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Forum Archive CF2008-2011 (Read Only) => Off-Topic Furry Discussion => Topic started by: Cerebus on May 13, 2007, 21:22:43

Title: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Cerebus on May 13, 2007, 21:22:43
my story is i was looking for the three headed dog Cerberus "at the time i just put down Cerebus" and found Littie Blue Wolf artwork site and see links to yiffstar and that got me started off!

tell us your story  :)
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Matt the Lion on May 13, 2007, 21:33:16
I'm not sure exactly, it's quite a while ago and I never really made a point of remembering, but I do recall that it mostly started from looking for stuff related to the Lion King movie; I wanted video clips and sound-bites, but ended up coming across the various bits of fanart and fan fiction on the web.... it all went from there really I think.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: LevLion on May 13, 2007, 21:58:06
Furr wasnt as big as it is now, it was back in the Early 90's when i started to find furry things. Although since i was a cub I have loved furry things. But after TLK as most people tlak about I got into it more online and met lots of fans which lead on to furs and by the mid to late 90's I was attending meets down in london (the only ones in the UK at that time) on a regular basis.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Exiled Wolf on May 13, 2007, 22:04:06
Now we're looking back some ways, easily 3 or 4 years (Eeep, is it really that long???). I call the internet, role playing on said internet and "offline" (RL and Compy) and too much free time as the main causes of me finding furry. Roleplaying was probably the main thing that lead me to furry. Following links through online roleplay sites and the suchlike led to artwork, stories and eventually a link to the NorthernFurs site. That's how it began. By 2005 I was pretty regular at attending NorthernFurs meets, and that's been pretty much the same. How it ends...I hope not to find out any time soon  ;)
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Shep on May 14, 2007, 00:37:41
The short answer:

I was looking online for cartoons of German Shepherd police dogs for a presentation I was doing in 2001 when I was still in the police force. I found them, and more besides...

Ask me for the long answer ;)
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Lilsi on May 14, 2007, 06:42:58
Well i first saw furry on CSI, i liiked the episode apart from the 'furpile' i thought that was weird.
But i forgot all about it and about a year later i was doing course work on subcultures and i found a diary
of a guy who had fallen in love with his dog  ???  and it had a link to ukfur. After some...alot of research into the fandom i decided i would join.

I had always had a connection to wolves before that and i always drew myself as an anthro wolf even before i knew about the fandom. I also collected plushies! so it all kinda worked in together.  :)
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: The Dark Knight on May 14, 2007, 12:41:35
Copied from the UKFur forum:

Oh jeez... this might take a while. *lights a pipe*

Firstly please forgive me if I ramble here, I can't recall everything specifically.

From what I can remember of my childhood there was a lot of cartoons on which had anthro characters in them: Around the world with Willy Fog, Teenage Mutant Hero/Ninja Turtles, Dangermouse, The Dreamstone, Bucky o'Hare, The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, etc.
Back then I really only had two good friends (I was very much a loner) and we used to roleplay as characters from the cartoons we watched every single day. As we got older my friends grew out of roleplaying, but I didn't. I still loved the idea of being a crime-fighting wolf/fox/feline/whatever protecting the innocent and kicking arse. I took to drawing characters from Sonic the Comic and then started developing my own, but as I grew into adolescence and I started to lose the fine dexterity in my fingers I stopped.

Fast forward through High School to year 10. I'd met a person that some of you might know, Blue Phoenix, through some RPG friends of mine. We started talking and got on quite well with each other and soon after that she introduced me to meditation. It was through this, on my first venture into my pocket realm, I discovered that I am a werewolf. It was even more interesting when I couldn't stop walking on my toes for a full hour after I'd finished.
I needed to know more, so I went to the local video store and rented as many werewolf films as I could, as well as borrowing my friend's "Werewolf: The Apocolypse" books to read. I already had an interest in costumes at this point and decided to look on the internet for "werewolf costumes".
Most of the sites and pictures I found were really tacky fancy dress costumes, but one website stuck out: the website for Haunted Verdun Manor. It was a walk-around haunted house with actors, some of which actually wore amazingly detailed werewolf costumes. I was enthralled and made a vow to myself that I would one day have a costume of that quality.

After a little more searching I found the personal website of one of the guys who worked there. I'm not going to name him as... well you'll see why further on.
I spent about a week following link after link from his site and amassed a great deal of info in my head about "furry". I had found kindred spirits, which made me amazingly happy.
I decided to send an email to the guy, introducing myself. Unfortunately his reply was... less than civil. It made me think that the Furry Fandom was an elitest club. I spent two weeks after that rethinking everything and in the end I stuffed my true self into a little ball inside of me. That was possibly the most depressing point of my life.

