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submitted by bleeble_blooble
[link] [4 comments]

I just wanted to introduce myself- I've never been on this subreddit before but i've been a furry since I was too young to even know the word existed.

I go by Edelweiss. I've been involved in the community for ten years now in various ways and I've had so much fun doing so!

My fursona is an albino Doberman Pinscher! NSFW pic here: http://imgur.com/pwCdmsU

In addition to furry crap, I also love anime, video games, horror movies, taxidermy and bone collecting, baking, and learning about history. I like to RP and the like and my current gaming queue is Persona 4 and Final Fantasy III.

I'm happy to meet all of you!

submitted by pastelcoyote
[link] [9 comments]

Hello Papa Bear,

My name is Mike. I’m 17, from Germany, and there are some things I would maybe like to talk about with you. 

I am in the furry fandom for almost 3 years now. I feel good in it. I like the art, most people of it and yeah, I really like it! But there’s one thing/or thought I have and that crosses my mind quite often.

I don’t need full attention 24/7, I don’t want people to adore me or compliment me every moment. To be honest, I’m happy how I am. But still I sometimes get a weird feeling when looking at, let’s say, furries with many watchers, or many page views, or when having a partner. I know this is stupid, but i often think in a way like „why them and not me?“

I sometimes feel like not being worthy or good enough. My self-esteem isn’t low all the time, but sometimes there are these moments where I tend to think in a very negative way. 

I have an idea that this may come from my past and my ex. My parents divorced, I had some really bad years, but somehow managed to get around, figured out my sexuality and came out and things went okay. But not all. As time and my mind progressed, I realised more and more that my father has no real interest in me. I have a feeling that he needed me so he could pressure my mother during the breakup and when they argued all the time. When this stopped, I still saw him from time to time, but on neither side it felt like we wanted to see each other more than we HAD to see each other, because that is how things go, right?

Then I met a furry and pretty much fell in love with him. This was last July. For me, a 17 year old is the first relationship very exciting. Things went okay at first, but soon it failed horribly, but, naive and filled with feelings, I thought that he just had a bad phase. He had 2 exes and both cheated on him and changed him so that he is scared of trusting anyone. Additionally to this, he had problems with his parents, so the whole situation wasn’t easy for him (he wasn’t outed). I tried to help him and to show that he can trust me, but every time there was a step forward, there were two backwards. One time he told me he felt like he liked me too and it felt good; then he went silent for days and said that he isn’t ready for a relationship and doesn’t know if he will ever be; then he told me how he likes me again. Being naive, I thought I could help him, this poor guy who lived through all these bad things with his exes and his parents and so on. But soon it started to hurt me. How he didn’t text me, didn’t talk to me for days, turned me down for more important things (like doing vore RPs instead of talking to me) and my self-esteem dropped. It was a relationship and it started out so bad, but I thought that it would turn better. We both made some mistakes, but how he acted towards me was worse and worse.

But the way how he treated me, didn’t give me attention, hurt me a lot. And at the end I decided to break up. He wanted to do it too, but told me, that he didnt have time to tell me. We talked long and to summarize what he said is that he didn’t have the nuts to do it. All in all, the whole relationship with him was poisonous for me and lasted 3 months. I felt like a wreck after it.

At the same time, I tried to better the relationship to my father. I had no real father figure in my life and was scared to loose something like this. But I also realized that he didn’t really care for me and I broke off contact. I do have awesome friends, I do have an awesome sister and also an awesome mother, but this was like my father just died and I was left alone because I wasnt worth enough for being his son. 

I don’t know, maybe this led to my first relationship, that I was searching for safety. But in the end it was just something I tried to build up in my mind and keep my little world somehow running and working because I thought everything will work out this way.
My father and ex gave me the feeling of not being worth enough. Maybe that’s why I’m jealous of other (happy) people? Thanks in advance.

Mike

* * *

Hi, Mike,

Sounds like you’re pretty good at self-diagnosing. There is a logic to what you say, especially when it comes to your father’s rejection of you (or, apparent rejection), and that this would leave you overly sensitive to the idea that you might get rejected by furries, or even just being hyper that you are not as popular as other furries.

