Gulch wins at Zuda!

Well, after nearly two months (has it really been that long?) without an update, I thought I'd at least give you guys a situation report and thank you for your continued support. The comic SHALL return! And I will try to get caught up on fan mail soon, too.

The short version is that we're still dealing with medical and the financial issues (over a hundred dollars overdrawn right now, with no way to fix that for another week to week and a half) that have sprung from those, so we'll probably be begging friends to loan us a few hundred dollars until our additional private student loans come through in about two weeks. If anyone wants to contribute, feel free. Just let me know if it's a loan or a donation. If it's a loan, we'll get you paid back around the end of Fenruary.

For the long version, see below.

Catching up (Much of this will be old news for long-time fans.):
Since before we started the comic, we've been facing some health issues. I screwed up my back in August of 2004, resulting in a lot of pain, as well as partial paralysis of my right arm and hand. For a long time, I couldn't bend my right thumb, and had to get help in the shower to even scrub my own back. This was quite a blow for a guitarist, dabbling visual artist, and life-long martial artist and fitness enthusiast like myself.

Obviously, I had some work limitations, but damn it, I was determined to do something productive with my time no matter what. So with Shan drawing, me at the helm for writing, and all three of us kicking around story ideas, we started the comic in January '05.

Originally the characters were all going to be human, but Shannon had a penchant for anthropomorphic animal art and had done drawings of the three of us as anthropomorphic animals, so we decided to use those character designs as a starting point instead. Once Shannon explained to me what furries were (I had no idea there were such people as furries!), we promoted heavily to the furry community and the webcomic community in general. Response was incredible! We eventually reached around 17,000 to 18,000 readers on a regular basis, and began to top the anthro comic categories of BuzzComix and some other webcomic lists.

Anyway, I got into physical therapy for my back injury and was recovering well when, in August of 2005, I went over the front of my scooter and, as I put it, tried to use Massachusetts Street as a facial exfoliant. I sustained a grade three concussion (The most serious is grade four, I believe.) which left me with some micro-scarring in my brain, memory loss (I'd tell the same story two or three times in a fifteen-minute period for several weeks after the accident, and have even had to re-learn names of some family members.), and temporary mild aphasia (I'd say things like, "Would somebody close the toaster while the AC is on?") and had to suspend physical therapy for a couple of months. Keep in mind that neither Shannon nor I have medical insurance.

Meanwhile, Shannon was suffering from back pain, occasional arm numbness, and what we THOUGHT was just really bad acid reflux. After several ER visits and two hospitalizations for abdominal pain, she got a pipida scan, which confirmed that her gall bladder was diseased and had to come out (at age twenty-four!). Shannon also got into physical therapy for her back and was doing very well, when in February of 2006, she was a passenger in a car accident that injured new parts of her back and neck and exacerbated her existing problems. She still suffers from this, and gets shooting pains in her arms and legs. We hope to get her back into physical therapy soon.

At some point in this timeframe, she was also diagnosed with ADD and began treatment for that, as well.

Soooooo... I finally got my back and arm fully back in action, and Cat and I were attending college. On the first day of classes (You guessed it--August again. I think I'm just going to stay in bed during August from now on.), we got rear-ended on our way home. Isaac and Forest drove me to the ER. Cat was fine, but I injured a slightly different part of my back and neck, and now have the opposite problem from before with my right arm. Before, it was hard to flex the muscles to bend my right arm and hand--Now both keep wanting to curl up into a claw.

I went to lots of doctor's visits, physical therapy, and the chiropractor, but nothing much is changing. I see a neurosurgeon on February 21st (just a week away!) to get a specialist reading of my MRI and be evaluated. My regular doctor thinks they'll probably do epidurals in my upper spine. If they can't fix me that way, it looks like I'll just be on pain medication and muscle relaxers indefinitely. I am going to keep doing all my excercises and stretches in the meantime.

Shannon's health problems continued, as well. In addition to her physical health issues and ADD, she was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Being bipolar myself, I had suspected this for a long time. Due to a combination of all of the above, she had to take a break from drawing for a while.

In the meantime, both Cat and Shannon got laid off from their day jobs (although Shan got to go back to work for a couple of months recently). Then Cat began getting sick. Pneumonia, an ear infection, and a tonsilitus all at once. While recovering from that, she came down with a kidney infection so severe that we took her to the Emergency Room at LMH.

After running some tests, the good folks at LMH discovered why Cat was getting sick--Her left kidney, they said, was non-functional, and had in fact NEVER worked, due to a congenital defect. It served only as a breeding ground for bacteria, and was swollen to five times the size of her right kidney. It had to come out. Fortunately, Cat has medical insurance through her mother, but although mostly recovered from the surgery, she is still in a bit of pain.

In January, Shannon was back in the hospital. Again. She'll talk about it when (IF) she's ready, but prefers not to reveal details for now.

So basically, we've been through the wringer lately, medically and financially. If not for friends and family, there'd have been times when we would not have made rent or bills, gotten to the ER, been able to move, or had food on the table. Big thanks go out to John, Rob, Chris, Kij, Ron (Aka "The Soup Ninja."), Gina, Isaac, Forest, Mike, Steve, Lydia, Justin, AJ, my brother Theron, Cat's mom Jodie, Steph, Vince, anyone I may have forgotten (It's a long list, and I'm on pain meds, okay?) and all of you who have donated to the cause. Also, thanks to certain teachers for giving us some extra time on assignments, which allowed Cat and me to earn mostly As and Bs in school despite all of this.

As it stands now, we hope to resume doing the comic by the end of the month.

I've had to keep postponing my other comic projects, but I'll be working on a novel (as part of my honors Creative Writing course) over the course of the next few months. I also want to upgrade the interactive portion of the site to Drupal 5.1 soon, so there'll be some additional functionality.

Shannon is beginning to get back into various kinds of art, and Cat is focusing on school and recovery. We all hope to be bringing in incomes again soon. In the meantime, my Dad and Cat's Mom are both co-signing for us to get additional private student loans to help pay people back and take care of school and living expenses while we're unable to work, so although we'll be maxing out our overdraft protection over the next couple of weeks, there are lights at the ends of various tunnels that do not, at this time, appear to be trains.

Again, thank you for all of your continued support.

Justice is cute!
-Rob