About a month of so later I was back on the internet again and I stumbled onto TimmyPup's website and decided to email him. The response I got from him was a helluva lot better than the one from the above guy, and Tim convinced me to go to an LF meet. The was really the start of my presence in the fandom.

That's all about how I discovered furry, but I'm on a roll here so I'm gonna keep going!

Fast forward to FC2005. I'd already been to three fur cons (AC02, FC03, AC03) and was enjoying my second FC. I was also friends with Ysengrin on LJ. Ysengrin used to work and live at Haunted Verdun Manor, along with his partner DarkFang, when it was still operating under Lance Pope.
Now at the time I was trying to find anyone who knew where I could get an Action Packer (large plastic container, very rugged) from so that I could take my fursuit back to England on the plane with me. I wandered into one of the fursuit panels to see Ysengrin sat at the table talking about fursuit performance, to which he regaled some tales of Verdun Manor. Afterwards I approached him and after introducing myself and taking a look at his fursuit head I asked him if he knew where I could find an Action Packer. Not only did he tell me where, but he and DarkFang drove me to the place to get one!

After FC I kept in contact with the two of them and feelings started coming back from my teenage years, the werewolf inside me was breaking out of the shell I had kept him in. Soon after I accepted what I am and after spending FC2006 with them I decided to commission them to make me a werewolf fursuit, and on Halloween last year I took ownership of it. I'm now a member of their pack and I really couldn't be happier to have finally found them. Now all I need to do is move to America. XD

Phew! All done now.
If anyone has any questions or wants anything cleared up then please ask. Again, apologies if I rambled.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Tori Belliachi on May 14, 2007, 16:33:20
All I'll say is Scooby Doo and fetish artwork.

>.>
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Wolfie Fox on May 14, 2007, 18:56:09
I need to take a break now after reading your post, Graafen :P
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Shema on May 15, 2007, 11:46:29
Also copied from the ukFur forums:

I always used to pretend I was a dog when I was younger to play with my dog Sam. I used to enjoy it so much and also when I was small every wish I ever made was "I wish I was a cat". I was facinated with the way they moved and wanted to be one.

Now, I am sure most children pretend to be animals and such, but my wish carried on with me as I grew up. I loved the Lion King and after seeing The Lion King 2, my feelings for wanting to be feline grew even stronger. However, because I was 13 years old it would have seemed silly for me to 'pretend' to be a lion, crawling on the floor as I did when I was younger, but the only way that I could was to play with my cat, or dog (that way it didn't seem so bad to everyone else).

I also tried to pretend when walking home from school that I was walking with big paws (though on two legs of course). In my mind I would wonder if anyone else shared the same thoughts with me or anything or if I was just odd. I never told anyone. But when I pretended I was this lion I would feel so free, warm, comfortable and .. sort of in touch with nature, I think is the only way to describe it. It made me so happy.

I don't know how I came across it, but I found The Lion King Fanart Archive (TLKFAA). I would occationally browse the site and also Neopets. I noticed on TLKFAA that people had characters to represent themselves. I thought that this was such a fantastic idea and because I had always felt like a lion and wanted to be one I started designing my own character. By this time I had already met Snoblissea a couple of years back, but I didn't know he was also furry yet.

Then one day I drew Shema. I put a picture of her on MSN and was talking to Sno. He asked about the picture and I explained that she was my 'character' which I draw to represent me. He also had a picture of an Orca in his display picture and said "This is my character too!". I was like O_O. I think at that point he asked if I was furry, but I had no idea what he was talking about. He pointed me towards some web sites that explained it but it made me a bit nervous at first, as I was worried that it was just some wierd fettish, or something.

As the months went on though I started to understand furry more. My art was improving further and Sno and I became ever closer. It took me a while to actually classify myself as furry, but now that I understand it more I understand myself more and why, now that I am 20 years old, I STILL wish I was feline. It just makes sense to me now

...

THE END xD


I am now more into the furry fandom then Sno is. I drag him to furmeets and conventions xD
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Avalanche on May 15, 2007, 13:50:03
Also, also copied from the UKFur boards :P

Can't really go into details myself as some parts are a mystery to even myself, my memory is like swiss cheese tongue.gif I've always had a love for anthropomorphic animals via watching cartoons and animated films. Disney's Robin Hood is my favourite film of all time.

