First off, a heartfelt thank you to everyone who's watched, favorited, and especially to those of you who've taken the time to comment on the items in my journal. For a time, I kept trying to craft individual shouts back to each of you, and somewhere - about 100 watches ago - I fell behind and never caught up, but I read every comment and shout, and I appreciate every watch and favorite. I do hope that you also give some of your appreciation to the talented artists that create the work.

Speaking of appreciation and talented artists, I wanted to do something special to thank everyone on FA that has contributed great big cat artwork here. As my master recently tweeted, tigers are critically endangered, with fewer than 3,000 wild tigers left worldwide. That's fewer in the wild than there are in captivity in just the United States (according to some estimates, fewer than in the state of Texas alone). Lions aren't doing a whole lot better, either, with populations in Kenya and other African states falling prey to poisoning, habitat loss, and hunting.

To raise the visibility of big cats here on FA and elsewhere, and in honor of Anthrocon and the state of New York finally getting it together for marriage equality, I'm opening up a charity drive for the next week. Here's how it works:

Create or commission new art (stories, fursuits, music, photos, etc.) containing a tiger, I'll donate $5 to one of the Panthera charities, organizations devoted to the conservation of wild cats. For pieces containing both a lion and a tiger, I'll donate $5 more. This isn't a commission contest - the artwork doesn't have to be of me, though gifts of me and/or my master are always appreciated. It just has to contain a recognizable tiger (and optionally a lion), and you have to link to it from the comments here. There are some other "details", below, but that's the basic plan. It's just a way for me to say thanks - and to encourage more big cat stuff here on FA.

Please pass this along, and thanks again for your support and your support of big cats. Rowl!

Rules
1. Create or commission a new FA submission containing (or referencing) one or more tigers, or tiger(s) and lion(s). Submissions can be artwork, animation, photographs, stories, music, or any other format acceptable for posting on FA, including adult art. Artwork must have been created on or after midnight PDT, June 25, 2011. Submissions containing or referencing gore, scat, watersports, or babyfurs are ineligible.
2. Post a link to the submission in the comments below before 11:59pm Pacific Saturday July 1.
3. Submissions need not be of or contain me, my master, or any other specific lion or tiger. However, any artwork depicting me must include my collar, and if of me, I can not be in an adult setting with anyone other than my lion.
4. For each unique tiger submission, I will donate $5 to one or more of the charities listed at http://www.panthera.org/ (choice of charity is at my discretion), up to $250 total. For each unique lion and tiger submission, I will donate an additional $5, up to $100 total. For the purposes of the tally, ligers will be considered lions and tiglons (aka tigons or tions) will be considered tigers. For photographs, multiple photos of the same subject (animal, fursuit, statue, etc.) will be considered a single submission.
5. Art doesn't have to be created specifically for this drive, so encourage anyone who happens to create big cat art in the next week to stop by and leave a comment. Hopefully that encourages some of you who've gotten shiny new artwork at Anthrocon to post it.

I reserve the right to amend these rules if I've forgotten anything, but the idea is to have fun, raise some awareness, and encourage new artwork. So please spread the word and help do something for big cats!