Barath Mur wrote:
How did you discover you were into this hobby? And in what ways do you see this hobby as most fulfilling? Is it more of a roleplaying deal, or does is occupy some other space?
OMFG A REAL QUESTION!
Let's see... I always liked big cats, and anthropomorphic animals cartoons (think loony toons) but never anything crazy. Then I was in college maybe 8 years ago and met that guy who was really nice and fun. Halloween came and he was running around the college in a giant raccoon suit, it was hilarious, but a bit confusing. He eventually told me he was a furry, and we later hung out with a bunch of them outside the college. I had no clue what a furry even was, I just knew I liked big cats and randomly meowed from time to time, lol.
They were friendly enough, there were a couple of creepy guys, but easily avoidable in a group of 25 people. I joined the local forum, made myself a "fursona", and eventually, 5 years later, finally broke in and attended my first convention, then my first costume.
It seemed weird at first, but it's really just cosplay with more hugs and putting smiles on strangers because there are freaking life size plushies running around being crazy. There's something special into being the source of a smile cracked by a very-serious-adult-in-a-suit or a teen-who-thought-they-were-too-cool-for-that-shit. Makes people return to childhood.
Like that one time in Montreal, it was early in the convention, people were just arriving. Horatio and I
dressed up and headed to the lobby. Elevator opens up on us and the lobby is packed full of people, turns out there was a Korean conference of sorts going on the same week-end. We just heard a "OOOOoooooh!!!" of awe from the whole crowd and then excited adults jumping around, laughing and smiling were taking their picture with us, like kids at Disney Land. Moments like that is why I do it.
I made great friends too. As a childfree adult who's not into bonding with coworkers over did-you-see-how-long-Celine-Dion's-son's-hair-is-omg-can-you-believe-it, it's not easy to meet new interesting people. The furry subculture is huge; there are several hundreds just in Ottawa, it allows me to maintain a large social circle, local and international.
So yeah, I'd say this hobby brings me a great social circle (that guy I talked about earlier became my best friend, introduced me to Horatio and he will be our best man at our wedding this summer!
) and the artistic aspect is pretty awesome.
Here's a piece Horatio commissioned for me his year which I think you guys will appreciate =P
There's another aspect I really enjoy. Each convention has it's own charity event, most of them have to do with various animal rescue organizations. Midwest Furfest, which just happen last week-end, gathered over 62k dollars for rescue of war veteran dogs.
The counter-side is that this subculture has such a bad reputation that I practically feel like I need to explain myself because people see horrific things on the internet and they won't question them. It's like an elephant in the room, which everyone is awkwardly trying to pretend isn't there. Is the bad reputation well founded? Well, yup. Some people are in it because furry porn. To me and many others, that's weird. Few actually think they're actually a fucking fox trapped in a human body. That's super weird. Some people are creepy, don't wash, or are into fucked up shit, and unfortunately they're the high profile ones. Most of us are almost normal people with jobs, normal sexuality (fuck off, SM is totally normal) who enjoy having fun with friends.
