The gaming department of Pawpet Megaplex has announced the deadline of March 1st. Pre-register by March 1st and agree to run 10 hours of gaming to get free admission to the con!

On Saturday, a cow broke free of its slaughterhouse pen, somehow climbed an eight foot fence, and has eluded Cincinnati police since that time. They've used night scopes, helicopter surveillance, and thermal imaging, but to no avail. The cow has even foiled traps set around the city, taking the bait and running.

From The Independant:

Polar bears get away with a lot because they're so nicely dressed. Apparently they're every bit as grumpy as grizzlies. You wouldn't want to leave your children near them because they'd probably be eaten in seconds.

But polar bears are good in commercials, so their private life has been hushed up by the studio publicity machine. In advertising, bears are winsome and funny. In the Coca-Cola commercial – the latest in a campaign that's been running for several years now, on and off – the polar bears are great family people too. These bears – Mum, Dad and three cubs – live in a spacey blue-white right world, like the moon with added snow, round a pool with pixilated currents. The computer animation is so sophisticated that their white fur ripples and shines convincingly. You can see every hair, just as if they'd been using an expensive Victorian hair oil.

For the full story, click here:
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=120387

The Houston Chronicle printed an article today (which I can't seem to find on their website) about a recently discovered prehistoric crocodilian, dubbed SuperCroc. It lived 110 million years ago, could grow as much as 40 feet long, and it ate dinosaurs! There's a website about it here.

From Yahoo News:

NEW YORK (Variety) - "Shrek" producer John H. Williams will develop a computer-animated feature based on "Schnozz," a British cartoon canine romp.

The picture concerns a crossbreed mutt and the coterie of rejected animals he meets as he attempts to follow in the footsteps of his famous police dog father. "Schnozz" was created by U.K. illustrator and character designer Gary Chapman and written by Jordan Katz.

The project marks one of the first to be developed by Williams' Vanguard Animation after it recently secured a $100 million indie production fund. Williams just produced the Jackie Chan picture "The Tuxedo" at DreamWorks.

Chapman designed the characters and story for "Junk," an animated musical in development at Warner Bros., and he designed the characters for Vanguard's upcoming production "Valiant," a parody of "Top Gun" portraying carrier pigeons serving in WWII Europe. Katz's credits include "Assault on Norway," a WWII thriller set up at DreamWorks.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=600&u=/nm/20020215/film_nm/film_schnozz_dc_1

Yahoo News reveals more Disney sequels and their profitability factor, including The Lion King 3, Tarzan 2, Piglet's Big Movie (The Tigger Movie sequel), and Mulan 2 & 3 among others.

At least they're making more talking animal movies...

Follow the link below:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020219/film_nm/film_disney_dc_1&cid=600

Google (www.google.com), one of the most popular search engines, has been changing its logo daily in tribute to the Winter Olympics. Each new logo shows one or more cute anthropomorphic critters of different species engaged in a variety competitive winter sports. (Today, a foxmorph does the ski-jump.)

You might remember the last time we reported on a lioness caring for a baby antelope, who was later eaten by another lion.
Well, it's happened again. She's found ANOTHER oryx, and is caring for it. Experts are much more worried this time because the mother of the baby cannot nurse it (it's understandibly terrified of the lion pride). The lioness is protecting the new baby so well that not only are other lions not able to steal it, humans can't take it away to give it some food. If this continues, it will likely starve in the next day or two.

Text from cartoonresearch.com:

A petition to get rid of SCOOBY DOO!

Think the CARTOON NETWORK runs too much SCOOBY DOO?

Here's your chance to be heard. Petition Online.com has a "Request for the Reduction of "Scooby-Doo" Programming".

It may be too late - with a live action feature film due this spring, a new animated series in production for this fall - and more direct-to-video movies in production (not to mention Scooby's continued high ratings on Cartoon Network) - someone out there must like the show.

If you've had enough Scooby Snacks to last a lifetime, click here to sign your name to this petition.

Zoinks!

http://www.petitiononline.com/Scoo/petition.html

Money is money. References are made to further sequels to Disney classics in the works in this article from Yahoo, which also covers the mouse's other recent animated forays:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=493&u=/ap/20020213/ap_en_mo/wkd_disney_sequels_2

From animationblast.com:

Get Ready For The Fun Bird. Baseball's Baltimore Orioles will be adding a cartoon logo to their uniform and jacket sleeves for the 2002 season, the club announced yesterday. The character, called the "Fun Bird," was created in 1997 for the Orioles' "Dugout Club" kids program. Fun Bird was designed by Ken Mitchroney, an animation artist who has many TV credits and was a story artist on TOY STORY II and MONSTERS INC. So to all you out-of-work animators, here's a new potentially lucrative line of work: sports team cartoon characters. Think of all the possibilities - MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL, and all those minor league teams too...

http://www.animationblast.com

Text from animationblast.com:

The 73- year-old mayor of Hurricane, West Virginia is a Mickey Mouse fan...make that a BIG MICKEY MOUSE FAN. For starters, he's got a Mickey lamp, stapler, clock and tissue box on his office desk and over a dozen Mickey watches. Read the CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL for all the mousy details.

http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2002021425/

From Yahoo News:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cereal giant Kellogg Co. is relying on a little magic from Walt Disney to help counter a slump in U.S. cereal sales.

Kellogg, the country's No. 2 maker of breakfast cereal, unveiled Wednesday three new cereals based on Disney characters Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and Buzz Lightyear from ``Toy Story.''

For the full article:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/020214/14/1gdun.html

Both links have pictures of the coyote aboard the train.

http://www.tri-met.org/pressrel/prfeb0203.htm

PORTLAND - An unexpected rider was spotted on Tri-Met's Airport MAX Red
Line on Wednesday, February 13 around 11:30AM. The small coyote boarded
at the Portland International Airport station. Port of Portland Airfield
Operations and Wildlife staff found the coyote and quickly released the
animal. Coyotes go out of their way to avoid humans and are more likely
to be afraid of people than vice versa. Tri-Met officials aren't sure if
[the coyote] had a valid transit fare.

February 2002 FurEauction Newsletter
http://www.fureauction.com

Hello again, another month and another news letter.

Already a con has past since the last newsletter and talking to users
of the site reminded me of something. Each user described and talked
how they used the site in ways I never even dreamed of. They took a
site designed by a few fans and changed it to be there site. Making it
work their way. From changing the front page to working on integrating
it with their own site. Each user seem to have a special way of using
the site preferences to make it their site.

In the future FurEauction is still committed to continue to expand and
change to help users fulfill their needs. And we will continue to
expand and grow to meet those needs.