Over the last year or so i started reading some stories online that including people putting on 'animal costumes' but i didnt know they were called fursuits (cant remember what actually got me to start reading them). I became interested in the idea of becoming an animal for a few hours and messing about. The air of anonymity around wearing a fursuit was one thing that interested me as im a very closed in shy person, so i'd be able to mess about without anyone knowing who i was.

Eventually i found out that they were called fursuits, so i went onto youtube and did a search for them. The first video i watched was the 2005 disneyland fursuiting video. Before the end of that video i said to myself "i wanna do that". Found the term 'furry' read about what a furry is etc.. and realised that i was one too. After a month or two, i joined this forum and the rest, as they say, is history.

I have been saying i sort of stumbled across the video which is part true as i was searching for videos that contained fursuits in.

Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Damon Blackpaw on May 15, 2007, 14:47:11
I've always been interested in cartoon animals and real animals. When I was growing up, even into my teens, there was always one or two certain cartoons that I was just absolutely obsessed with and couldn't get enough of. :)

In 1996 (when my family got internet access at home), the "obsession" I had was with Gargoyles. I was an active participant in the online Gargoyles fandom for several years, and attended the 2001 and 2003 Gathering of the Gargoyles. Sometime around 1999, I became more aware that there was a fandom out there that was interested in anthropomorphics in general. For a while, I just looked at furry art and really didn't do anything else furry related, but in 2000-2001, I started participating in aspects of the fandom other than art.

While at the 2001 Gathering, I was hanging out with a couple friends at the con, and I had made some preliminary plans to attend MFF 2001. I wasn't able to go though, so my first furry con would have to wait until AnthroCon 2002. Later that year, a friend of mine let me wear one of his fursuits at a party, and at that point, I knew I had to get one of my own. ;)

I started building one, but I never finished it... so in 2004, I comissioned a head from LatinVixen and made my own hand and footpaws, so I would have a partial suit for AC2004. Later that year, LV sold her Sammy Samoyed suit (Ryngs Rakune made the head, Jax made the handpaws and LV made the rest), so I pounced on it. ^^ Sammy is semi-retired now though... I want to get a new body suit for him, since the old one is wearing out.

Later, I comissioned another suit from LV (My Jenna suit), and I got her at FC2006. When I have the money I will be getting more fursuits too. You can never have too many fursuits. ;)
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: The Dark Knight on May 15, 2007, 15:31:54
You can never have too many fursuits. ;)
Never! :)
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Wolfie Fox on May 15, 2007, 17:41:07
I'll tell my story later, it's long too but I'm tired :P
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Blaster2 on May 20, 2007, 03:32:47
By pure chance!!!

I was using ICQ, and I hit the "Find random chat partner" button. I got a person called Lupus McCloud, who showed me a picture of him and Spiked Punch. I asked "Where did he get that suit??" He then gave me Spiked's ICQ number, we got chatting about all this, he sent me a couple of fursuit patterns, and voila, the Blaster 1 suit was born and I hit the scene!!

Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Benny Brownpaws on May 20, 2007, 14:24:13
Also by accident! I used to frequent an Ecco The Dolphin fan forum, and one person there was doing work for school, and wanted information on a culture called furries. He asked if any of us could help him out, so, being the helpful otter that I am (although at the time I was a non-anthro dolphin called Waikiki), I looked up furries....

....and was instantly hooked. I found ukfur, I found furnation (now anthronation), I eventually found adult sites as well....I was just hooked.

