A very big welcome to the June edition of Digging Up Positivity, it was a big month. A lot of good was done, and I hope that you enjoyed the countless of festivities around Pride Month, just remember, you be you and love is love! We saw how many of our friends banded together to help others, both big and small and in the spirit of making this world a better place.

This months’ guest is Star Raccoon! And he has a very special wholesome story to share about his job in one of those biiiig mouse theme parks in Florida, USA! And because I am always streaming on Monday, I am giving a way a license for Clip Studio, the software I use to draw. If you use a Mac or Windows, you can run this, so stay tuned till the outro to learn more. And together we'll learn who has won one of those lovely Thabo T-shirts from ArtworkTee (dot com)! But for now, the charities!

Anthrohio

First we start of with our furry friends in Ohio, USA. Where they raised 28,000 $US for the Pipqueakery. A small (no pun intended) nonprofit small animal rescue and sanctuary such as rodents and rabbits. They educate the public on their care, and find forever homes and rescue placements for healthy adoptable animals.

Confuzzled

In the United Kingdom we had Confuzzled, one of the Europe biggest furry conventions, and they raised well over 25 thousand pounds, a grand total of 31,110 $US for the Bumblebee Conservation trust for the continuing efforts to save the UK’s bumblebees as they are an essential part of nature. This trust is a science-led organization and bases their actions and stances on the latest scientific research.

Biggest Little Furcon

Making a big difference, we have having the biggest little furcon, who raised 20.011.05 $US and for the Safe Haven Wildlife Sanctuary, aiding them in their mission to provide lifelong care and rehabilitation for animals unable to be placed back into the wild!

Stratosfur

We also had the critters at Stratosfur raising money for Give Us Paws. This Houston based organization is providing free service dog training for veterans and affordable training for civilians suffering from PTSD and other disabilities. At the time of recording the amount raised is not yet known. When it is known a shoutout will be made and it will be included in this year's Charity Fundraising Index.

Furality Aqua

Besides all these wonderful conventions in the real world, quite some of them having a virtual element, but Furality Aqua was fully in the virtual world! And what a world it was. Furality Aqua once again was a beauty to behold. During the closing ceremonies we found out 15,079 critters registered and they raised 22,638 $US for ‘Save a Fox’, proving once more virtual conventions are more than capable of making their mark!

Kali’s Encanto Plushy Auction

But besides big conventions, we also had wonderful initiatives like this charity auction of this really awesome looking plush from the Jaguar in Disney Pixars’ Encanto. They managed to raise 330 $US for Mercy corps, providing much needed humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

Let’s change the world together

Another wonderful initiative by Keenora, a well known fursuiter in Germany, especially known for his antics like skydiving. Actually I once went bungee jumping with him! He really does go to unknown heights.

But his latest project is ‘Let’s change the world together’. He and his friends have started a Patreon and Ko-Fi to raise money together for various charities. The first one is Tierschutzzentrum in Duisburg. They managed to raise 526.69 $US together (~500€). I am sure to keep an eye on this lovely group! In fact, Keenora will be our guest next month, so stay tuned!

Helping Garden of Edin

But also closer to home, people need help. Many came together to help the lovely tot Edin and manage to raise 500 $USso far to help them move away from their dreadful home situation. This campaign is still going on and things are going in the right direction, but the otter is not there yet, and you can help!

Be sure to check out his link in the video's description.

Raised over 550,000 this year already!

We are at the half year mark of this year, and the charities that this channel has covered already reached well over 550,000 $US! I am so excited and proud to say that with these numbers we are likely to beat last years’ grand total of 726,000 $US and we are already passed 2020’s grand total, that is for the entire year, of 523,000 $US. But will we end up back at the pre-pandemic level of 2019? Where we raised well over 1 million? I will keep my fingers crossed, and no matter the outcome, let it be known that many critters around us are making the world a better place and my love and respect goes out to you!

The Good Furry Award Results

Speaking of awesome people! The Good Furry Award results are in! This year Soatok Dhole for producing the Dhole Moments blog about various furry events making excellent tutorials and demo’s, and his efforts in protecting the Libraries in
Mississippi that housed thousands of LGBTQ+ books, resulting in a GoFundMe that raised well over 100,000 $US. An award well earned!

Zootopia+ Release date known

Animations with anthropomorphic animals is nothing new, but every now and then a movie is released that really makes some waves, pulling people into a lifetime of love for these animals with human characteristics, and without them, the furry fandom would not be what it is today. We are talking about movies like Robin Hood, The Lion King and in 2016 Zootopia. Till this very day this movie has an avid fanbase and people were sent into a frenzy when in 2020 a series of shorts were announced as Zootopia Plus. And now the release date is known! November 9 this year!

Luck

To be released on Apple+ in August is the animation movie luck. This animation is about Sam Greenfield or “the unluckiest person in the world”, who discovers the land of luck. I was captivated by the trailer where I ended up staring at the really nice fluid animation of the black cat. I mean...just look at it.

His name is Bob, and he is voiced by Simon Pegg. But there will also be the CEO of Good luck, a very gorgeous looking Dragoness voiced by Jane Fonda. After some digging I found out the script is written by Peggy Holmes, who worked on Cars and Cars 3. So I know I am excited -- I mean those are the good Cars movies, uh huh!

Featurette: Star Raccoon

[Video Interview]

Thank you

Thank you so much for sticking with us till the very end! Before I am going to tell you about the software that I'm use for my streaming. Last time I was going to give away one of my awesome Tshirts from my ArtworkTee store-- you know the one with the beautiful art from silver fox? I filed in all the names of people who responded with them wanting to have a T-shirt and ran a random number generator on it. And the winner is....drum ruffle please.....DookMonster Designs!

Thank you very much, please do use the form below in the description so I can start verifying you and get your details. You have until the release of the next episode of Digging Up Positivity to respond.

Now, for this months give-away, or raffle if you will. It has been a while back since I started streaming every Monday. A wholesome group of people are making it such an awesome experience, but the software itself is quite often a delight to work with. It's called Clip Studio Paint. And to share the love, I am going to give away one license-key. All you have to do is to subscribe and respond to this video, saying why you’d like to have a key and I will draw a winner from those the next episode. Good luck!

Next week I will be celebrating world meerkat day! I hope you all will have a wonderful month ahead filled with awesome moments. Speaking of awesome, I would like to thank these critters for supporting my channel through Patreon and Subscribestar: Cosmik with a K, Els Deckers, Falconeo, Hanzana, Ishnula, Kitako, Manick, Tantroo McNally, Taross and Score Chaser.

The next Digging Up Positivity will be on the 25th of June and our guest will be Keenora, where I will be asking him about the ‘Lets change the world together project’ and more! But I am on twitch as well, about every Monday I will be drawing stuff with wonderful chatty folks. Hope to see you there, stay awesome and of course...all the hugs!