I hate stories that are so carefully constructed that a reviewer can hardly say anything about them without giving away spoilers. Well, Winter Games is set in Gold’s Forester Universe, although it is not connected to any of Gold’s other stories. It contains mentions of Millenport and other Forester locales. It is the fifth of FurPlanet’s “Cupcake” booklets, less than novel length.

Winter Games is a work of anthropomorphic fiction for adult readers only. (publisher's advisory)

Sierra Snowpaw, a 33-year-old snow leopard, checks into the Lonnegan Ski Resort, apparently just on a relaxed vacation although it soon becomes obvious that he is looking for someone. Sierra does not let the search distract him from having steamy gay sex with Bret, the resort’s pine marten desk clerk.

The novella alternates in short chapters between the 2012 “now” and 1997, when Sierra was a teenage student at Tartok Ecole Internationale in Europe, presumably setting up the explanation of whom Sierra is searching for and why, and why this person is avoiding him.

FurPlanet Productions, September 2012, trade paperback $9.95 (vii + 135 pages).
Illustrated by Sabretoothed Ermine.

A photoarticle in Wired.com says there are an estimated 4,500 to 7,500 wild snow leopards left in the Central Asian mountains. This is more than the number of tigers left in the wild, which is estimated to be only about 3,200.

See also: BBC tracks down tigers in the Himalayas - Chinese wineries farm tigers for bones

Thanks to all the FurJournal members who donated a few months ago, this furry-based journal site finally received the adoption package after having adopted a snowleopard.

Unfortunately, the snow leopard itself didn't come in the box, but if you're interested to see what we did get you can see them all here

Attempts to capture a declawed snow leopard that escaped its owner's home in Shepherdsville, Kentucky this week have been unsuccessful, and the owner says he is afraid someone will hurt the endangered animal.

The 2-year-old leopard, owned by Tim Peveler, is white with black spots. Being declawed lessens the chance that it would harm people or other animals, said Mark Marraccini, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife.

[Read Article]

Two snow leopards have been seized in a travelling Russian circus in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan in central Asia. Full story on BBC.

The NY Times reports how zoos are entertaining their animals. "Snow leopards, in particular, love Calvin Klein's Obsession." (Free registration required.)

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently sent an editor along with a team of researchers from the Snow Leopard Trust to Mongolia to gather more data on the snow leopards and their environment. Click on the first link to see three articles published so far, along with some great pictures.