And I've never looked back.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Wolfie Fox on May 20, 2007, 16:41:37
Ecco The Dolphin? Damn. I used to play that. I actually still have it on my Sega Mega Drive hehehe :P
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Cerebus on May 20, 2007, 17:06:56
the one thing i hated about the game i died like 5 mins into it
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Wolfie Fox on May 20, 2007, 17:09:25
Lol.
Did you keep forgetting to go up for air?  I did that all the time.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Cerebus on May 20, 2007, 19:12:02
i did everything but stupit sharks and some dalf things kill me
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Wolfie Fox on May 20, 2007, 19:25:27
*giggles* :P
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Loupgaros on May 21, 2007, 11:38:22
Mix of art and shamanism, and also D&D. I played animal characters in D&D so I liked furries automatically. As to art, I draw anthros and always have done, and I looked up werewolf art. Then I joined F2F before leaving due to issues of sanity and settled on a site called Furgasmic. That is my second home online so I'm very happy and quite okay with my furriness now.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: AstroFenn on May 31, 2007, 21:06:08
Roger rabbit, when I was around 4 years old I saw that movie and ended up sort of obsessed with Anthromorphic animals for a while i.e. Bugs bunny etc, the ones you see everywhere, then I went into a dragon fad for a long time up until I was 14 where I found Furries after discovering Goldenwolf while I was looking for werewolf costumes for halloween, became hooked and I'd drawn furries before, sega style foxes which since I was 10 years old to around 12years old had a sort of comic to them, but Goldenwolf's art definitely caught my attention and I started drawing again, at first following Goldies' style then I found other sites and furries on DA and Furrychat sites and from there FurAffinity and so I kept drawing and developed my own style. I've only ever had 3 major "Fursonas" 1st was Mahina my dragon charecter, back from my dragon fad, (Originally on the chat my name was "MoonLiteDragon" but I later found an artist on DA with the name and so gave Mahina a real name: Mahina Moonbeam) My first furry fursona was Mayla Daisywillow, a fennec with two tails, but as I grew and hit 18 Years old i felt I needed a fursona that more represented myselfand wasn't so childish therefore Astro Fenn was born ^_^ HeeHee. 
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Wolfie Fox on June 01, 2007, 21:54:13
Ahhh, Roger rabbit :)
I feel like watching that movie now hehe.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Cerebus on June 02, 2007, 10:03:49
roger rabbit i only watch ta a few times in my life "oh how i miss wesels"
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Feera Fox on June 26, 2007, 16:33:48
Well It All Came About When It Was Looking For A Dragon Costume, On The Net
So For About 2 Years, I Could Not Find Anything. I Gave Up For A While At That
Point. 8 Years Later I Think.

It Was One Of The Very First Things On TV That Peeked My Intrest About
The Fandom, (Not Y2K, Cringe), Way Way Before That I Don't Even Remember
The Name Of The Program, About Less Than A Year Back I Decided To Contact
Other Furs After 10 Years In The Closet, I Sent A E-Mail To A Fur Who I Can't
Name Here, As I Respect His Privacy.

So I Decided To Go The The Midfur Bham Meet, And The Rest They Say
Is Furstory, I Found And Continue To Find The Group, Light Hearted And
Jolly, They Have Taught Me Much But,I Still Have A Lot To Learn About
The Fandom, Well We All Have To Learn, As We Never Stop Learning.

Yours In Light
Feera Fox :)
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Bloodwish on July 13, 2007, 02:22:33
Like a lot of people, I started off small, when I was a kid it was Raccoons, TMHT, Dangermouse, Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo etc.. hey, ever actually noticed that a LARGE percentage of Cartoons are actually anthro cartoons? and all of the top Cartoon characters are anthro?

Anyway, as  grew up I never lost my intrest in cartoons, and I'd often identify as a large, wise vulpine or rodent. Long flowing black cloak with nobbly staff and a swishing tail. Anyway, when I got the net, my first chat handle was Shadowolf, then Darkwolf, then Darkfox, then after finding out all of the above were done like a million times over, I became Bloodwish, and in time when parts of my personality clashed with me when I was Bloodwish, I would become Pyris, who was a lot less morally bound but equally a lot more honourable.

I found out I was a 'fur' when someone in a chat room noticed my affinity for anthro personalities and asked if I was furry, I asked what it was and he pointed me in the direction of a furry chatroom on AOL ages back.. about '97 I think that was...

The rest as they say is history...

Ironically though, I've never been a furry away from my screen... I've just never found my outlet until now.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Broken Splinter on September 22, 2007, 17:57:41
Viva Pinata........Don't ask! lol
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Holley on September 22, 2007, 20:18:49
Back in '95 I got on the internet and found out about Therianthropy and Furry art, but had other things to worry about so it dropped by the wayside.  Then a few months ago I was ploughing around online comics, stumbled accross 'Purgatory Tower' and it prodded my interest enough to go and look ...
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: razzle on December 02, 2007, 15:23:24
well, honestly i have no idea how i got into the fandom, i just..was. I do however know that the first main furry forum that i joined was owned by one Wolfie-fox, yes that is the same wolfie that is staff here (also the guy who got me into this con). I think the first time i heard of the fandom was..dun dun dunnnn... accidental again. i think i was researching [american] football mascots and just kinda, fell into the fursuit side of it, got interested in that then it just spiraled.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Regandor on December 02, 2007, 16:10:06
I was downloading pron on limewire a few years ago when i found out about furry stuff.
But it took me a year before i found out about furries, and i was like OMGZ! Thats like me!
Aaand then i started searching on the net until i found norwegian furries.
After a little while i found an English furry on youtube, we became friends and he told me about confuzzled. So, here I am. ^^
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: SerFox on December 02, 2007, 17:48:17
Felt like a fox, loved acting like a fox. Looked on the internet, found Furcadia, got bored, found yiffy.net, found my sexuality, left yiffy.net, ound local furs. Stayed.