I have a couple pieces of advice for you. First of all, you say you have an awesome mother, sister, and some great friends. Instead of focusing on what happened between you and your father and your ex, look at all the great people you do have in your life! There are many people out in the world who don’t have anyone like that: no mother or father, no siblings who care about them, not even an aunt or uncle or grandparent. This isn’t to say that the pain you feel about your dad and ex isn’t legitimate, but you shouldn’t feel that just because some relationships in your life didn’t work out that you are somehow unworthy of love and friendship. Your other relationships prove you are worthy. Nobody on this planet has a 100% relationship success rate. No-bod-y.

Secondly, there will always be other people who are more popular, more successful, richer, more handsome etc. etc. than you are. Don’t worry if some other furry has 1,000 friends on Facebook. It’s not a competition, and, besides, most of those people—if not almost all of them!—are not really friends but just people who follow that person or are casual acquaintances. Having a Facebook friend or followers on, say, FurAffinity, is not nearly as valuable as having true friends in your real life. Let those furries have their slew of followers; who cares? I’d rather have 5 super duper friends than 5,000 acquaintances.

So, there really is no mystery here, and I’m guessing that you wrote Papabear just to check if your thinking is on the mark or not. I would say, yes, you have a good grip on what’s going on. Now that you understand why you are struggling with self-esteem, you can do things to make yourself feel better about who you are:

1. Stop comparing yourself to others, as I stated above.
2. Focus on the good things in your life.
3. Set realistic expectations for yourself (e.g., I want to play the piano, but I’m not going to be the next Arthur Rubinstein by next year).
4. If you miss a goal, don’t worry about it; reset your goals and get back to work :-) (e.g., my original goal was to be playing decently by age 50; well, that is only a few months off and I have to stop stressing that it’s taking longer to reach that goal and I should just enjoy the ride).
5. Remember, the key to happiness is to live for today, not always for tomorrow. Life is a journey, not a goal.

Be happy, my furiend,

Papabear

submitted by Yiffing_Time
[link] [24 comments]

submitted by toastfox
[link] [2 comments]

So, my long time friend just recently told me he was a fur. I had met other furs before, but never really bothered to learn much about the fandom at all. In fact, I kind of bashed furs for quite some time. Looking back on it, I feel really bad...

Me and my friend went out to eat, and he told me so much about how he'd been a fur for almost 3 years and barely told anyone. He told me about how the fandom isn't "just about the porn." (To be quite honest, I thought people just had sex in fur suits and that was the entire thing... I don't even know.)

I started looking into things and really liked everything I came across. Everything seems so cool and everyone is so nice to one another. It's such a different community than what i'm used to. I want to get integrated and learn more about the fandom, but I honestly am not sure how. I'm also not up to speed quite yet as to how things work.

Also, props to RGBrazberry for introducing me to all this. :3

submitted by MakitaQQ
[link] [46 comments]

submitted by IradiumPyr
[link] [35 comments]

As a 5-year lurker furry, i'm finally making the transtition to becoming an active member of the fandom. The issue is that I can't decide on what species to make my fursona. I've tried taking personality quizzes for it too. I know time is the main thing here, and I shouldn't be so rushed to joining the fandom, but I just can't seem to find a direction with where I want to go. So I guess what I'm mostly asking for is how people discovered/chose your fursona, and hopefully that'll help me on my...er...journey?

submitted by Macklerem
[link] [6 comments]

submitted by Cliff_Racers
[link] [2 comments]

I am currently a Veterinary assistant in Texas who is working 7am to 6pm every day at an amazing $7.25 an hour with no hope of a raise. I am also a college student who is studying Information Security and Assurance, which is something i'm good at but is a career path known to make alcoholics. My job is a super high stress job that I don't get paid enough for, and I am sick of only seeing injured and sick animals and hate the fact that I am constantly putting animals to sleep.

I have decided to say "fuck it all" and plan on just leaving it all behind. I want to just hit the road and just start traveling. I am fine with just taking the necessities and am not too worried about getting rich. I am smart enough to know that it wont be easy and thats why i'm here now. I have several questions for fellow furries and anyone with experiance with living on the road. I got a Crown Vic thats in good condition, a new MacBook Pro, and $240 in my name.

