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submitted by druidscomic
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submitted by Akselmo
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submitted by AnthroWear
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Author: Sonious As someone who has been in a community of artists, I hear a common conundrum arise: I really want to leave this art site, but it’s too popular and leaving would mean losing out on a valuable resource to gain/keep customers. This article presents ways you can use your control over your own [...]

submitted by Chachoregard
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Don't use it, cause you won't be unique. :P

..Yes, I prefer feral.

http://imgur.com/dyyw0Zp

submitted by psidra
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Here is an article, dated May 10, in the Fraser Coast Chronicle, a daily newspaper serving the Fraser Coast area of Queensland, Australia.

The article (which makes the mistake of equating furries with fursuiters) describes next month's Bundaberg Furmeet.

HOLD on to your tails - Bundaberg is about to become furry central.

What is a furry you ask? Well, while definitions vary, a furry is generally a person who dresses up in an animal suit and takes on a "fursona" in line with their animal alter-ego.

Furries can come in all shapes and forms from leopards to lions, foxes, rats, pigs and every furry critter in between.

This year will see Bundaberg's furry community hosting their second event which will see people from all over the country converge on the rum city for the two days of fun.

On June 15, paying members of the local community with gather for fun and dancing with a special public fun day planned for the botanic gardens on June 16.

Hayden Grant (aka Bingo Fox) said the Furries in the Park event should be popular.

"I'm expecting around 50 paying attendees from around Australia and about 25 people with fursuits," he said.

The main drawcard for the Sunday event on June 16 will be an appearances by Alex the Lion and King Julian from the Madagascar movies and also a new quad-suit (which walks on all fours) of a warg, which is a mythical beast from the Lord of the Rings.

submitted by canadianpanda
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submitted by Almafeta
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submitted by Neptunia360
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submitted by D1STR4CT10N
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“When Hooligan Bear and his nephew Little Louie return home to the bear factory and find it has been closed, they are faced with a problem. It’s a turning point for the little bears and the beginning of many adventures.” That’s the description of Home, the first book in the new series of Hooligan Bear adventures written by Ian Toynton  and illustrated by Andrea Dietrich. Hooligan bear and his four friends are a set of plushie bears who must learn about the world around them as they work and play in this series for  young readers. This being the modern age, the books are not only available on-line (from Big Tent Books), but Hooligan Bear even has his own Facebook page and his own Twitter feed.

image c. 2013 by Big Tent Books

submitted by chipfoxx
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Author: Fred Full disclosure: I wrote a blurb for this book, which is quoted on the back cover. Farmost Star I See Tonight is a mystical, dreamy, touching romantic fantasy for shy teenagers. Whether humans or wolves, ‘omega’ adolescents may feel that they are alone. This novel will help them to see that their troubles [...]

My list is: Conker's BFD Okami Starfox Sonic

submitted by MagicalWeenies
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submitted by Dydi92
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BLFC BASH!: Saturday
A huddle, a parade, and a thief. You've never seen anything quite like this at a con. FACEBOOK: http://www.Facebook.com/TheRaccoonsDen TWITTER: http://www.Tw... From: TheRaccoonsDen Views: 420 26 ratings Time: 05:51 More in Entertainment

Strange dark night
a fox crawls on the ground
towards a beautiful melon
- Bashô, Summer 1681

 

“We often act as if our animal-person representation really exists” wrote JM in his article, Furries with Physical Disabilities, here on [adjective][species]. In this article, he notes that for “for many furries, there are big physical differences between their real-world bodies and their preferred avatar” and this can be “a liberating experience”. This would be particularly true for furries with physical disabilities. But more than liberation, I would say that the furry I met who had physical disabilities was overcoming his handicap, because his wished hybrid identity was not so far from him as you may think at first sight. Lukio is a young man living in Grenoble. He has discovered the fandom at the age of 16 and is now 20. His fursona is a hybrid human-fox that he drew on his own. Before speaking a bit more about his avatar, I should speak about a very common disorder called dyspraxia.

Christian Ballouard, psychologist and occupational therapist, explains praxia and dyspraxia in these terms (Ref Ballouard, Christian. Dyspraxie, les gestes incontrôlables in Les Grands Dossiers des Sciences Humaines. 2010/9 (N°20). – 27):

Praxia is the scientific word for the creation of gestures. Praxies, or actions, are not just any movements, but movements that are created to perform a specific result or intent (e.g. writing, or cutting meat).

 

The disability affects the planning of the action, and the translation of the intended action into the desired gesture. It is not a hand-eye coordination issue; rather a disruption in the processes that organize the movement.

 

To sum up, dyspraxia can be perceived as simple “clumsiness”. It is not as alarming in children as in adults, because children’s brain plasticity allows them to progress and overcome their difficulty. Dyspraxia for a child, particularly, involves his perception: perception of spaces, perception of his own body and gestures.