If you want a less summarized version, cuddle me and give me juice and I'll tell you sometime.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Broken Splinter on December 03, 2007, 11:37:24
Like everyone dose poking around online then.....woops wasnt looking for that
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Wolfie Fox on December 03, 2007, 15:50:02
I found the furry community just over 5 years ago when I was searching Google for something to do with Dune, that oooold Command & Conquer style game. I found a picture of a fursona called "Dune" :P It all started from there hehe. =^.^=
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Broken Splinter on December 03, 2007, 23:33:32
Viva Pinata......don't ask...
But thats what got me set off
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Tori Belliachi on December 12, 2007, 20:33:00
I found the furry community just over 5 years ago when I was searching Google for something to do with Dune, that oooold Command & Conquer style game. I found a picture of a fursona called "Dune" :P It all started from there hehe. =^.^=

Not Dume (http://www.otterdude.com/) then? :P
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Akinokaze on January 22, 2009, 21:52:29
This is taken from a journal on my old FA page.

Quote
Ok, :iconLouiefurrywolfy: posted a journal about fursona body image [go read it,] which got me to writing a quick comment about where my fursona came from..... which turned into a 1204 word essay about my life..... read at your own peril.

=============================================


I started out with an on-line MUD called Achaea back in 97 when I was 12, I played this game till late 2001/early 2002 as a gamut of characters with very similar names (rogue, highlander and desease [yes I know that was spelt wrong] were some of them.)

I started out with these names because I was very isolated in highschool [12 is around the start of UK highschool] and I was used to it, so my RP naturally followed that. When I quit playing it was because is I burned out and bored (I'd been playing all these throwaway characters and just got sick of keeping up with all of the lies used to keep them in RP.)

Come march 2003, I return to the game [not sure what drove this] and picked a name based on my old pattern, that of Lonewolf (a member of the tiger-like humanoid race the Rajamala. [The name was never intended as meaning that I was a “Lone Wolf.”]) This time I decided to simply play as myself, no RP except for what fits the world itself. I would only play it how I felt I'd react, rather than to whatever RP-related stereotypes existed in relation to my class, race or city.

And I enjoyed myself, I started to open up [the shit I went through in highschool had emotionally destroyed me, before returning to the game I was basically only able to express anger and sadness.]

Working through the scenarios presented to my character the way that I would respond to them allowed me to rediscover things about myself and to understand myself better [for instance, during a test I was given in a martial-arts guild I was in I was asked what my feelings were about the importance of respect. Now I could have just stated what I thought they wanted to hear, but instead I thought about it. It resulted in a rather long explanation of why I believe that no-one deserves respect, they can only earn it through their actions as many who would be considered as deserving of your respect through their position, have never actively done a thing to earn that respect, and may even do things to lose the respect forever.] Over time this really helped me and was further helped by the friendship of Zen and Icelyon (without whom, I seriously doubt I'd be here today.)

I'm not sure when I entered the furry fandom as a noticeable person (faving, commenting, etc) but it was after I'd started Lonewolf [though I'd actually discovered furry by accident in 2001 when I was 16, while looking for art of werewolves using a word taken from sonic books and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, that of "anthropomorphic." Which led me to the, now long vanished, heterosexual site “The Temple of Lunar” and the works of Gregg Panovich, K9 and Frank Gembeck.]

It was also after I'd become bisexual, though before I was gay. Yes, you read that right, I actually was each of these, there was no denial involved these are actually accurate. I was 100% straight till I was 16/17 (absolutely no interest in men at all.) After finding furry, and its over abundance of adult works, I started becoming interested in men. When I first found furry I'd only look at the clean works, then being a horny teen, I started looking at the adult works, but only the lesbian stuff (the straight stuff was a turn-off [why do straight guys like to see another guys dick when having sex with a woman?]) Then, over time, I started throwing in some straight stuff (cause I no-longer found it weird.)

Over time I started to become interested in guys as well, by 18 I came out as being Bi with a female preference (roughly 1:4,) by 19 I was Bi with a male preference (roughly 3:2,) and by 20 I was 100% gay. (So anyone who says your sexuality doesn't change, they're wrong.)

