Feed aggregator

You wanna hear Fuzz and Savrin just chat for 80 minutes? We've got the episode for you.

Savrin will see some of you at Anthrocon, they hope~

LINKS
Some of the things discussed herein-
The Death of Movie Theaters - Beyond the Black Void (youtube.com)

List of Texas mushrooms with photos
All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms: Arora, David: 8601401105589: Amazon.com: Books

Current Telegram Group Chat Link - https://t.me/+ovmcomYdNVBmMDgx

Episode 556 - Greymuzzle Ramblecast

Steam Next Fest is here and it has so many highlighted games and demos. Today I’m looking at one that caught my attention: Isle of Swaps.

For those who are unaware, I have a long history with card games. I’ve collected Pokémon cards since I was little. I found a Yu-Gi-Oh structure deck in a shed once(Don’t ask me what it was doing there) and play Magic: The Gathering with friends on occasion. I’ve played several digital card games of varying types. So when a new and especially cool looking card game comes along, I become interested. Now if this game sounds familiar, that's because Isle of Swaps was featured before as one of the games Daxel played for the Deckbuilders Fest back in March. It's back for round 2 as one of the games highlighted for Next Fest.

This comedic video series from the Uncivil Gamers stream team for GamingFurever.com explores new released games on a weekly basis. Our streamers each select one game that was just released within the week and each play through their own game. We then edit together the best and funniest moments from the gameplay and deliver them to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 PM ET!

Description on Steam of "Deep Beyond":   Deep Beyond Is a first-person interactive thriller about a sea explorer and the mystery behind her father’s disappearance.

Link to video (also embedded below:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW8uv2fIADE

Subscribe to Uncivil Gamers on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UncivilGamers

Here’s a graphic novel to tug at your heart: Missing You, written by Phellip Willian and illustrated by Melissa Garabeli. “Following the loss of their mother, Thomas and Lara find an injured deer on the side of the road. Deciding to bring it home with them, they name the deer Lion and quickly become best friends. The new woodland creature soon fills their hearts with warmth and fun, easing their mourning. But when Lion grows more and more curious about the forest beyond their house, Thomas and Lara start to wonder if the forest is where Lion truly belongs. Will they be able to say goodbye to their new friend?” You can find out now — in this trade paperback edition from Oni Press.

image c. 2024 Oni Press

HOOOO BOY do we have a long list for all you readers out there! Don't feel like going through 1800+ games to see which ones had furries, animals, creatures, and other wonderfully fluffy, feathery, scaly, or otherwise exciting anthropomorphic qualities? Well, our wonderful staff member Valraven did! She's compiled an absolutely CRAZY list of all the games we could find that had an ounce of furry in em, or some sort of animal focus. We'll continue to look through the games and see if any slipped through, but even so, this is a big list of games that feature some potentially awesome games in them. Steam links and the image for them provided for easy access!

We'll be playing some of these demos this week and next, and hopefully providing some previews, reviews, and developer interviews as many of these games progress through development! Additionally, we have an actively updated Furry & Animal Games List  over at @GamingFurever that you can follow and get constant updates for lots of indie titles with TONS of lovely furry characters!

Anyways, without further ado, the LIST:

As anyone who reads my column knows, I often receives letters from furries who are either Christians or who are the children of Christian parents. They worry that they can't in good conscience be both furry and Christian. For years, I have answered this question as best I could. I am not currently a Christian, although I was raised Southern Baptist. (I left Christianity in my teen years.)

It occurred to me, finally (I can be slow at times), to ask Christian furries themselves how they would answer the question, "How can you be both a Christian and a furry?" Christian furry Jude Wriley took up my plea to answer the question by putting it to his fellow furries at an organization called the Christian Furry Fellowship.

Below are their responses. I have NOT edited this for content, and this is a VERY LONG entry (23 single-spaced pages in the original), so there is a lot to absorb here. The responses do not surprise me much and are mostly what I have said before, but there is a definite Christian perspective here that I think you will find valuable that I could never provide myself.

Twenty-one Christian furries answered the question. Thanks to all of them who took the time to answer in very thoughtful and measured ways.

​Here is what they said. . .

* * *

How do we, as Christians, explain that it's okay to be a furry?

I think I could do this by asking, "Why might it not be okay?" And the two (biggest) objections I would think of are (1) about “the Image of God” and (2) something to the point of associating with non-Christians and others who are mistaken about God.

(1) I would answer by pointing to the likeness of men/humans to God being more about our minds/souls than our bodies. (thinking of Colossians 3:10 especially).
(2) The superficial point here is one of us being in the world but not of it. More to the point, it's okay as we have to associate with non-Christians if we are to help them find Christ. That said, this is the more concerning point as love can be misused (c.f. Augustine and Amor Sui) to cause people to slip in their faith.

On top of these things. . . . It might be fair to point out that Jesus has been described as a lion and as a lamb at various points so the whole thing passes a (superficial at least) "Is it Christ-like?" test.

-- Dragoon

* * *

First and foremost, it is crucial to recognize that each person is fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God, with unique characteristics, interests, and ways of self-expression. The Bible teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves, embracing them with compassion and kindness, regardless of their individual preferences or hobbies.

While the concept of being a furry may not align with traditional norms or beliefs, it's essential to remember that diversity is a fundamental aspect of God's creation. As Christians, we are called to foster a community of inclusivity, acceptance, and love, where individuals feel valued and respected for who they are.

By approaching individuals who identify as furries with an open mind and a heart of understanding, we demonstrate the unconditional love that Jesus exemplified during His time on Earth.

In conclusion, as Christians, we affirm the inherent dignity and worth of every individual, recognizing that differences in interests or expressions do not diminish the value of a person in the eyes of God.
With grace and humility,

-- Shadow-Lightning Wolf

* * *

Being a furry means I can get closer to Furries and lead them to Christ.

