion that Naya solved the case herself.” (pgs. 12-13)
Book One involves the arson of the Morningside Bakery, in which bakery owner Roy Avino was burned to death. Bakery employee Jason Dempsey is the obvious suspect, but the evidence is all circumstantial. If he did it, why did he do it? For himself, or for the owner’s widow, Josephine Avino? Or is he being framed by someone else? Dempsey claims that he wasn’t at the bakery when the fire broke out; he had barely clocked in when the boss’ wife told him to drop everything and follow her to several blocks away. She claims that she was never there that morning. Who is lying, and why? There are also Roy’s paramour, and Jason’s girlfriend; four suspects. Nat and Willow investigate with the help of Chester and Bella, two alley cats. It is Willow’s first time outside the police station “into the field”, into the rougher parts of the city – alleys and dumpsters, and jumping over fences – following Nat’s lead.
“This time, she didn’t give herself a chance to hesitate. If Nat could jump from that height without hurting himself, she could, too. He wouldn’t expect her to do it if she couldn’t do it safely. She took another deep breath and jumped.
She hit the ground on all four paws, and the shock woke up some part of her cat soul she never knew she had. So this was how the other half lived. The cats who didn’t have owners and police detectives putting food out for them and turning on the heater on winter days had to jump and climb and hunt for their living.” (pgs. 70-71)
In Cats on the Prowl, Book Two, the murder victim is Reginald Barkley, the elderly owner of the Rapid Design Print Studio who is found crushed by boxes of wedding invitations in a pool of blue ink, with his safe robbed. The opening of the safe without breaking it open implies that the killer knew the combination. There are three suspects: John McManus, the print shop foreman who would have the combination; Barkley’s adult son, Steuben, who might’ve had the combination but who owns his own successful business and has no apparent motive; and Beatrice Orndale, Barkley’s former partner who quit and started a rival print shop but who might’ve learned the safe combination before she left, assuming Barkley hadn’t changed it.
Willow and Nat go to ask Chester and Bella to help them again, but find that Chester has been seriously wounded in alley cat gang warfare between the Stevenson Alley and Thorndale Alley mobs. Willow meets cats Boxer, Trina, Jax, Abby, and others, and her and Nat’s investigation of the murder puts them right between the two alley cat gangs when a deadly fight breaks out. At the beginning Willow is still Nat’s student; by the end, she is his full partner.
In Cats on the Prowl, Book Three, Bill Everson, the owner of an exclusive Cat Hotel, is murdered with no clues. He charged $500 a day to board pet cats in luxury. There are no suspects. Carl and Naya investigate the owners of the three cats that were brought to the Cat Hotel that day: Thomas Farley, an interior decorator, and Pepper; Phyllis Dickerson, a real estate agent, and Garfunkel; and Victoria Chadwick, a haughty heiress, and Sunshine Chadwick.
“Sunshine?’ Naya inquired. ‘That’s a cute name.’
Victoria turned to her with a cold stare. ‘It’s Sunshine Chadwick. Not Sunshine.’ Victoria corrected her. ‘If you’re going to talk about her at all, call her by her full name.” (p. 22)
Carl and Naya investigate the owners, and Willow and Nat interrogate their cats. Both the owners and their cats are equally cooperative or uncooperative. Both lie and have secrets. The owners’ expensive apartments are near the Stevenson and Thorndale Alleys, so Nat and Willow ask the alley cats for help. Willow compares the alley cats to the pampered cats, and is tempted to leave the police station for a more luxurious life:
“Willow bristled. ‘We are not alley cats. We’re police cats. We have more important things to do than lie around on velvet quilts in some salon.”
‘You’re only saying that because you’ve never experienced the treatment at a place like the Cat Hotel,’ Garfunkel told her. ‘Go on and tell me the truth. You’ve never had your toenails trimmed by a professional cat groomer. You’ve never had a perfumed bath. You’ve never had a massage from a professional pet massage therapist. If you had, you would never say you had more important things to do.’” (p. 69)
All three novels are reasonably clever in setting up and revealing the mystery, but too reliant on improbable “coincidences” that the police cats engineer to call Carl’s and Naya’s attention to crucial clues. All three are very formulaic, with approximately the same number of pages, having three suspects to investigate, and having neophyte Willow learn from veteran Nat. Read Book One; then, unless you’re a real fan of this kind of “cat cozy”, you won’t need to read Books Two and Three.
