I just realized that this site is now two years old. That’s like 41 in Internet Years! It’s almost time for the midlife crisis thing where I do a full redesign and create an iPhone app or something. Thanks for reading, commenting, submitting things, following along on Twitter and indulging my occasional weeks-long lapses into silence. Thanks also for your support and kind words when bad things happen. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from creating and maintaining this site, it’s that there are cool, friendly and kind people on the Internet. You’re one of them! Thanks!

I’ve given it a lot of thought, and there’s just no denying the truth anymore: I’m sick of werewolves. They’re boring. They’re silly. They’re ugly and hairy and dumb, and no amount of highbrow back-to-nature hippie crap can redeem them in the face of what we all know to be true: vampires are awesome. Anne Rice made them sexy, Stephanie Meyer made them trendy, and that bad boy Robert Pattinson made them dangerous. Sexy trendy danger, that’s what these mysterious creatures of the night are all about, and werewolves can’t hold a candle to them. From now on this web site (which will soon be moving to vampires-are-terrific.com) will feature the latest news about True Blood, Twilight, Vampires Diaries and every other cultural milestone spawned by these shadowy, entrancing wraiths. I’ll also showcase the most romantic and meaningful vampire art Elfwood.com has to offer, and my picks of the best vampire poetry from LiveJournal.com. I hope you’ll all come along with me on this new and exciting journey into the depths of dark, dramatic (and dreamy!) Vampire News!

Keesha passed away today. Her cancer spread too far, too quickly, and her quality of life declined so rapidly it seemed like she was disappearing before our eyes. This past weekend we made the difficult decision to help end her pain, and today at 4:30 PM the incomparable Dr. Pollen of the Vancouver Animal Wellness Hospital administered drugs that first put Keesha to sleep, then sent her to wherever it is that excellent dogs go when they leave this life. We held her until the end.

Thanks for all of your support and kind words. Those who donated have been contacted regarding their art. The winner of the draw for a copy of The Werewolf’s Guide To Life is Mark K., whose name was selected at random out of a mug.

If you have an animal in your life, go hug them now.

Just a brief note here to thank everyone who’s sent well-wishes and donations to us over our dog Keesha. She fell ill while I was away on a business trip, leaving my wife Tandye to look after her; now that I’m back, Keesha’s condition has stabilized, and actually seems to be improving a bit, and Tandye’s looking after me. I managed to catch some kind of British super-virus chest cold that makes me sound like the wheezy dog from Howl’s Moving Castle. I’m going to try to get some more new posts happening here tomorrow, but I wanted to let everyone know that Keesha’s still with us, and that I’m going to be sending out thank-you doodles to the donators this weekend. I’ll do that draw for Werewolf’s Guide To Life on Saturday, too. Now if you’ll excuse me, the NeoCitran is kicking in.

We have a dog, Keesha, who has been my wife’s close companion for over 16 years. While I’ve been abroad, Keesha has developed significant breathing problems, and after a trip to the vet it was ascertained that she either has pneumonia or cancer. An expensive test is required to determine which it is, and by extension whether we can help her get better or simply help her be comfortable.

This has hit us both hard, but particularly my wife, who has never experienced the mixed blessings of a senior-aged pet. I won’t be home for another three days so if you have a few moments, it would mean a lot if you could visit the little site we’ve set up, to leave a kind comment. We’re accepting donations to help pay the $1,000 + bill, and any Werewolf News readers who chip in will get a stupid little thank-you doodle from me, plus an entry to win a copy of The Werewolf’s Guide To Life.

Thanks for your time, and we now return you to our regularly scheduled Werewolf News.

Hi folks. Sorry for the silence over the past two weeks– my non-Werewolf-News workload got crazy and I didn’t have a contingency plan. I need to work on posting at a more regular pace so these droughts don’t occur anymore. I appreciate you coming back day after day! I have got a TON of stuff to post, some of it good, some of it bad, all of it werewolf-related. And before I post anything else, I need to give you my opinion on the recently-released book The Werewolf’s Guide to Life: buy it immediately. Like, right now. I haven’t laughed so hard or smiled so big while reading a book in a long, long time. Funny, scary, thoughtful and delightfully creative. I will be posting a more in-depth review in the next day or two, but yeah, in the meantime, let it be known– this is an excellent book that no werewolf fan should be without.

Last month we all agreed that “sequence” was the worst word to describe a werewolf’s transformation. This month’s poll has a more divisive topic: should bipedal werewolves have tails? Tails are a common physical feature on most werewolves. After all, wolves have tails, so it makes sense that a human / wolf hybrid would have one too, right? Right… or wrong! The primary purpose of a tail is to provide balance to fast-moving quadrupeds, and we’ve agreed for the sake of this poll that we’re talking about werewolves that move on two legs, not four. So what would be the point of having a tail if it didn’t serve a practical function? Anyone? Bueller?

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I’m going to start running a monthly poll on Werewolf News. You might have noticed two previous polls over there in the top right corner of the home page, but they weren’t run for any particular length of time– starting today, there will be a new one every month. This month’s question: Which is the worst word to describe a werewolf’s transformation? This question was inspired by the sudden appearance of the word “phase” in a lot of recent Twilight-related news articles (I get those whether I want them or not, thanks to Google News). I’ve been a werewolf fan for a long time, and “phase” is hands-down the single dumbest word I’ve seen used to describe a werewolf’s metamorphosis. Let’s see how many of you agree with me! Cast your vote, and if you’d rather vote for a word not listed, just leave a comment on this post.

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I’m PenningtonBeast (aka DragoniaKMP) and I’ve been asked to post excerpts here from my werewolf novel review blog Lycanthrope Library.

I have two reviews up right now, and I’m looking to receive some more. Anyone is allowed to submit a review, just send it to Spyrozilla1@aol.com with “werewolf review” in the headline.

So thanks a lot and I hope to post some excerpts here soon!

Well, no, they’re not, but at the moment there’s a lack of interesting werewolf news out there (unless you care about Twilight, but as we’ve discussed before, Twilight doesn’t actually have any werewolves in it). Expect some new art from around the web in the next few days, and if you have anything else cool and werewolf-related, send it in!