• Does anyone have any advice on managing finances to make every dollar last?

• What about making money on the road? I am a decent artist/writer, but have plenty of room to improve. I do have personal experience with photoshop, sadly no professional experience. I have Microsoft certifications in Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2010, Access 2010, and Outlook 2010.

• When I hit the road I plan on writing about my travels, does anyone recommend any blogging type sites that would be good for this?

• Any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

submitted by jskipper16
[link] [10 comments]

It'd be nice to not have to filter through a bunch of horny-ass furs to find someone to actually talk to.

submitted by crookedear
[link] [3 comments]

I've lurked for a bit and decided it was time to say hello. I've been in the fandom for something like 7 or 8 years. My main sona is a black panther, altho i've been working on a new one recently, because reasons. I'm silly alot, and I like stuff.

I'm an "older" fur I guess, being in my early 30's. Have a hard time meeting furs with whom to share and discuss, guess I don't have so much in common with the younger crowd anymore, so it's getting lonely in my old age!

Anyhow, nice to meet yas, come say hello if you feel like it, I won't bite. Just might nibble a bit...

submitted by CatsnakePlissken
[link] [3 comments]

This is something I get asked a lot, so I made a video explaining my idea of what the fandom is, thought I'd share it here in the hopes it might be useful to someone. http://youtu.be/9x9wCVp6Tvg

submitted by BluTheDragon
[link] [10 comments]

I will be doing commissions for anything you wish! Furry? Sure! Mlp? Awesome. Prices range due to request. FA: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/rustyruston/

submitted by Bronyclan
[link] [comment]

Here is an article, dated February 26, in The Arbiter, the student newspaper of Boise State University:

http://arbiteronline.com/2015/02/26/boise-furries-find-acceptance-community-within-welcoming-fandom/


On most days, Treasure Valley resident A.C. Arment spends his days like any other average human: working, eating and sleeping. On other days, he puts on a green fur suit and becomes Camochi, the anthropomorphic animal hybrid.

“On any given day, I could be hit by a bus or just eat a few slices of pepperoni pizza, just like anyone else,” Arment said. “Camochi is just a little part
of me.”

Arment is part of the ever-growing furry fandom, a group, mainly consisting of Internet and convention interaction, which shares a common love for the anthropomorphic, whether it be dance, graphic design or even prose.

When making a fur suit or any piece of artwork, furries often draw inspiration from their fursonas, idealized, anthropomorphized versions of themselves.

Camochi has a biohazard sign on his back. According to Arment, this represents several years of bullying from his childhood years.

“I thought I was a plague and that I’d be better off dead,” Arment said. “But then I met wonderful people at conventions and made Camochi.”

In an article entitled “Furries and the Limits of Species Identity Disorder,” Fiona Probyn-Rapsey of the University of Sydney cites a survey done at a furry convention, where researchers found that 46 percent of furry participants identified as less than 100 percent human.

Sophomore English major and member of the furry community Nicholas Walker found that, with many furries, identifying with animals is significantly easier than identifying with humans.

“It’s easier to communicate with animals that won’t talk back or scorn you,” Walker said.

Professor of psychology Matthew Genuchi stressed the importance of finding an accepting community of like-minded people when battling negative emotional effects.

“It can provide you with possible avenues to form deep and meaningful relationships based on those shared interests,” Genuchi said.

According to Walker, the furry fandom offers this community and often helps members battle feelings of exclusion or social anxiety.

But, because the community is so accepting of all possible preferences, Walker finds furries garnering disdain from many.

“There are highbrowed types that really get into the art, but there is also that one person that wants to see two dogs getting it on,” Walker said. “The latter brings out the stigma.”

Arment hopes that people can acknowledge the warm community fostered within the furry fandom instead of “those two dark eggs that ruin the whole bunch.”

He continued to describe the ridiculousness of engaging in fur-related sex.

“I don’t want anyone getting their bodily juices on my $1,000 suit,” Arment said.

submitted by yamicat
[link] [19 comments]

submitted by ericleb010
[link] [9 comments]

submitted by TreyBombay
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submitted by Flurra
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submitted by Paws-Wasab3
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