Feral Attraction has been a podcast dedicated to relationship styles, and giving furry fans advice on how to navigate them. The hosts have been Viro the Science Collie and Metriko the red panda. The first episode aired in January 2016, and seems to have ended as of December 2018, after Viro was confronted by a torrent of abuse allegations.

The accusations started with Koji, who had been in a relationship with Viro for five years. He described being steered into major financial debt, creating dependence, along with being emotionally and psychologically manipulated. Afterwards, several more furs came forward to say they'd also been abused by Viro during their younger days in the fandom, and how they'd been coerced:

• Mystery Paws
• Harke
• Glow Mew
• Arisoth the Dragon
• Frisky Feline

Soon after these additional stories came out, Viro locked his own Twitter account from the public. The Feral Attraction episode feed was similarly restricted, changing its description to say that the podcast's site was for archival purposes only.

So last weekend I sat down and remembered that BoJack season 5 had released onto Netflix. Being relatively new to the platform I thought that meant one episode was released and would have slow releases over time. No, apparently it means that all the episodes are released and you can watch them all.

One or two episodes wouldn’t hurt, I noted on Saturday. By the time Sunday rolled around I had gone through the entire season and was a bit drained, but still the interactions and story arcs between the characters had kept me hooked and dragged me through the entire bender. I hadn’t recorded my weekly show so I decided to take the week off and not record.

I don’t have a problem, really.

But, the show isn’t for everyone. It uses comedy as a pointed look at the worst parts of how things are for those caught within a perpetual cycle of self-inflicted wounds brought on by less than optimal decision making. If you prefer your comedy with a higher proportion toward the happy face, and less toward the tragic and woeful one, then the show may not be for you. For those folks I’d recommend Buddy Thunderstruck if you haven’t seen that one before.

However, for those who like a cerebral comedy with flawed characters in a flawed world it is well worth the watch. For those of you who have watched it, or if you don’t plan on watching it so you don’t mind spoilers, please continue to read the rest of the article for my thoughts about the fifth season. But be wary, like the show the way I am reviewing this may get a bit ‘too real’ near the end.

Full disclosure: I wrote a blurb for this book, which is quoted on the back cover.

Farmost Star I See Tonight is a mystical, dreamy, touching romantic fantasy for shy teenagers. Whether humans or wolves, ‘omega’ adolescents may feel that they are alone. This novel will help them to see that their troubles are not unique or their fault, and that, even if they have not met them yet, there is someone out there for them.

Rian is a black-furred adolescent wolf and Lissa is white-furred. Otherwise, they are almost identical. Both are shy and lonely members of their packs, blamed by their parents for refusing to socialize, but finding nobody among their peers with whom they can truly be friends. Rian’s father Gull despises him for having no interest in pack dominance battles, and Lissa is left to take care of her younger siblings while her parents bicker and ignore them.

Then, Lissa was left alone in the dark with only her feelings of sorrow, self-hate, and loneliness to sooth her into sleep. (p. 7)

CreateSpace, March 2013, trade paperback $14.95 (188 [+ 3] pages), Kindle $6.00.

A link-sprinkled news post in TIME discusses the possibility for a state-wide animal-abuser registry in California. [credit: Doodles/furryne.ws]

The proposed registry is estimated to cost anywhere from half-a-million to a million dollars to setup, plus another $300,000-$400,000 annually.

While nobody really wants to support animal abuse, an editorial from the Fresno Bee notes the current proposal does not have the backing of pet food vendors, whose products would be taxed to fund it, and suggests it duplicates the work of private anti-abuse organizations.

An American man was found guilty of animal abuse and fined $1,000 for slicing the tails off of his dogs with a box cutter...

Link Here

Créations, a Quebec supplier of professional mascots best known for the Montreal Expos mascot Youppi!, has lodged a complaint against Bell Canada for running a series of advertisements the company believes are responsible for a wave of mascot abuse.

Jean-Claude Tremblay, the company's president, complained in a National Post article:

"Just this weekend I had one [mascot] with six people on him. They tried unzipping his costume ... one of the kids was halfway inside the costume with the person. He fell on his back and then they jumped on him."

http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20020529/377315.html

Here's one from left field. New Scientist just posted a news article about the occupational hazards of mascots in furry costume. Apparently some research was done by Johns Hopkins on the subject.

45 miles north of Kingman Arizona, along highway 93 between Dolan and Hoover dam A new animal shelter is being built. KEEPERS OF THE WILD, having moved from Las Vegas Nevada is planning on building a new 3.5 acre park-like habitat for it's resident animals.This will include a gift shop and deli to help provide needed funds for this non-profit organisation.