12/20...we have set up a blogpage on WordPress, the same site as FooSpyglass (which we highly recommend), called "Operation Lifeboat" to address long-term and internal issues involving what is happening to FooPets : not simply to deal with the superficial changes affecting us here (ghastly as they may be), but to try to figure out the WHY behind them - even from Mojo's viewpoint, this stopped making any sense a while ago. anyone who's good at websurfing, please - look for company records, troll for any information bearing on things like lawsuits, hostile takeovers, etc...and post whatever you can find on Operation Lifeboat on WordPress, clickable next to FooSpyglass at right, and we'll try to piece together the REAL picture, so that something can be DONE about it.

12/16 - just cased the current 'Petter...hm. what a thoughtful gift - enough food to care for one pet for a week and a half (for a cat), or about 5 days (a dog), assuming you tend twice a day. they really ought to check the RL market occasionally, cat food has always been more expensive than dog...whatever. we ALSO note that DrRon wants people to start logging in to www.foo more often - my, my. is our Project M campaign already making its effects felt?

12/12 - we understand that the "ultrastats" recently issued are starting to affect breed stats - previously high-stat pets are losing ground. wait til the results of the cheap LLs start making themselves felt in a month or so...then we'll REALLY see a mess. we'll try to make time to do a Stat Median Update in a day or two - and another at the end of January or thereabouts, to track the effects of these two new "presents" from Foo.

12/11...in yet another case of give with one hand, take (more) with the other, FooMojo has put Litter Licenses - which we don't actually need, and this may well be a self-serving move to offset the hike in member-to-member pet sale costs, which i'm certain made a noticeable dent in their normal revenue from LLs - on sale at half price (like last year's holiday perk, but as far as we know new and shelter pet prices have not been discounted), and jacked up the cost of flea meds - which we DO need - by a vastly greater percentage...and as usual, left these "improvements" unannounced, for us to find for ourselves.
(...and a Merry Christmas to you as well, Ebenezer Fooge...)

NOTE - we have just heard that someone had an absolutely BRILLIANT idea (and we're embarrassed that we didn't think of it ourselves) : EVERYONE, get in touch with the flea product manufacturers - who pay Foo good money to be featured here - and let them know how THEIR good names are being used to manipulate and extort site members. we're sure they all have 800 numbers as well as email and postal addresses...let's inundate them with our reactions to how Foo is abusing their reputations.

12/9...i may faint - we hear that Foo, in the form of the DrRon puppet in a curiously early edition of this week's Foopetter, has actually backed down on the 50% "tax" - now it's to be "only" 25%...roughly the same proportion by which they increased pet sale minimums. hope it's not their idea of a holiday perk...that's like being told you'll only get beaten half as hard. still - unless they planned it this way from the git-go to make us more likely to accept a 250% increase - it represents the first concession to member opinion since the restoration of the hijacked pokeys when the site converted to FooPets back in December of 2008.
gee...we wonder if the various new price increases backfired the way the original institution of "ClubFoo" did, resulting in a loss rather than an increase in site revenue.
(the only surprising thing being that Mojo was surprised...)

12/7...we have just received the distressing confirmation via Eat-a-Peach on FooSpyglass that there is NO private communication on Foopets - including Meebo and gift messages. all can be accessed by Admin and used to crucify any member they choose, despite the fact that the TOS (at least the last time we looked) only stipulate their control over PUBLIC communications, i.e. Forum posts, message boards, and profiles. while the odds are that they are using a CIA/NSA-style autobot program to target keywords (FooMojo, Admin, Kate/FooKate, etc - along with foo's idea of "dirty words" - which apparently includes LMAO and so forth when it suits them), rather than a human agent, it is still strongly advised that you swap notes offFoo, via another site or emails.
> it has been observed that items put up for Foodollar sale prior to the new "tax" rate of 50% not only are exempt from it, but are not taxed AT ALL - apparently they are slipping through a hole in the untaxed-foogem-sales coding. it is suggested that people remove all new items from their sales pages so that holiday shopping can be a pleasure for buyer and seller alike...
> for a site so concerned with copyright infringement, we find it hilarious that one of their new FooMart items is ripped off from Dreamwork's Shrek...we seriously doubt either Foopets or the submitting member bothered to get a release to use Gingy.
> of all the off-foo sites to the right, the most useful and informative is proving to be Spyglass - we are going to give it its own space at the top of the profile.
> we have finally gotten the offsite clickables for foopets to operate correctly - anyone who wishes to build their own "lifeboat", please email us at singingbadgerclan@gmail.com...and if you are or know of a departing member, please message OperationLifeboat, a profile now set up to work with those in this sad position.

12/4...well, well, well. Has everyone seen DrRon's little editorial (I don't see how i can really call it a "Pet Care Tip") in this week's FooPetter? Don't know whether to be insulted, flattered, or just amused...since we focus on useful information, member assistance, and (what we at least feel are) constructive suggestions and recommendations, what we are NOT is worried. And one thing is a bit confusing - "rebellion"? Rebelling against the site would be a little like rebelling against going to the bathroom - you could try, i suppose, but it wouldn't accomplish much...what we are interested in is not "rebellion" - as the site is owned by FooMojo, there is no effective way to mount one - but to have valid issues and complaints, and especially proposed solutions to same, responded to in a constructive manner, not ignored or swept under the rug, via intimidation or any other method...and for the record, chiding and/or suspending members with the temerity to complain about the new changes (sorry, we will NOT call them "improvements") doesn't silence them - it just drives them underground, often to other sites, where Admin/Mojo cannot silence them (and if ANYONE hears of a member suspended for something said OFF FooPets, let us know IMMEDIATELY!), and if anything inflames already sore issues further.