Anyway, when I decided to enter the fandom I needed a name. Well, I'd already gotten an email address, I was already known in a game, so I thought, “Screw it, I'll just call myself Lonewolf Achaea.”

That's how my name came about, the fursona however is separate and came a while later after I first started playing Furcadia. I actually started Lonewolf off as the feline species there, matching from Achaea. Later I decided it would be more fitting to actually choose an animal that I felt shared similar attributes to me through its personality.

I'm a fighter, but only when I have to be. I'm fiercely loyal to my friends and will protect them any way I can. I can be perfectly content to be alone, but I'm happier when in a group. To my mind this left only two immediate options, a Lion [for their Prides,] or a Wolf [for their Packs,] and I've always had an affinity for Canines. That, is how my anthro-wolf self came about, not because of my name or the prevalence of wolves in the fandom, but from careful thinking. The scars are just more prominent versions of scars I actually have [for instance, the eye scar, is merely an eye-brow scar on me,] the hair is the same as mine and the main colouring is based on the European wolf to reflect where I come from.

As for my other forms, the eastern-dragon came next. I decided to get Icelyon and Zen a gift as a thankyou for their friendship and I knew how much they liked “Spirited Away”. So I came up with an idea of the two of them riding dragon-Haku over a river, I tried to draw it myself and sucked royally.... so I commissioned Greenmonkey ^_^. During the sketching phase I thought about how similar his face was to that of a wolf and came up with the idea of Lonewolf being able to become an eastern dragon. Then all that remained was to add the facial scar and colour him using European wolf based colours.

Third and fourth came at the same time. My human and non-anthro-wolf solves are a result of watching Wolf's Rain and loving the very idea of the series, besides, simply put, why shouldn't you use yourself as well? Humans are animals too. [A recent change I've made to fourth form is to give him forward-pointing 7-shaped horns. This is based on the wolf-like creatures in “Monster Rancher.” He has now become “for the most part” just a differently coloured version of the character “Tiger of the Wind.”]

Fifth [and last,] we have my anthro-dragon-wolf self. This came as a result of my imagining a looping animation of my fursona shifting between his various forms and a fluid movement sequence and it simply clicked. I won't describe the animation in detail, as I have yet to find someone to make it, but I will say the order. Human > anthro-wolf > non-anthro-wolf > eastern dragon > anthro-dragon-wolf > human.

And that's it, that's where my name, personality, sexuality and fursona's come from ^_^;

 
=============================================

Additional: My new name comes from being tired of the instant stereotyping that happens when people read a name like lonewolf, they just assume things about your personality [which were true before (see above) but not anymore :P]

As such I decided to pick a new name, this came from my love of the Japanese language and Autumn being my favourite season. Akinokaze means Wind of Autumn [or can be shortened to Autumn Wind, though the correct word for that would be Akikaze.]

Though a friend came up with the nickname of Kino [key-no] from that which I quite like too ^_^




More than was asked for but meh XD
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Lilsi on February 17, 2009, 08:27:03
I was doing course work on differnt sub-cultures. Found a journal on a freak who fell in love with his dog which had a link to sites containing information about what a furry is and one had a link to ukfur.  After a good few weeks of research and figuring out not all furs wanted to hump their pets i joined up.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: kungfufox on March 04, 2009, 20:15:01
well i discovered furry fandom after looking for idears for some of my art work
i have been drawing furry art for about 8 years
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: FireFox on March 18, 2009, 22:52:15
furcadia :D i found it by accident on wiki and ever since been a furry =^_^=

about 2 - 3 years ago :D
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: James The Dog on July 06, 2009, 18:02:03
Quite a long story for me- as I'd spent years looking at furry sites without even knowing what a furry was, then after I did find out what it is, all I was told about was the bad stuff.

Though, like what is most likely like most people reading this- it is something that's been with me most of my life. I've always preferred cartoons and things with animals in rather than people- I've always identified with them better for some reason- I still do. I know I was big on both Sonic the Hedgehog and Farthing Wood during my childhood, amongst others- but they were certainly my favourites. Imagining myself as an animal cartoon character has also been there since I was a kid. And it's something that never went away as I grew up- even in my early teens I was still discovering new "animal" cartoons- CatDog, The Angry Beavers, Cow & Chicken and The Foxbusters would have been my favourites at the time. I first came up with what is now my fursona when I was 14- nearly 9 years ago now! I'm still not sure why I'm a dog, as I've never been a massive fan of them, and even if I did know at the time, I've long since forgotten about it now. But it felt right then, it feels right now- and no other animal does. Though I spent years keeping it to myself- anyone I know would just laugh at me, and I'd never have thought for a second that there was a whole community of people out there who feel like I do!

