Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week
February 6, 2025

Nominate now! The Ursa Major Awards honor the best works of furry fandom in 2024.

by Patch O'Furr

Ursa art by Foxenawolf.

The Ursa Major Awards are an annual feature of furry fandom’s favorite media. Right now anything made in 2024 is eligible, and anyone can choose what deserves recognition.

GO HERE TO NOMINATE NOW. Time runs out at the end of February 28 so DON’T WAIT.

The Recommended Anthropomorphics List is a helpful guide for many options, but you don’t have to only pick from the list. The list is open for anyone to submit during the year, making a great way to discover things you overlooked or submit things you want to get seen.

PLEASE CONSIDER NOMINATING THE PODCAST: FUR AND LOATHING. This investigation into the 2014 attack on Midwest Furfest features reporting by Dogpatch Press, with a production team led by journalist Nicky Woolf. The series was an intense labor of love including a productive FOIA request for FBI documents, and travel to 4 states to interview numerous sources, bringing exclusive answers about the fandom’s biggest cold case crime. Nominate it under “Anthropomorphic Miscellany.” “Miscellany category has insufficient entries to make it worthwhile”; please nominate it under Non-Fiction.

Consider donating via paypal@ursamajorawards.org to support this service. It’s a connection to roots of fandom with a committee of old-guard fans; and a way to promote and connect with creators on the tides of social media, where it takes so much work to be noticed.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

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February 6, 2025

HeartTheft, by Rukis – book review by Kacey Pink

by Dogpatch Press Staff

Welcome to Kacey Pink, a trans lesbian writer of adult stories about transbodies and people overcoming adversity, trauma, and love finding a way. You can check out her novels here: pinkkacey.itch.io. Thanks to Kacey for her guest review of “a thoughtful story about love overcoming the programming of self hate”. The work of Rukis can be found here.

Spoiler Free HeartTheft Review

Rukis’s HeartTheft is two books: Covenant and Apocrypha, however when I heard about an 800 page hard cover of both books combined I felt an overwhelming urge to pick it up for myself. I am not terribly versed in Rukis’s work, besides having read one of the Red Lantern comics and having ogled their art for as long as I’ve considered myself “in the fandom”. However, this stands out to me as a very strong novel in its own right. My desire to grab up the book was solely because I knew that if it fell from a high shelf it might break a toe or two. I would like to see more of these long form books, unashamed to be dense and worthy of analysis as HeartTheft is. Did the story of HeartTheft require 806 pages to be effectively told? I am not confident in that. Am I endlessly grateful, however, that we get to spend so much time in this world and with these well constructed and lived in characters.

If part of your experience growing up was learning how you were lied to by people who wanted “better for you”, you’ll probably enjoy this book. If you can relate to a story about religious deconstruction that doesn’t condemn belief and earnestly tackles the pain and suffering organized religion has brought onto people, oftentimes those that are forced by the abuse they’ve suffered to cling to it, this is a good book for you. If you are fond of thought out world building and well measured applications of stakes and tension, this is a good book for you. If you are a fan of gender go third, sex go [redacted], you’ll probably also enjoy this.

Mystery and investigation don’t take a back seat, but the core of this novel is finding answers for yourself about what you believe in. Even if, but especially if, that’s hard to accept.

Family and love face long odds, but fighting for what’s right, fighting for who is right for you, is the only answer.

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November 7, 2024

Your fursona has an afterlife: Online community has unique ways to memorialize.

by Patch O'Furr

Furry Family Ofrenda on VRchat

It seems appropriate to write about losing things and carrying on, after a doomful week in America…

Hydraheads, an artist in Canada, is a player of Flight Rising, “a social web-based activity site featuring dragon breeding, adventuring, combat, and collecting.” You get your own clan of dragons and work with other clans. It’s more than solo fun, it was also a family connection. Hydraheads joins Dogpatch Press with a story:

Recently, Flight Rising closed my own account and my deceased mum’s account. I adopted and inherited from her before she passed.

It happened when someone attempted to hack in, and I couldn’t reset my password, so I started a trouble ticket and they investigated. They closed my account and hers, because they considered it an unfair advantage in the game to have two accounts. I had been active on both, and it’s against their TOS.