-- Gilchrist

* * *

Hello, I happen to be a Christian furry! So I'm going to answer the question of "Is there anything wrong with being a furry?" So there is no harm with being a furry; it is a hobby. Now what that hobby is, is having an interest towards anthropomorphic animals. The interest in particular is thinking they are awesome! Some Furries can make their own furry characters to represent themselves as, that's called a "fursona." Some furries tend to roleplay as their fursonas, or use their fursona as a a profile picture. Someone can criticize the idea of being a furry by saying that's odd or they could use a bad example of what a furry did, but that doesn't make the hobby wrong in itself. It depends on how one does their hobby.

-- Sanctus

* * *

God probably has better stuff to worry about than people pretending to be cartoon animals on the internet.

[Papabear note: short and to the point. Me likey!]

-- Cal

* * *

As people, we all have a lot of hobbies. For me, I'm a computer nerd, an airsoft player, a furry, and a gamer. None of those define who I am; that honor has been eternally reserved by Christ.

They each are aspects of my life, but nothing more than that. Should any of them take precedence over my faith, or become my identity — at that point, they would become problematic, and yes, sinful.

This touches on the first concern we should have regarding furries, that being the topic of identity. Obviously, as furries we are still people. To identify as an animal would be to deny the image of God He has made us in. As Christians we recognize that being a furry is merely a hobby, and that our identity is in the One who has saved us.

So our prerogative as Christians is to keep furry as merely a hobby, and enjoy it the way you enjoy being a sports fan or a car buff. But there is another aspect we have to keep in mind if we choose to participate in the furry fandom; it's a sad reality that large swaths of the furry fandom practice sexual immorality of one form or another, and in fact take pride in it. It's very reasonable to question if we should even call ourselves furries.

To explain how we can live pure lives apart from the sin in the furry community, I'd like to use an analogy from another hobby of mine. I enjoy airsoft matches and airsoft military simulations.

Unfortunately, the airsoft community is highly toxic, and most airsofters I've met are not exactly a good influence to be around. So our predominantly Christian airsoft team enjoys our hobby while mostly keeping to ourselves, limiting our interactions to only a small piece of the wider airsoft community. This way we believe we can be a positive influence on others, instead of letting others be a negative influence on us.

As Christian furries, we strive to enjoy our hobby in a similar fashion — we largely keep within the Christian furry community, and limit our interaction with the furry fandom at large, so that we can spread the Gospel. And in all things our focus is not on our fursonas, but on the fulfillment of the Great Commission:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20)

-- MonocleRB

* * *

I’ve wrestled with this question before privately. I was once in very bitter denial about the fact that, well, I was evidently a furry. I was initially convinced that I was an awful weirdo for it, and I went through a great deal of mental turmoil as a result. However, after a few divine interventions that led me to the right people and places, God put me at peace. I hope I can properly explain the bullet points of that journey here.

I’ll answer the question by first acknowledging some of the objections I’ve seen to being both a furry and a Christian. Then, I’ll give my justifications for those objections. Finally, I’ll touch on some of the good that the furry interest has done for me personally.

Objection 1: Being a furry defaces/mocks/alters the Image of God.

This is a good objection to make, and thankfully it is not true. The main idea of the objection is that representing yourself as something that isn’t human corrupts the fact that you are a human made by God in his own Image. In reality, using a fictional character to represent your personality is no more corrupting to the Image of God than drawing an imperfect self-portrait with crayons on paper. Can fictional representations of yourself be taken too far? Absolutely. But it doesn’t have to go there.

Objection 2: Being a furry is immoral in regards to purity.

Unfortunately, a lot of people in all interests, furry or otherwise, are unashamed of sin. I want to point out, though, that this is separate from the furry interest itself. You can be impure as a furry, or a sports fan, a musician, or any other interest or hobby. You can also be pure in those hobbies.

Objection 3: Pretending to be an animal is a sin.

That depends on what you mean by “pretend.” Acting a character, human or anthropomorphic, isn’t a problem. Fiction can be taken too far of course, and if it does, then it becomes sin. I’m personally not much of a costume guy, but cosplaying as a furry character you made is morally no different than cosplaying as a human character.

Objection 4: Being a furry is weak/feminine/weird.

Like before, you can be weak or strong, feminine or masculine regardless of what interest you’re involved in. As for being weird? Yeah, fair. But normal is kind of boring anyway.

Now that I’ve explained why the furry interest isn’t bad, I’d like to tell you how, for me, it’s actually been good.

I am not very good at understanding my own feelings, and for much of my life I suppressed them just to avoid the chaos they caused. Of course, I couldn’t always lock them up like I wanted, and I would break down. After finding peace from God about being a furry, I put together a fursona (furry persona), a fruit bat named Osmond, meaning “God’s protection.” Suddenly, I had a fictional representation of myself that I could use as a sort of emotional illustration to observe from the outside. Coming up with feelings for Osmond that were similar to my real-life feelings helped me to understand and process the strange, racing thoughts in my head by watching them play out in a story I created. Eventually, I even matured enough that I felt Osmond didn’t fit me anymore. He represented myself in the past, when I was confused, afraid, and quiet. I retired him honorably as my fursona and made a new one, a pallid bat named Ezekiel, meaning “God will strengthen.” Ezekiel represents myself now, and he is much more at peace, fearless, and joyful than Osmond.

Shortly after making Osmond, I picked up drawing as a hobby. Art is currently one of my main hobbies. I particularly enjoy drawing anthropomorphic caricatures of my friends, who love seeing what animals I pick to represent them. I have met a lot of like-faithed people in the furry art community, and honing my art skills with them has been a huge blessing.

Well, that’s my explanation. Hopefully this doesn’t read like a college essay, but I am in college, so I can’t help it. I love the Lord my God, and I like drawing the funny bat guy. Whoever you are and for whatever reason you took the time to read this, I hope I’ve been able to give you some peace about all of this.

