That's right, ferrets. On the march against plagiarism. Or some such thing.

Umm, long story short, the writers of one of the blogs I enjoy following discovered, upon reading the uneven stylings of Cassie Edwards's prose, that some of the passages were mysteriously close to some previously published works. After some further investigation, the case for plagiarism grew larger and larger. Encylopedia entries, magazine articles, poems, even excerpts from a pulitzer prize-winning novel. (Nothing has been proved, all charges are alleged, yadda yadda. Ms. Edwards has denied all wrongdoing.)

At any rate, the passage that first alerted these women to the abrupt shifts in tone was some gratuitous info-dumping about the black-footed ferret. Plagiarism aside, a number of us found her choice of subjects hilarious. Ferrets? In the middle of a purple-prosed romance novel? Heaving bosoms, wind-swept locks... and, apparently, ferrets. So, of course, the ferrets have been unofficially adopted as the mascot of people who were outraged by the blatantly lifted texts. (I'd like to point out Cassie Edwards has published 100 novels. Yes, that's not a typo. One hundred.) We discussed having t-shirts made, and a few of us played around with logos. This is clearly mine. I give permission for people to use it, if they want to use it to support the ferrets. Just credit me for the image, ok?

Also, just as a side note, the black-footed ferret is endangered, even considered officially extinct in the wild. A number of us are working to raise funds for these adorable critters. You can even adopt (read: sponsor) one. Mine's named Sirius. Sirius Blackfoot! AHAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem. Yes. Don't plagiarise, or the ferrets will come after you.