I believe the first time I came accross a "furry" site would have been around 2001/2002- I've already mentioned the Foxbusters. I was (and still am) a big fan of that cartoon, and I came across a fan site for the show. One day I looked beyond the fansite and onto bits of the owners personal site. While there I discovered that he had his own cartoon animal character- a Fox called Jaff- and also had drawn pictures of him (something I'd never be able to do, as my art skills are hopeless!), though I never looked into it enough to discover the fandom, it was the first time I realised that I wasn't the only one who thought of myself that way. A couple of years later, the Foxbusters fan site was sadly shut down, and when he did, he put a link up to his DA gallery, and I looked at both his gallery (and have, on and off, been following his art ever since) and discovered several other galleries- and discovered even more people who drew cartoon animal versions of themselves. Yet again though, I never looked into it enough to discover the fandom. I don't really know why to be honest- and looking back, it seems quite bizarre how I could have missed it all! But I think I had other things going off in my life at the time to really think too much about such things.

The first time, I think, that I heard the word "furry" and became sort-of aware of the fandom would have been in late 2005/early 2006 when on a forum I used there was a discussion about these "furries" who, according to them, were basically a bunch of pervs who have sex with animals while dressed in costumes. And a few months later when someone on there posted a link to a quite vile comic (even worse than your average "yiff" stuff) and basically made out that stuff is what the fandom was all about. Seeing this sort of stuff certainly didn't make me want to find out any more about it. It was over the following couple of years I heard more and more about the fandom which made me think that maybe this stuff I'd heard was exaggerated, and it was last June when I started to properly read up on it all and realised that, maybe, I was actually a furry after all.

Still though, although I'd told some people on the internet I was a furry (sadly many of which have a very stereotypical view of the fandom, and hardly made me feel much better about it), I felt quite nervous and edgy about how to get involved. So I spent months reading various furry websites and thinking maybe I'll sign up to one- but never actually did anything about it because I was very nervous, and also worried about being rejected.

Then, in February, on one site I came across a name- one which was used by a person whose website I'd used to help out on years earlier, by contributing material and moderating on the forums there. I did a quick google search to find out if it was the same person- and it was! The website itself had nothing to do with cartoon animals, but I've since found out the person in question had been in the fandom since 2003 (so had been another case of me being completely ignorant of the fandom, despite looking right at it!), not that he ever mentioned it, but it was around that time he started using that name to sign himself, and though I wondered about the name, I didn't think enough of it to ask. The forums on the site closed down in 2005, and we lost contact after that, but I decided to give him an email, then we started chatting on MSN and after a couple of months I picked up enough courage to sign up to the UKFur forums, then to go to my first meet in Sheffield a couple of weeks ago. If it wasn't for that I'd probably still be sitting there thinking about joining a site, and would definatly have been far too nervous to even think about a meet. But the meet was brilliant and I have no worries about going to any others, or to Confuzzled.

So that's my story! A bit long winded I know, but still!
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Akinokaze on July 06, 2009, 22:38:26
Good post, interesting to hear how it all came about for you [I miss angry beavers.]

I'd recommend joining furaffinity if you haven't already, though perhaps keep the mature filter turned on for a while till you get used to things ^_^
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: James The Dog on July 06, 2009, 23:39:24
[I miss angry beavers.]

I have every episode on tape- painstakingly taped them all (along with Rocko's Modern Life) back in 2004! Don't think I've ever watched through it all though!

Quote
I'd recommend joining furaffinity if you haven't already, though perhaps keep the mature filter turned on for a while till you get used to things ^_^

I've thought about it. I've been put off for various reasons though.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: LevLion on July 07, 2009, 09:50:11
He he he cool, Jaff is a very close friend of mine Im sure he will be pleased people remember his site. That fan site got him a personal tour of the studios ;) he got original art from teh show all over his walls.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: James The Dog on July 07, 2009, 14:55:02
You shouldn't have told me that- I'm quite envious now! :P Actually, I considered making a fansite dedicated to the fox characters myself, but the fact I know hardly anything about web design, and anything I try always turns out awful means I never bothered. There was a flash animation on that site, involving Voracious and BBF that I've been wanting to see again for years too!
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: LevLion on July 07, 2009, 15:44:49
Well I told jaff about you so if you wanna chat sometime he might have it. I know the flash yoru tlaking about
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: valebear on July 23, 2009, 00:13:55
Three years ago I stumbled across a fursuit convention video clip on YouTube and thought to myself that looks cute and exciting, so I started searching and watching more clips, but once I saw that all the clips were from the US, I thought there's a shame why can't they hold such events in the UK.