Hang loose,

-- Mark F

* * *

It is no less wrong to be a furry than it is to be someone that enjoys tabletop roleplaying games, voice acting, or other forms of live action roleplay.

Being a furry is simply an enthusiastic passion like any other and doing so doesn't make you any less human. Christianity is not exclusive to one race or group; from the Evangelicals in the U.S.A, the Eastern Orthodoxy in the Balkans, the Catholics in South America, the Anglicans in Africa, and the Oriental Orthodox in the Mediterranean, and so on and so forth; the truth remains the same.

Christ came for all.

As said in Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV), “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So who are we as Christians to reject teaching others about the word of God? Being a furry is just simply a sliver of who you are, one that doesn't have to interfere with you being Christian.

The main problem lies within those that make themselves slaves to their desires and let it degenerate them. It's all about moderation and not letting any aspect of your life control or deny your relationship with God.

I won't lie to you and say it'll be easy to be a Christian Furry, you'll more than likely face some push back from both Christians and Furries who may disagree with either side of that identity, but it's best to remind yourself they are misguided in those thoughts and persecutions. Meet them with love as hard as it may be, for loving Jesus isn't the hard part, but loving people like Jesus loves is.

Also, you don't have to be perfect, because in all honesty you can't be. Along the way you will trip, stumble, and bump into all kinds of sin. What really matters if you're willing to accept the hand that is willing to lead you away from it.

I'm not a furry myself, but I can say that you are loved, by me and your fellow brothers and sisters and Christ, and most importantly Christ himself.

Regardless of what hobby you have that'll never change, I ask of you not to endless devout your life to becoming an esteemed theologian, or priest, but rather realize that much like the Furry fandom Christians come from all walks of life and a few bad experiences doesn't mean the entirety of the people are bad.

All in all, I hope I managed to give you all a new perspective on why I believe both Christianity and Furries aren't antithetical to one another, and remember as said in John 3:16 (ESV): “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Sincerely, Your Brother in Christ,

Jack

* * *

Hello, I got word in CFF chat that you were looking for responses to the question "How do you and I, as Christians, explain that it's okay to be a furry?" I thought I would give it a try.

Whenever I have to explain what furries are, I just say "they're geeks." It's just a particular flavor of geekdom. It's no more fraught with sin and idolatry than other fandoms or hobbies or anything other pursuit in life. But ironically, of all the fandoms, I think the furry fandom has the best potential for Christians to shine and image forth God.

God is endlessly playful and imaginative. One only has to look around at His creation to see this. From the common cat to the far-flung platypus, God is speaking his glory with every one of his works. The Bible does not shy away from using animal imagery to paint pictures. The last few chapters of Job are a showcase of animals from all extremes of creation.

If dressing up as a lesser creature is distasteful, consider that God's greatest work involved Him doing exactly this. He put on human flesh as Jesus (Phil 2:7). He gravitated in compassion toward the lowly and misunderstood, and bore the penalty of sin on the cross to save his enemies (you and me) to make them his friends and adopted family.

Jesus then calls his people out of (and into) every tribe, tongue, and nation; every community and common bond that emerges in humanity, for the mission of spreading his good news. The fandom is a unique opportunity to speak and live out this gospel, not as an outsider to it, but as one who has "become all things to all people" (1 Cor 9:19-27).

Stories, artwork, music, creative remixes of the raw material that exists -- God gave these as a gift not just to the biblical authors, but to all humanity. People often point to Narnia [Papabear note: referring to C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia books; Lewis was an Anglican lay theologian and Christian apologist] as a good example of creature-filled sanctified storytelling, but it's only the beginning of what is possible. As image-bearers of the Creator, we are free to create, play pretend, take risks, and tell new stories of our own, all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).

-- Hexadoodle Frog

* * *

The Christian church and furry fandom have almost always been diametrically opposed and seemingly incompatible with one another. Yet here I stand; I consider myself to belong to both of these groups. My name is Liam, and I have been a Christian for all my twenty-five years, and I have called myself a furry for a few of those years now. Many of my family and friends are either Christian and/or furry. Some are neither.

The furry community is a place filled with immensely skilled, beautiful people, and I love everyone I have ever met there. But my faith in God is the most important thing in my life. I have sacrificed a lot (and I really do mean A LOT) for my faith and it is the one thing no one and nothing can ever take away from me. God's love for me inspires me to show love to all other people, and that includes all Christians and all furries. This foundation of both reverence for my God and admiration of the individuals in the furry community is where my answer to this question comes from.

Whenever Christians ask a question like, "is this okay" to participate in as a Christian, I believe there are actually two questions that must be answered. An objective question that applies to all: is the behavior biblically endorsed or condemned? And a subjective question that each person must individually ask themselves: will my participation in this behavior bring me and others closer to God?

Here is my opinion on the objective question. I believe for those like me who both call themselves a furry and feel they are called to share truth and love to other people, "being a furry" is more than just "okay." I believe being a furry is part of a divine mission to connect with others atop common ground.

Many Christians are confused by the definition of what a "furry" is and are stubborn to learn it. They are so stubborn they have come to fear furries. This fear is often what drives anti-furry Christians to vehemently denigrate furries and all associations with the furry fandom. I would like to express my apologies to furries who have been hurt or bullied by any member of the Christian church. This behavior is unacceptable whether it's okay to be a furry or not.

This is my definition: a "furry" is someone who likes anthropomorphic animal characters. That's it. By that definition, I think anyone will be hard-pressed to find any biblical scripture condemning (or endorsing, for that matter) furries.