I would not have understood that Lukio had this kind of disability if he had not told me. I remember his manner was some combination of shyness, and something intangible, mysterious, that I couldn’t put my finger on. Long silences punctuated our conversation. First, I was a bit ill-at-ease but after a while I accepted the silences, as if moments in time were becoming elastic. Perception was starting to be different, even for me.

We had decided to meet in a café in Grenoble. But after an hour of text messages explaining where I was, giving the address, the tram stop, etc, Lukio was still not here. We decided to meet in the place he was at the moment, where I would easily reach him. Nobody was there when I arrived. That was a true game of hide-and-seek and I began to think: well, I guess foxes are really hard to catch.

My thoughts were to link furry to dyspraxia. I could understand that maybe Lukio was a bit lost because his perception of space was a little different. I am still fascinated how it made me change my own perception of the city. How walking became a game, how normally useless steps became alternative ways to spend my time. I had the feeling of following an animal, as if I was on a trail, as if the city was a jungle. Images came to my mind. He was not lost because he was dyspraxic but because he was a furry.

Let’s go further in this idea. Lukio has now nearly totally corrected his clumsiness, but keeps a sense of mysteriousness about his gestures. Is such clumsiness not comparable to animal moves or animal behaviours? A dog, a cat, or a fox may not be able to eat properly but they are excellent hunters. They will not find their way by reading street signs but by their own instinct, flair, and innate sense of orientation. They are potentially uncoordinated or clumsy, yet powerful and precise when it is needed.

I noticed that, contrary to these many furries who have big differences between their avatar and themselves, Lukio is closer to his than one might imagine. But the connection is subtle, it is in his behavior, in his way of moving, that maybe consciously or unconsciously he incorporated in the furry he became.

Neurology is not the only treatment for dyspraxia: psychology plays a big part in the process of recovery. Thus is it possible to suggest that Lukio has sublimated his disability. He celebrates a part of himself, he has transformed positively something that might be negatively perceived. Sublimation is not illusional, it is “a certain form of catharsis, that of the author and not the public, a difficult and necessary work, a conversion of the whole being into what is deeply true on the inside.” (Ref Saint Girons, Baldine. Sublimation in Encyclopédia universalis. 1985. – 310.)

Is it possible that one might be helped to manage or overcome dyspraxia via zoomorphic imagination, via mirror neurons:

The idea of mirror neurons is still new but is the subject of growing scientific investigation.  Mirror neurons are brain neurons that fire when an animal performs a certain action, when the animal observes the same action performed by another, or by simply imagining the action. Researchers think that mirror neurons are particularly important to human beings. (Ref)

 

Although this psychological theory is relatively new, it may be interesting to see how it could be understood in a furry context. If, by the way of his imagination, Lukio can activate some specific neurons linked to movement when thinking about his furry identity, it is possible that this would help to perfect his gestures, his praxia. In fact, all furries are potentially redefining their perceptions through their zoomorphic imagination. This is just a hypothesis but is especially relevant in light of a growing field: that of zootherapy . Zootherapy is starting to become common although is still controversial. Zootherapy attempts to heal people using an animal for psychological support, or to help build and strengthen psychomotor abilities.

In the end, what’s most important is maybe not that finding a deep identical link with a hybrid imaginary fox will heal somebody, but to consider that every furry—everyone exploring an zoomorphic connection—may be developing new perceptions of themselves and the outside world.

Finally, let’s come back to Bashô’s beautiful poem opening this text. This Haiku has been interpreted as having two main meanings. The first one would assert that the melon is a metaphor, a treasure that the fox wants to get, and he has to crawl—an uncomfortable but effective movement—to win his prize. Another possibility is that the image of the fox is linked with the melon and that he is crawling as the melon does, when it slowly grows across the ground. So, the relationship between the melon and the fox is the transfer of the ‘crawling’ characteristic from the second to the first. This is close to the ‘Becoming-Animal’ concept from Deleuze and Guatari’s seminal philosophical work ‘A Thousand Plateaux‘.

At the end of my reflections, I was left wondering what is most important for Lukio: is it the prize of having cured a disability, or is it the discovery of a new range of sensations and perceptions to explore. And are we exploring them too?

BLFC BASH!: Friday
Fursuit interviews, dances and more on such a glorious Friday night! FACEBOOK: http://www.Facebook.com/TheRaccoonsDen TWITTER: http://www.Twitter.com/Bandit_... From: TheRaccoonsDen Views: 689 27 ratings Time: 07:43 More in Entertainment

BLFC BASH!: Sunday
Nerf wars, sexy baby talks, dancing fursuits, and of course, Twerkaflop! FACEBOOK: http://www.Facebook.com/TheRaccoonsDen TWITTER: http://www.Twitter.com/Ban... From: TheRaccoonsDen Views: 247 21 ratings Time: 05:45 More in Entertainment