Contributors this month include dronon, earthfurst, EberraWolf, and Rakuen Growlithe.

Attendees at opening ceremonies for Furgeddaboutit in its second year, whose theme was centered around the 1980s. (Eberra Wolf/Flayrah)

Co-reported with Kamen The Lycanroc

In the last weekend of April, Furgeddaboutit’s second year hosted over a thousand attendees and raised $11,828.31 for charity. For the New Jersey convention, this year’s theme was “Don’t You FURGeddabout Me: All About the 80s!”. From Friday to Sunday, songs from the decade emanated from the ballroom, a few furs dressed in their best 80s fashion, and several took photos with small sets in the hallway, themed on the decade.

Furgeddaboutit was originally established to spite another furry convention, Garden State Fur The Weekend, or GSFTW, for its unscrupulous ties with an infamous furry group that was responsible for ending Rocky Mountain Fur Con in 2017. In turn Furgeddaboutit drew prospective attendees away from it by overlapping on the same days. GSFTW suffered a large blow from what became a drain of defectors, and as of writing is seemingly defunct. There has been no official talk of a 2026 convention for Garden State beside what appears to be in the last public communication, on Twitter in mid-June of last year, fielding suggestions on a theme. GSFTW did not respond to a request for comment.

I was vaguely aware, browsing bookstores and libraries, that there was an odd group of murder mysteries with cats on the cover illustration (and cat puns in the title of course), but for many years was not entirely sure that this wasn't just one prolific author writing one ongoing series to a niche but dedicated readership of cat detective fans. Despite being a fan of anthropomorphic animals in stories, and generally liking detective fiction, they just seemed a little bit too specific for even me. The only example of one of these novels I've ever read featured foxes rather than cats, and it was unfortunately terrible enough that it killed what little spark of enthusiasm for the genre I had. My lack of interest in the sub-genre seems to be mirrored by the furry fandom at large (we tend to like our cat detectives a bit more bipedal, among other traits).

Recently, this little genre has slipped off the written page and onto the big screen. The Sheep Detectives adapts one of these novels, Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, which the observant reader may have already deduced features sheep detectives rather than cats. Directed by Kyle Balda, this movie tells the story of George Hardy, an Irish shepherd played by Hugh Jackman, who enjoys reading detective stories out loud to his flock, never believing for a second they are actually paying attention to the stories and learning sleuthing skills second hand from these readings. When George suddenly dies one night, the sheep begin to suspect foul play, and decide to solve the crime themselves.