Let me clarify by addressing some common misconceptions many anti-furries have when they imagine what a furry is. Calling oneself a furry is not an expression of identity nor sexuality. A "therian" is one who identifies as an animal. I do believe that therianism is sinful, because this denies one's own humanity. In other words, it is a form of lying and self-deceit. A "zoophile" is one who commits sexual acts with animals, and I believe this is sinful for obvious reasons. It should be equally obvious that furries are not necessarily either of these things.

Another thing anti-furries seem to abhor is the concept of fursuits and fursonas, though I believe there are others who can explain it better than me. In short, a "fursuit" is a mascot costume one wears on their physical body for others' entertainment. Fursuiting is an expressive art form and I would consider it to be morally equivalent to cosplaying. A "fursona" is the character that one roleplays as. Furries often like to create artwork of their fursona as their profile photo for various social media. For fun. I myself do have a fursona (a vulture) but I do not actually believe I am the same as this character. I don't believe using either a fursona or a fursuit is sinful.

But there is one underlying concern that I'd like to address for all my fellow Christians reading this. The temptation of idolatry is pervasive for ALL people, at all times. As a Christian, it ceases to be "okay" to be or to do anything when that behavior, identity, etc. replaces God in our hearts. Even something that was once good, can become poisoned and evil if we place it above God. Everything we as Christians do should be done with active certainty that it will glorify God. With this in mind, I do believe it can be a very good thing to be a Christian furry. It is my prayer that calling myself a furry will allow others to understand and receive God's love where non-furries have been unsuccessful.

-- Liam

* * *

I simply cannot see any sort of natural sinfulness involved in an appreciation of furry characters . . . drawn, worn as a costume, or otherwise. Frankly, it involves natural, GOD-GIVEN talent and creativity to be so expressive. Certainly, there are aspects of the fandom that may be sinful, but we are considering a large fandom with an endless array of beliefs, backgrounds, personalities, etc. What others do that is sinful does indeed trouble me, and yes, I do see those things in the furry fandom, but I see them in every other walk of life as well. At its core, though, the true center of “furry” is a love of expression and creativity that, in its way, glorifies God through the use of his gifts to us as human beings. And you know what. . . ? I LOVE that!

-- Ridley Cooper

* * *

If I could answer this question in one sentence, I don’t think I would be able to. The truth is there is much more to being a Christian than simply how you dress or what your hobbies/interests are. Whether you are a furry or part of some other subculture, the one thing that all Christians must have in common is love for their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In this way, we are to love one another in the same way; He died for us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all might be saved. Even though we may not have been called to give up our physical lives for His sake, there is a part of us that still must die in order to serve Him. Because of this, we all must be willing to take up our own crosses to follow him daily. This means that even in the fandom, we are to serve Him, loving others as He loved us without compromising the truth that He has given us.

While in most of pop culture, people view Jesus as being a good guy, there is not much else people can say about him. Though many people’s image and understanding of Christ has been distorted today, I can say for a fact that He has never changed; He has, is, and always will be God: the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and the Lord of Hosts. Though many of you may not understand this, He is alive today, and He is sovereign; had it not been for God sending his only begotten son to die for us, we would all be condemned by the weight of our own sins.

But enough of that; why is it okay for me and other Christians in the fandom to be furries? We realize that we have been saved from much. If you could ask any of us about what we were like before we came to Christ, I could say for a fact that we were no better than any criminal you would find on the street; however, because of the grace and mercy of Christ our King, we live to serve him in everything that we do. This means that even as furries, we are to be walking with him, not giving into our own selfish desires which separate us from Him. Everything we do is for His glory, and even the things we do in the fandom should be to glorify Him.

How then, you might ask, can you glorify God as a furry and still be a Christian? There are many things within the fandom that are neither evil nor good, but many people can use these things to do evil or good. Art is one of the greatest ways a Christian can serve God, but some people use their artistic talent to make pornography; similar things can be said about music, writing, and cosplay. As Christians in the fandom, we are to put aside all the things we once used for evil. This does not mean that God cannot use the things we enjoy doing for His purposes, but we have to be living in full submission to His will in order for Him to use us. We are part of the fandom because we love each other, and we love others in the fandom because God loved us first.

How would I explain God’s love and the reason why we love one another? The love of God is not the same as the world’s definition of love. The type of love we practice as Christians is sacrificial love because our Lord gave up everything He had, paying the ultimate price to buy us from sin and death. Because of the grace and mercy He has shown us through His love, we are willing to give up what we love the most in return in order to serve Him so that other people may be saved. We realize that nothing that we have to offer could ever please God, even though in our hearts we may believe what we are doing is right, which is why every day, we are sanctified by the Holy Spirit: a perpetual act of repentance from our old ways through prayer, meditation, and study of God’s Word (The Bible). Nothing we have is our own but belongs to God. Because of this, we are willing to bring Christ with us, even in the fandom, so that He can use us as a living testimony of his glory.

Why do we do this? Besides love, grace, mercy, and truth, we all are required to have faith. Faith is the act of believing in a truth that is unseen; though we may not see God or all of the works he is doing (or even in this world, for that matter), We all believe that Christ has died, risen, and sits at the right hand of God the Father, and we believe that someday, He will return as King to establish His Kingdom here forever and ever. Because we rely on this truth, we do everything in expectation of His imminent coming; even in the fandom, we wish to show other people how great He is. By having faith that in doing what we are doing, we can honor God by being part of the fandom.

-- Shadow

* * *

For me, the furry fandom is a great way for me to live out my faith, practice my God-given talents, and is a great way to reach out to the lowly and the outcast.

I was always a very imaginative kid. When I was little, I used to write stories, draw scenes, and at one point even invented 7 or 8 different languages for the various characters that inhabited my little world. I always had my head in the clouds and my parents were kinda tolerant of it, not because it was wrong, but because they wished I acted more mature and focused on getting straight A's in school and didn't act like a total nerd.

