Feed aggregator

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, by Mary E. Lowd.
Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, September 2015, trade paperback $9.95 (131 pages), Kindle $6.99.

This collection of 13 cat short stories by Mary E. Lowd contains nine reprints and four original tales. It also contains all of her popular “Shreddy” stories, including a new one written just for this collection; six in all.

Shreddy is an overweight tabby housecat; one of three pets – the other two are Cooper, a moronic labradoodle, and Susie, an idiotic spaniel — of a Red-Haired Woman enamored of electrical devices that she doesn’t really understand. Shreddy would undoubtedly take exception to being called a “pet”. He is an independent individual who just happens to share a house with her and her brain-dead, slobbery dogs. He is constantly in a battle of wits with the Red-Haired Woman (which she doesn’t notice), using her electrical devices (that he doesn’t understand, either). Whether Shreddy is using the Red-Haired Woman’s printer to reanimate dead mice (“The Necromouser”), using her smartphone’s games to bring deceased mice (“‘Brains!’ they all squeaked back in chorus”) and neighborhood dogs back from the dead as zombies (“Shreddy and the Zomb-Dogs”), using a TV dish to hatch a griffin’s egg (“Shreddy and the Silver Egg”), dueling with Whisperquick, the ghost mouse (“Shreddy watched with eyes dilated like a kitten high on catnip, wondering whether the Red-Haired Woman and the dogs could see the ornaments constantly rearranging themselves. Surely the Red-Haired Woman must notice that one of her Santa ornaments was wearing six hats while five others went hatless?”) for control over a plastic-&-metal Christmas tree (“Shreddy and the Christmas Ghost”), inadvertently entering a PlayCube (“Shreddy and the Dancing Dragon”), or coming to an accommodation with a Venus flytrap with a sweet tooth (“Shreddy and the Carnivorous Plant”), Shreddy is always determined to defend his turf, even if it almost kills him.

The six “Shreddy” stories fill slightly over the first half of this collection. The remaining seven, four reprints and three original, all quite short, are stand-alones.

“Songs of Fish and Flowers” tells of Carly, a cat in a house of a witch who also grows enchanted roses. When the witch moves out, Carly and the roses are abandoned. This is a melancholy mood piece.

“Katelynn the Mythic Mouser” is a companion story. Aunt Molly is a modern witch with a garden. When little Jenna stays with her, she learns magic. When Jenna has to return to her mundane parents’ home, she wants to bring Molly’s cat, Katelynn, with her. Magic provides a way.

“The Wharf Cat’s Mermaid” is set on San Francisco’s touristy Fisherman’s Wharf. Mari is a homeless kitten, mewing for food from the Wharf’s stalls. She watches as Buttercup, an adult feral cat, is given a glamour by Elayne the mermaid to pose as human to get her Ghiradelli’s bitter dark chocolate in exchange for fish. Mari offers to do the same, but the glamour makes the kitten seem to be a little human child, too young to be alone. Elayne offers her a different magic …

“Magtwilla and the Mouse” features a mother cat who is bereft of her kittens and finds something else to love.

“Cold Tail and the Eyes” could be a companion piece to the above. Here, Gray Tail is one of the kittens, and he fights being separated from his mother. He fights and fights, and uses up his nine lives. He finally learns to stop fighting.

In “All the Cats of the Rainbow”, Sarah is a lively Persian kitten bought as a birthday present by scientist Aunt Carrie for young Toby. On their way to his birthday party, she stops at her lab to check on an experiment.   Sarah falls into it:

“A harmony of meows – higher pitched from Violet, Blue, and Indigo; subtly lower from Red – expressed surprise and confusion. All seven of Sarah looked at each other with wide green eyes, unchanged by the prism. On Green, her eyes and fur matched perfectly, a solid emerald kitten. On Red, her sparkling green eyes framed by ruddy red fur gave her face a Christmas look.” (p. 124)

Toby is delighted to get such a playmate.

“In a Cat’s Eyes” contrasts Jason, an exuberant Collie puppy, and Myra, an aged Siamese cat. Jason has his whole future in front of him. But this is only one of Myra’s many, infinitely varied lives.

This small book (cover by Roberto A. Sanchez) – it would be a short novella if it was a single story – presents one magical cat in six adventures, and seven others having an adventure apiece. Many of them are so short they are little more than mood pieces. But they are all delightful, like a box of rich mixed chocolates. They are probably best taken one or two at a time, and savored – unless you are a glutton for all of them at once.

–Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Buy on Furplanet

The artist Larry MacDougall describes what he does as “fairy tale illustration, comics, and animation”. Working largely with traditional materials and techniques to create his fantasy dreamscapes of humans, fairy folk, mythical creatures, and anthropomorphic whatsits. (We hope he won’t mind us saying that his work reminds us a lot of Brian Froud — in a good way.) Larry has a new paperback book out now called Traditional Magic, Fantasy, and Fairy Tale Design, published by CTN. It features drawings, sketches, and full-color paintings divided up by various creatures. You can keep up with Larry at his Blogspot site, and see more from inside the book over at the Center Stage Gallery.

The Pumpkin Dealer by Larry MacDougall c. 2015

I just did mine today, I think it's all right

might do like the first two and then a few lucky random winners later

edit: Sylveon99 and Cressela were the first two, the remainders will be chosen randomly

I am currently developing a huge crush on Pip from Paladins. Obviously I think it's okay, since the whole point of anthro is to have human qualities. But what's your opinion, /r/furry?

Anthros dont kill other anthros, especially for food. But animals like lions, tigers, gryphons, dragons and many others who are predators eat meat. But if you can't kill animals, than...

...where you guys be gettin' dat meat, hhhmmmm?

So, heh, hello! This is an introduction of sorts, not just to all of you but to myself as well.

I am a deeply closeted furry. This post constitutes my literal first admission of this to anyone. I've felt it my entire life, but didn't have a name for it until a few years ago. But due to some stigma, I've kept it secret and tried to deny it about myself. Last six months, I don't feel like I can keep it hidden anymore and I want to learn about and explore the community. I've come close to telling people in my life of my interest, but anytime the word "furry" comes up, the phrases "fur fag" and "I'm into some weird stuff, but that is just TOO weird" come up quite often in a rather disdainful tone. So, of course, I'm apprehensive to tell people.

Anyone up to talking or whatever, it seems i got dumped without much of a chance to fix it sooo yeah.