I lost interest up until a year ago then I started to research what 'furry' meant and became more and more interested, visiting many sites such as FA, fursuit.timduru.org, etc.

From the day I saw the first furry convention clip on YouTube, it was relevant to my interests.

Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: LevLion on July 23, 2009, 09:34:14
Well there has been conventions in the US and Europe for 15 or more years now. In fact although confuzzled has been going only 2 years things like RBW were going 3 years ago and there have been what are close to mini cons run even back in the 1990's here. Only difference is we dont advertise like the americans do (well not back then anyways).

Its more a case of knowing what to look for, as a none fur looking in from youtube I guess you could easily see it as an American only thing but once your in the fandom you cna see how world wide it really is.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: mordo on August 16, 2009, 19:05:38
to be perfectly honest i think i first got into furry when i developed a crush on Renamon (Digimon series 3) lol i was young but she had a real elegance to her and a strong personality... plus a really curvy body that'd make any guy drool
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: HelenBaby on November 04, 2009, 19:30:30
Deviantart =P
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: General E. Husky on December 28, 2009, 23:45:16
I can't remember exactly how I took to it but as far as I can remember, it was only a few days ago when I saw a YouTube video titled 'Merry Christmas'. More to the point, it showed a YouTube member in a fursuit in the shape of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and having a love for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie especially, I soon channeled this 'obsession' into generic fursuiting to keep in tune with the rest of the year. And so, before long, I developed my furry 'persona', General E. Husky and I'm now making the costume. Well, in this short space of time, I felt that a husky would be like me, a tough nut with a soft centre (metaphorically speaking).
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: huskeywolf on April 13, 2010, 16:33:39
found this community while watching you tube, [HAVE TO TRAVEL 27 MILES JUST TO ACCESS] DONT ASK!  anyway was watching bolt v balto and other stuff and came accross furies , as they say the rest is history.  i dunno ive always had a love of mascots  be it football etc,   and have collected soft toys inc  a giant SIBERIAN HUSKEY AND A GIANT SIT ON GERMAN SHEPERD,. now i dont sit on it much overweight.....ha ha ha [too many cookies?

im having a fun time on here but dont know anyone, come on you lot talk to me, i live nr birmingham, i know there have been furries spotted here as well as a wolves furry.  if you dont talk to me i wont share my JAR of choc covered cookies with you. see you soon huskey wolf the rabbit. :D ;D :( :)
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Stereo Fox on January 21, 2011, 18:47:05
it all started for me during my time in college 1999/2002.

i was taking the B-tec national diploma in engineering course, during the technical drawing classes  i would finish the work i was given in half the time it should, and i'd get another sheet of paper and start drawing anime/manga on it, mainly catgirls.

thats where my fursona, minokyoko was born in 2001, i came across the furry fandom a couple times over '02-'05 then my interests changed into mountain biking and rc cars.

its only over the last couple years i've gotten back into drawing manga/anime, which led to the furry part, which led me to discover that the first catgirl i drew back in '01 was my fursona.

now being furry is sort of another hobby for me,
along side mountain biking, restoring vintage rc cars and drawing manga/anime.

i came across this site while searching for furry cons in the uk and the rest is history.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: SFW on January 21, 2011, 20:19:04
I had the same trouble in the Key Skills, it took about four weeks to do the entire year's worth of content so I mostly just poked around the internet for something to do. Still, it seems to be a theme with engineers to get bored and find other things to do instead of work.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: Stereo Fox on January 22, 2011, 00:30:37
so true, i find myself looking at things thinking,
'if i did this it's work better/more efficent'

i'm mister fixit at where i work.

'of olly can't sort it, bin it'

thats usually said there.


i've taken the engineering skill onto building my own motor bike from a '97 suzuki gsxr 750m track bike.
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: huskeywolf on January 22, 2011, 11:56:29
sort of off topic so soz
just discovered furry 4 life
awesome site
Title: Re: How do you discover the furry fandom?
Post by: nekosune on February 13, 2011, 05:35:41
Discovered through catgirls myself. Found from an early age loved the few on cartoons then one day while searching for more adult art found a few furry sites, and from there was hooked.