I was born and raised in a cultural but nominally Roman Catholic household. My parents went to church but never really took it seriously. When I was going through middle school and the first half of high school, we stopped going to church and I fell away with my parents. I explored many different faiths and spiritual beliefs, but it wasn't until I had a real spiritual encounter with God in a dream that I had that it hit me that the Christian God was the true God. I got back into my faith with fervor, learning as much as a could about my faith, and now I'm a believer. But just because I was a believer, that didn't mean I stopped my creative side. If anything, it took off way more.

I continued writing stories and making art all throughout high school and college. Then, my best friend who I grew up with became a furry. I was curious, so I started looking into it more. I discovered that furries were just enthusiasts who loved cartoons and animal characters in fantasy in general. Despite being in high school, I never really gave up my love of cartoons, technically I tried to for like two years, but it didn't last (though I felt I had to hide it from my parents due to me getting "too old" for them).
During college, I decided to become as well. As a furry, I felt I could continue to enjoy Cartoons, Cosplaying, Art, Stories, and be around others like me, and I was right.

One of the things that I noticed whenever I talk about how I draw and write with people who are Christians, I notice that they are usually very accepting and encouraging of it. And I love drawing and writing. It gives me a sense of wonder and excitement, and lets me express myself in ways I could never do without it. Most of the times, the people who are judgmental and dismissive of my creative hobbies are people who are usually very miserable, and are only happy when others are miserable with them, and the Christian life is not a life of misery. It was through engaging with the fandom that I rediscovered that sense of adventure (going to cons has helped me explore the country). I have also made wonderful Catholic and Christian furries who truly live out the faith, and they have helped me be more open about my struggles, vices and crosses that I bare. It has also given me a mission to reach out to others here in the fandom and show them the Christian love and the truth of the gospel (normies aren't going to approach a furry with love and compassion, they would rather avoid us because we are too weird for them, and as Christians we are called to reach even the weirdos).

I understand that a lot of normies will never understand us. I understand that a lot of normies will never want to understand us. But a life truly lived is one where the only person that matters is God.

If we try to live our lives the way others want us to live them, we are not really living our life, and we are denying God the opportunity to work through us in a way that is different from the rest of the world. That isn't to say that there aren't challenges that come with being a Christian furry. Most Christian normies will look down on you for being involved in the hobby. Some secular furries will look upon you with suspicion or may be hostile to the faith. And there can be many traps that one can easily fall into that could compromise one's morals (as is true with life outside the fandom as well). But that is why we as Christian furries are called to live out our faith publicly and faithfully in this space. By doing so, we can show that there is a way to live as a Christian furry.

I hope this helps.

-- Felixian Fox

* * *

I would like to start off with saying I do not identify as a furry. In my heart I have found a personal normalcy for furries. From a non-furry, I adore furries and have a romanticized viewpoint on them.
From what I've seen of them it's as if they chase a magic in their hearts by maintaining a vulnerability, a softness, in their soul. They are more sensitive to the expressions of this world than the average person, for better or for worse: they revel in their bliss more when happy and are wounded deeper when hurt. All people of this world are molded by the things they love, but few more than the furries.

But more than this, are the furries who live between the two worlds of their fandom and Christianity.
To be a true Christian is to take the challenges in your life and carry it as your burden. And despite this, still try to give to the rest of the world through good actions: It is to give food to those who are hungry, even when you're hungry. It is to take the anger you feel towards those you disagree with or one who wants to bring you wrath and offer them kindness.

It is about knowing that you will be provided for by God in all ways.

It is a challenge from beyond transcendence of the unseen to be more than your base desires. It's something impossible to perfect, but any true attempt is noble.

Furries who have accepted the Lord into their lives occupy a unique niche in society: The mainstream idea of Christianity is rejected, by many, in circles that the furry culture thrives in. Conversely, traditional Christians will look to furries and think they're pagans due to the fervency of which they love their subject-matter.

But, despite this, Christian furries are ones who hold onto their love of who they are, while reaching for the light of God. This brings a new difficulty into their lives, they live in a dichotomy between the two, oftentimes opposing, worlds.

I believe this brings out a new foundational faith in them. They are like two plants intertwined which grow into something new, something beautiful in their own right.

May this niche of the fandom bear fruit for the word of God.

Thank you for reading.

-- Branden

* * *

“Being a furry” is a complicated subject. The image most laypeople have in their head when this subject is brought up is of a person pretending to be an animal, perhaps dressing up in expensive animal-themed costumes, perhaps walking around on all fours or doing other animal-related activities humans usually do not do. However, what defines a furry does not necessarily include those notions. In reality, a “furry” is just a member of the furry fandom, which is just a group of people who share the similar interest of anthropomorphic animal characters/art. If someone like Disney’s Robbin Hood, a popular movie that features anthropomorphic animal characters, that does not make them a furry automatically, but rather their choice to be included in the fandom. Many people will say that to be a furry you need a fursona (a “furry” version of yourself). You do not, but many people in the fandom do anyway. Many people also think that being a furry means you think that you are not a human but are actually an animal in some aspect. This is not necessary to be a furry, and in fact describes something entirely different called a therian, which is not the topic of this question.

Given this much more sensible definition, asking why it’s ok for a Christian to be a furry would essentially be equivalent to asking if it's ok for a Christian to be a fan of knitting, or snowmobiling, or any other hobby, because when you get down to it, that’s all “being a furry” means; partaking in a particular hobby. However, it is reasonable to ask a follow-up question: is it ok as a Christian to be associated with a fandom that contains so much sin? Even from the outside, it is evident that the furry fandom has a lot of problems, the most obvious of which are those of a sexual nature. However, given the nature of how “fandoms” work, it is very possible for a person to be associated with a fandom without being associated with the sinful aspects of that fandom. For example, a Christian might very much enjoy firearms and yet completely distance themselves from those that use guns for violence or illegal activities. Likewise, a Christian could easily hang out with other furries, show appreciation for anthropomorphic character art, have a fursona, even own and wear a fursuit and go to furry conventions, while at the same time purposefully distancing themselves from the sinful aspects of the fandom.