I appealed anyways, because I didn’t really want to lose my mum’s account or dragons she gave me; but you can’t exactly merge accounts or transfer progen dragons. My appeal was denied and I permanently lost both. They issued half-hearted condolences to my mum and said I could start a new account. It stung, mainly because I used her account to set it up as a comforting memorial for myself. We used to play it together and it was our thing.

This made me recognize and reflect on how furries on a wide scale put importance on and have tendencies to memorialize our lost members, friends and family, in ways that I think are uniquely touching. It says so much about how we value each other and are connected. Community ties can be so widespread through a single furry, and make support for one another when facing mortality… The more I look, it’s everywhere. A lot of us live very digitally. For some furries that were more isolated, this was their life. Maybe it was their only way to participate in the fandom.

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November 6, 2024

Someone I kept out of a furry party is charged with domestic violence murder of another furry

by Patch O'Furr

In 2018, I told Dizzy he shouldn’t come to a furry party at a club in San Francisco. I was one of the organizers who keeps an eye on who is coming. He was a soft-looking guy who acted persistently pitiful about it, so I let him know it wasn’t because of something I knew he did, or any personal issue. It was for caution and to keep things harmonious, and there were other events he could go to. If he had a bad reputation, he could change it by doing good at other ones. I just wasn’t going to be pliable to begging for pity. If you don’t respect someone’s “no”, that’s a red flag itself.

To my confidential knowledge, the caution was because of multiple people tipping me to beware of someone abusive who they were uncomfortable being around, who they said would try manipulating for sympathy.

A few years before this, some other manipulation pulled me in to being a victim of a con artist. (He was judged liable for fraud and elder abuse after I had to defend whistleblower retaliation, cross-sue and beat him to stop it, winning a $32,000 judgement. When people sue me for defamation, I don’t settle and I bankrupt them.) The con artist was a monster with a lot of power over others, who were viciously whipped up against me for reporting abuse by their then-trusted manipulator. The experience of being the only person to point at The Emperor’s New Clothes and fighting for vindication made it easy to say no to Dizzy, stay firm, and watch what happened.

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November 4, 2024

Bad leadership surrounds sex crime case with Party Animals West (PAW) owner in San Francisco

by Patch O'Furr

Two arrested during preparation for a big party

On 9/26/2024, a popular furry event organizer (Frisky Hyena) and another group leader were arrested together for child sex crimes. They have been in jail without bond since then. Both had furry scene influence in the San Francisco Bay area, after Frisky relocated there from Las Vegas. This report features Steven “Frisky” Darling as the owner of Party Animals West (PAW), with an LLC registered in Nevada.

Frisky’s organization used a team of helpers to throw parties around the year, sometimes with rooms at conventions, or partnered with other furry brands or DJ’s. PAW also hosted a chat group of 1000 followers who would mobilize support across furry spaces. Their larger events would attract hundreds of paying attendees, using venues with professional light and sound, like a barcade chain with locations in several big cities. Many gave support without knowing Frisky’s secrets, but after he was jailed, his partner Scoop stepped in to play one of his surrogates for actions that are very controversial now.

For the last weekend of September, supporters were looking forward to a huge occasion in San Francisco. Folsom Street Fair would draw hundreds of thousands for kink-themed activities, including many furries to the PAW barcade party on 9/29/2024. As it approached, on 9/27/2024, Frisky’s surrogate Scoop decided to tell the PAW chat group that Frisky’s phone was broken and he couldn’t answer. His accounts were allegedly accessed for impersonation messages to tell close contacts he was taking a break.

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October 21, 2024

Garden State Fur The Weekend refuses to clean up their corruption, disgraced Chair made owner

by Patch O'Furr

After a mismanagement crisis was excused with PR statements, New Jersey furries are sick of more deception from the same broken leadership. 

UPDATE 12/4/24: CON ISSUES STATEMENT, STAFF RESIGN, PUBLIC CALLS FOR BOYCOTT.