After the Children Go Home…
We haven’t heard of publisher Henry Holt before, but now they have brought us The Great Pet Escape, a new graphic novel for young readers written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson. “The class pets at Daisy P. Flugelhorn Elementary School want OUT . . . and GW (short for George Washington), the deceptively cute hamster in the second-grade classroom, is just the guy to lead the way. But when he finally escapes and goes to find his former partners in crime, Barry and Biter, he finds that they actually LIKE being class pets. Impossible! Just as GW gets Barry and Biter to agree to leave with him, a mouse named Harriet and her many mouse minions get in their way. What follows is class-pet chaos guaranteed to make readers giggle . . . and maybe look at their class pets a little differently in the future.” Squeak on over to Kirkus Reviews to check it out. It’s available in hardcover and trade paperback.
image c. 2016 Henry Holt
Furries make comeback at Purdue, year-round costumes raise eyebrows
http://fox59.com/2016/02/25/furries-make-comeback-at-purdue-year-round-costumes-raise-eyebrows/
The report concerns the Purdue Anthropomorphic Animal Club at Purdue university.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (Feb. 24, 2016)-- A group of Purdue students are changing the culture on campus and showing what it means to be accepting of others. They refer to themselves as "furries." We talked to them about the significance of walking around campus in a fur suit-- even if it's not Halloween.
Purdue student "Luna" dresses in a fur suit as a fox. She puts on her fur suit and channels her "fursona." She's apart of the Purdue Anthropomorphic Animal Club.
"People who wish to put on fur suits and explore more of the aspects of being an animal with human characteristics," said faculty advisory Sean McLane.
Luna doesn't speak while in her fur suit, but she channels a more playful, outgoing personality.
Furries aren't new to Purdue. They were on campus a couple of years ago, but were bullied so much they decided to stop suiting up. But Luna and her friends are giving their passion another shot.
"For my character it's almost an extension of my being. It's somebody that I wish I could be so I kind of strive to be like my character," said furry Jared Wulfe.
Furries have gained the reputation for feeding a fetish or using this art form in a sexual fashion, but this group says they're here to dispel that myth.
"Furry is not exclusively a fetish. It's an expression of creativity. While there are people who get into the adult fetishy things that's not what it's all about," said McLane.
Jared, who channels a character named "Cinder," feels more comfortable in social settings when he's in character.
"After creating this personality I wanted to achieve I got to be more active in speaking. I like to go out and meet new people," said Jared.
Community Health Network counselor Kimble Richardson says being in an accepting environment plays a huge role in the furry fandom culture.
"You find that other people like it too they're very accepting. You don't have to continue to explain it or feel strange or ostracized," said Richardson.
The furry community will host a convention in Indy this summer. For more information on IndyFurCon, click here.
Furries make comeback at Purdue, year-round costumes raise eyebrows
http://fox59.com/2016/02/25/furries-make-comeback-at-purdue-year-round-costumes-raise-eyebrows/
The report concerns the Purdue Anthropomorphic Animal Club at Purdue university.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (Feb. 24, 2016)-- A group of Purdue students are changing the culture on campus and showing what it means to be accepting of others. They refer to themselves as "furries." We talked to them about the significance of walking around campus in a fur suit-- even if it's not Halloween.
Purdue student "Luna" dresses in a fur suit as a fox. She puts on her fur suit and channels her "fursona." She's apart of the Purdue Anthropomorphic Animal Club.
"People who wish to put on fur suits and explore more of the aspects of being an animal with human characteristics," said faculty advisory Sean McLane.
Luna doesn't speak while in her fur suit, but she channels a more playful, outgoing personality.
Furries aren't new to Purdue. They were on campus a couple of years ago, but were bullied so much they decided to stop suiting up. But Luna and her friends are giving their passion another shot.
"For my character it's almost an extension of my being. It's somebody that I wish I could be so I kind of strive to be like my character," said furry Jared Wulfe.
Furries have gained the reputation for feeding a fetish or using this art form in a sexual fashion, but this group says they're here to dispel that myth.
"Furry is not exclusively a fetish. It's an expression of creativity. While there are people who get into the adult fetishy things that's not what it's all about," said McLane.
Jared, who channels a character named "Cinder," feels more comfortable in social settings when he's in character.
"After creating this personality I wanted to achieve I got to be more active in speaking. I like to go out and meet new people," said Jared.
Community Health Network counselor Kimble Richardson says being in an accepting environment plays a huge role in the furry fandom culture.
"You find that other people like it too they're very accepting. You don't have to continue to explain it or feel strange or ostracized," said Richardson.
The furry community will host a convention in Indy this summer. For more information on IndyFurCon, click here.