Additionally, there is also the angle of outreach. As mentioned previously, there is a lot of obvious sin in the furry fandom, yet does that not make it the prime place for Christians to be? Jesus himself dined with terrible sinners not because He approved of sin, but rather to bring those in sin out of it. Similarly, because the furry fandom is so broken, it needs the help of Christians more than most fandoms. To summarize, “being a furry” is not inherently sinful, even though there are very obvious sin problems within the fandom, and in fact, because of those problems, a Christian presence in the fandom would very likely be a good thing for those still deep in sin.

-- Alarotel

* * *

The word “furry” has gathered a lot of dirt in recent decades. However, at the root of it is an affinity toward the ancient concept of anthropomorphism, a sense of connectedness to the animal world, and often a desire to express this artistically. We see this gift at work way back in Aesop’s fables, in the animal stories of C. S. Lewis and Beatrix Potter, and the more recent comics of Calvin & Hobbes and Pogo. My point here is that what some may call “furry” is far more rich and mysterious than a bunch of kids scampering around in expensive animal-costumes at conventions. And while I wouldn’t roll my eyes at such kids, I do think that they’re only hitting the tip of the iceberg that is the treasure of anthropomorphics.

The creative nature of God himself is anthropomorphic. It is a rather avant-garde thing to not only create a physical creature in your own image, but to also incarnate yourself in that form out of love for a creative project dear to your heart. The purpose of this incarnation was to redeem mankind and raise him up to God’s level. Creative humans are, as image-bearers, microcosms of God’s creative nature, and some of them are born with or develop what I like to call a Dr. Dolittle type of thing. They exhibit their own creative nature on a smaller scale – imparting their own nature to a lower tier of creatures to raise them up in the same way that the Lord has done through the turbulent history of mankind. This has been done remarkably well in A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in Carl Barks’s Uncle Scrooge comics, but that’s just scratching the surface.

Also, God has already "anthropomorphized" many of his own creations, some to an eerie degree. Anyone who has spent time getting to know crows, raccoons, or monkeys will know exactly what I’m talking about. Anthropomorphism takes this aesthetic and ramps it up a bit. Contemporary furry culture has a problem with ramping that aesthetic up into carnal and shallow territory, and furries in general have caught flak for that. But this is somewhat like coming down on motorcycle riders for the wrongs committed by Hell’s Angels.

There is a lot of reactionary, emotional drama surrounding furries right now. Some of it is for good reason. But when facing the question of whether or not it’s okay to be a Christian fur, I suggest that we go back to the basics of assessing things by their fruits (Matt. 7:16). I believe that ideally, Christians on the Dr. Dolittle wavelength will hark back to the literary and artistic visionaries who used their talents and quirks to do what good art should do: help us see beauty in unexpected places, develop our empathy and understanding, to face tough questions without the urge to propagandize easy answers . . . and to create some darn good animal art and stories. Because anthropomorphic creativity is, in my opinion, more fun than driving a top of the line Corvette. I don’t expect everyone to understand that. Furs and creative people in general are oddballs, artistic Christians are oddballs to a greater degree, and furry artistic Christians are oddballs to an even greater degree than that. But odd/weird/abnormal are relative terms. The mantis shrimp is odd according to blue jay aesthetics and standards, yet both creatures come from the creative mind of God.

I therefore believe that Christian furs can grow close to the creative mind of God in special ways. This will take special training, patience, and spiritual discipline, and the majority of furries won’t care a bit about that. But I would urge my reader to not lump Christian furries in with such people. Christian furs are no better or worse than any “normie,” but they are nevertheless men and women of value. They need all the help and direction they can get, and since they’re not going to get it from a broken furry culture, why not consider lending them your own ear?

-- JJ Mike

* * *

Many people say that you cannot be a Christian and a Furry and a Christian for many reasons, but the main one I hear a lot is the fandom is too sexual for a Christian. I won’t deny the fandom is extremely linked to sexual tones, but it is not inherently sexual. There is a stereotype that medical professionals are promiscuous with each other in their work-lives, but I would venture a guess that most people don’t immediately look at a doctor and think “I bet they had sex this morning.” In either case, the connections are there, but neither is inherently sexual. As such, if we don’t judge one group for their stereotype, we shouldn’t judge another.

Being a furry is hardly immoral. Everyone has their reasons for associating with the animals they pick, and associating people or groups or even our own Lord is common in the New Testament. Lions, lambs, calves, snakes; there’s many animals which are used to describe people, often in symbolic ways. In my case, I view wolves as a symbol of family, communion, and faithfulness to one another. I have never believed in a wolf being a good way to symbolize someone who is adamant, hard-hitting, and tough. “A lone wolf is a dead wolf.” Like a person, every wolf needs various counterparts to thrive, and each person of a family comes together to, hopefully, make it a prosperous family. These are the qualities I hold highly in my life, and I do my best to be a representative of these attributes. I also consider these qualities to be important to a Christian. A good Christian cares for their family, both blood and chosen family; they commune with one another, breaking bread, sharing prayer, and exchanging laughs and stories; they are faithful to one another, supporting each other while also holding each other accountable. All three of these characteristics feed into and off one another. Personally, I think these are qualities people of all faiths and all creeds could agree are good things, but that’s neither here nor there.
Just a few weeks ago, I had a dinner with local furs that involved grilling and baking and all sorts of foods. What I thought was going to be eating while watching a movie turned out to be sitting around a table with one another as a large group, and we all talked, as a whole-group and as individual smaller groups; lots of laughs, lots of new friends, and I even learned many of the furs at the table with me were also Christians. Even if they hadn’t been Christians, most of them know I openly am one. It was nice to feel welcome and wanted.