Garden State Fur The Weekend was set to have their first convention in May 2024, but in January, their organization was rocked by a staff revolt. It leaked out with a Dogpatch Press report — Grassroots action: Leadership changes and weeding out hate at Garden State Fur The Weekend. The inside story can now be told in more depth, because cautious community members who stayed quiet before have come forward to ask for new reporting. GSFTW’s own PR person quit and reports being lied to. Numerous sources with deep involvement spoke to Dogpatch Press about how a chronic problem was “fixed” by moving it higher:

Many sources spoke on condition of whistleblower privacy.

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September 29, 2024

Slightly Furry’s ciders win prizes, but how do you rate their handling of a zoophile owner?

by Patch O'Furr

People love a business run by and for their community. A place that knows you and welcomes your friends, run by people you trust, who answer your concerns.

Seattle’s Slightly Furry cultivated that look for their cider making brand, while reaping support like $73,000 in donations to their for-profit business. It lifted them above fandom by converting popularity into sales, getting their product in stores and bars, with mainstream news and festival prizes.

As Slightly Furry promoted being ambassadors for the furry fandom to the public, watchdogs started raising concerns about shady management that ignored community interest. Initial complaint emerged from ConStaffWatch on July 16, then was reported by professional investigator Naia Ōkami on August 3, after she was banned and censored for trying to engage them for questions. Dogpatch Press also sent questions on August 12, which were knowingly received with no answer, then published a report on August 22.

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September 26, 2024

2024 Good Furry Award – final week for voting – open until September 30

by Patch O'Furr

Vote HERE for the 6th Annual Good Furry Awards 

See the nominations HERE before you vote. Since 2019, the Good Furry Award has been recognizing fan-nominated furries for outstanding community spirit. It has grown from one award to 4 categories:

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August 22, 2024

ZOOPHILES FACE JAIL AND FURY: Adam Britton, Lucas VanWoert, and Seattle’s Slightly Furry

by Patch O'Furr

(Content warning.)

Three stories with one cause

It was a major week of news for activists against animal abuse, especially the kind that comes from zoophile networking.

AUSTRALIA: Adam Britton was once a prominent zoologist, but now he’s a convicted serial killer of pet dogs. International media featured Britton’s August 8 sentence to 10 years in jail. Outside the court, activists protested for better animal protection, followed by a unity walk with Kiki’s Justice, an awareness campaign named for one of Britton’s victims. The worldwide shock of the case is documentary-worthy.

OHIO: Britton’s online accomplice was Lucas Vanwoert, a truck driver, furry and dog torture-killer. His wife Heather VanWoert was convicted for participating in the crimes, but released in May after a short sentence. It’s a wake-up call about abusers in the furry community. Many furries oppose abuse, but are troubled by how others enable lovers, friends or business partners involved.

SEATTLE: furry brand Slightly Furry brews cider, runs a taphouse, and has an owner named “Kompy” involved in zoophile networking. Watchdogs aired evidence at the same time as Slightly Furry ran a crowdfund and raised over $73,000 from donors to support their for-profit business. Slightly Furry refuses to respond about Kompy’s corruption — except by censoring and banning people who ask questions. Why do they refuse to explain this to the community, after taking so much support and calling their business an ambassadorship of furry to the general public? What will stop the enabling, after Pacific Northwest furries already faced exposure of a shocking abuse ring?

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July 10, 2024

Fur & Loathing podcast concludes, expect more Furry True Crime reporting to come

by Patch O'Furr

Listen to Fur and Loathing here.

Here’s a wrap-up for the investigation of the Midwest Furfest 2014 chemical attack, by Nicky Woolf with help from Dogpatch Press. For the last episode, we recorded discussion of these points (although not all made the final cut…)

  • Being a community under attack.
  • The limits of the justice system, and how people can get away with crime, even if we know it.
  • The need for community protection from inside.
  • It can also take resources and reach we don’t have by partnership with outside help.
  • Without public awareness and being fully informed, negligence can cause more harm.
  • How different could things be if we had more transparency 10 years ago?

REVIEW: “Fur and Loathing is so fucking good.” – Podcast Promise

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