So, if a wolf symbolizes what I associate to be excellent qualities of a Christian, why would I not want to associate myself with that? If Jesus is the Lamb of God, the scapegoat upon which our sins would be levied for atonement (like the scapegoat ritual before Yom Kipur), I would like to do my best to symbolize the qualities I consider important to being a good Christian. There is nothing in scripture which says I cannot be a furry. I do not use it as a form of escapism. I do not use it to pretend to be something I am not. My fursona and I are one in the same, even down to being overweight. He just happens to be an anthropomorphic wolf, and I’m just a fleshy human.

Furthermore, it is my personal experience that many people in the furry fandom have been abused or hurt by people who claim to be Christians. I consider it my responsibility to show these people who have been hurt in Christ’s name how a proper worshiper would love and treat them. Instead of judging and attacking others, show them that I come offering them hugs and food. Instead of being cold and defensive, I try to be warm and open to them. Instead of standoffish and withdrawn, I will be the friend who sits there and cries with you. For a community that has been hurt by people so much, I want to be a good representative, showing them the same love which my Lord showed me, and perhaps, just maybe, I can convince them to come back to Christianity.

These are my friends, brothers, sisters, and more. I want to be the kind of furry others think of when they think of a Christian furry; the furry who is faithful and kind to them.

-- Kai

* * *

In the Army, there is an important acronym: BLUF. It stands for “bottom line up front” and means to lead with the single most important takeaway so it does not get lost in a lengthy composition. The BLUF I’d like to present is this: Consider more generally what makes something not okay and apply that model to being a furry. Allow me to elaborate:

My friend Thom and I have a rather ancient and niche hobby. Odds are, you’ve at least heard of it. It’s a hobby that is not addressed in the Bible in any way, nor is it contrary to its teachings or principles. However, for hundreds of years it was forbidden for priests to enjoy, and at one point all those who participated in it were declared anathema: considered assuredly damned because of it. The most recent Christian outcry against it happened hundreds of years ago; the negative sentiment has subsided and now millions of Christians around the world openly partake in it. What makes it okay to do? The corollary of that question is easier to answer: What would make it not okay to do? Just like this hobby, being a furry would be unacceptable if it were condemned, fundamentally incompatible, or against principles of conduct for Christianity.

The most basic prohibition on Christian conduct is an explicit condemnation of an action. Sexual intercourse with an animal, for example. There is a direct prohibition against it. Murder is another example. Kidnapping, human sacrifice, incest, all have a big NO attached to them. We may think of the big ones like murder as obviously wrong to anyone, yet they sadly still happen even today.

The next point of conflict is more of a meta one; an underlying incompatibility with Christianity. The message of Christianity–that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, loves us so much that he became fully human while retaining his deity, lived a perfect life, died a horrible death to save the souls of any human who believes in Him despite our unworthiness and shortcomings–requires we believe we are human. It requires us to believe that as humans, we are created in the image of God. If we see ourselves as a non-human or animal spirit in a human body, there is fundamental conflict. That view would force us into three boxes: either as nonhumans we are without sin and are completely perfect in every aspect of our lives–not once looking at someone in malice or telling a white lie or having any shortcoming at all whatsoever; or there have no hope for forgiveness since we have fallen short of perfection yet believe that the forgiveness is solely for others; or there is no resolution and inner turmoil brews no matter how we try to suppress it.

Finally, we must examine the principles for conducting ourselves as Christians. The Bible is not an NFL rule book. It does not list out every penalty a la “false start. 5 yard penalty. Replay the down.” It is written as a collection of history, poetry, letters, and theology–the actions of real people both good and bad. One of the key teachings in terms of Christian conduct is the words of Jesus when asked what the most important command in the Bible is. He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Our behavior in all aspects of life should follow that rule of love which is all-encompassing. We are to be fair and honest, because that is how we show our love for others. Love, at times, can include rebuking and warning others, and carrying out discipline in some cases. It also covers showing genuine concern for those around you even when they hate you, being kind, and showing self-control. Implicit here would be not drinking while driving, obeying speed limits and civil authorities, and having compassion and patience to those who don’t understand you.

To sum up, any activity would be unacceptable if it were condemned, fundamentally incompatible, or against principles of conduct for Christianity. That is as applicable to someone enjoying the furry community as it is for Thom and I as we do our other hobby. If you choose to be a Christian furry, then enjoy it with a clear conscience and to the glory of God as much as Thom and I enjoy our games of chess.

Hope this helps!

With Gratitude,

-- ɹǝʇʇO

* * *

From a cultural perspective, the furry fandom often seems taboo, and this perspective is amplified among those of the traditional Christian faith. Justifying a Christian partaking in the furry fandom is usually overblown and not as complicated as it seems. In fact, there are several reasons why being a furry can be one of the most beneficial choices for a Christian with an anthropomorphic interest.

In my encounters, the common religious arguments against being a furry are: "Furries deny being made in the Image of God, which is against the Bible," "Being a furry is a form of idolatry, and biblically forbidden," and also claims of bestiality. It's essential to address these issues first so we can focus on the benefits of the fandom to our religion and vice versa. Firstly, Christian furries do not deny being made in the image of God. For many, being a furry is different from being a therian, someone who views themselves as an animal trapped inside a human body. Christian furries understand that they are humans, not animals. Their participation in the fandom, having a fursona, and fursuiting are parts of their hobby and do not conflict with scriptural values. Being a furry is not a form of idolatry, just as having a cup of cocoa isn't. Of course, anything can become an idol when taken to the extreme. If it takes a higher priority than God, then there is a reason for concern. Finally, there is the claim that furries engage in bestiality. Based on the definition of bestiality, it is immediately apparent that furries do not do these things, and while there are a handful that may, the fandom has always been quick to dissociate with them. It is synonymously held that bestiality or zoophilia has no place in the fandom.

Now, for the benefits of the fandom in the Christian life, there are three main aspects that have been most prominent in my experience. Namely, sharing the gospel, exercising love in fellowship, and sanctification, or training ourselves to be strong in our faith and more like Christ. First, sharing the gospel in the fandom is the perfect opportunity to obey the call of discipleship that Jesus gave us. In Matthew 28, Jesus has recently ascended from the tomb three days after his crucifixion, and before returning to heaven, he gives his followers a command. This command is often called "The Great Commission." He says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." Finding opportunities to share the gospel with others can be challenging in our modern world, but the fandom is the perfect place to find those opportunities. We already share a common interest: a love for anthropomorphic animals, which gives us a stepping stone for reaching those who need Christ. Interestingly, joining the fandom is an act that obeys scripture. The apostle Paul, who was amongst the first generation of the Christian church, tells us that to reach those who were lost, he had to become like them so that he may reach them where they're at. (1 Corinthians 9:20-23) Being a furry is not only passable in our religion but also biblically encouraged!

Next is the topic of fellowship. In the Christian context, fellowship is simply a gathering of Christians who meet to encourage, unite, learn, love, and delight with one another in the Holy Spirit. Throughout the entire New Testament of the Bible, the writers constantly remind us to love one another during these times of fellowship (1 John 4:7, John 13:34, Romans 13:8) and share in each other's burdens and hardships. (Galatians 6:1-2) Sadly, in the Western church culture, vulnerability is often shunned, the pressure for a perfect image is strongly upheld, and being "strong" enough to conceal our struggles and emotions is the norm. The pressure of these values can lead Christians to close off, often to hide insecurities. This lack of openness leads to a lack of love, a reality present in many churches and a leading cause of why many walk away from religion altogether. For Christians in the furry fandom, we recognize our vulnerability and weaknesses and delight in humility and openness with one another. The Christian furry community loves each other more closely with how we are biblically commanded to. Having been in the faith for over 14 years and attending church for much longer, I have had many Sundays where I have encountered coldness in my interactions. In the Christian gatherings of the furry fandom, these cold interactions are drastically harder to find.

Finally, being in the furry fandom as a Christian tremendously aids in our sanctification. The furry fandom can be a spiritual battlefield for a Christian. Daily, we face obstacles that make us question our faith. Many also encounter situations in the fandom where they are shunned and persecuted for their beliefs. These sufferings are tools to strengthen our beliefs and make us more like Jesus, our savior. (Romans 5:3-5) In the fandom, we have an opportunity to witness to people who share in our interests, which is a gift from God. The times when we question what we believe force us to re-evaluate our understandings and turn to scripture for answers, thus making us more steadfast than if we had faced no struggle at all. Biblically, God often used the least likely people to accomplish his plan, and our involvement with the fandom is no exception. Being Christians in the furry fandom helps us learn to love others, even if they don't share our beliefs. While much of the Christian world misses the point of our calling to love others, as furries, we get to learn firsthand how to practice love to the most profound degree of obedience for the glory of God.

I hope this has helped you gain greater insight into the Christian's connection with the furry fandom and how we can feel at peace with being furries and Christians while thriving in the environment. By the grace of God, we are truly blessed that he has given us a place where our interests and faith can collide and flourish for his glory.

In Christ,

-- Finni the Fox

* * *

I remember a twitter post back in 2022 that made the case that choosing a fursona is a lot like creating an arms in heraldry. In western cultures, what was common place in the battle group the arms many universities, schools, organisations and even family dynasties would create symbols for their group. Today it is tradition to create a coat of arms when you are appointed to certain positions.

Before the advent of heraldry, Christians would decorate the catacombs of their deceased brethren with pictures of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and Lambs in their pasture. They focused on this theme (John 10, Psalm 23) as it has links to who Christians follow unwaveringly Jesus Christ.

Another way is just because a craft has content that Christian’s would find objectionable in it, doesn’t mean that the whole craft is objectionable. The recent existence of edgy embroidery does not mean that you must make that edgy content to embroider. You can still produce your own embroidery that’s your usual “Home Sweet Home” or have it based upon nature or can be done to glorify God. The medium in and of itself is not the problem in this case. In the same way, while there might be content that is problematic for Christians in the fandom, that doesn’t mean that you have to partake in that side of things. Moreover, this community has helped me confess my sins in this area to the Lord, and to help fight and flee these temptations, (1 Cor 6:18) along with help from my churches minister.

-- Josh

* * *

"Is it OK to be a furry?" Some of my cohorts may be doing the same, but, as a mathematician, I feel compelled to look at the negative of this question instead: "Is there something wrong with being a furry?"

When answering either version, I must acknowledge an important bias. As a Christian, what this question entails is specific. From a secular view, "Is it OK to do X?" is a question of legality, a question of social acceptability, or is not universally well-defined. It's certainly legal to be a furry. Whether or not it is socially acceptable to be a furry is inescapably subjective, and if it is moral, that would require understanding what the one asking means by moral.

From a Christian perspective, these cases align themselves and let us arrive at a particular and necessary question of clarification. You see, from a Christian perspective, if something is illegal or socially unacceptable, it is arguably immoral already. Since social acceptability is not objective and furrydom is not presently illegal, we can just address the last category: intrinsic morality.

Furry as an interest is not addressed in scripture. One way forward would be to examine the following questions:

1. Does "being a furry" imply any action or state that is explicitly prohibited in scripture?
2. Does "being a furry" impede or prevent any command given by scripture?

I think addressing these two questions to the fullest possible extent could be the meat of some graduate-level research. I am under instruction to keep my long-windedness to 800 words or less, so I will try to summarize by giving two passages and commentary with each.

The first passage: 1 Corinthians 6:12.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

I tend to avoid lifting a single verse off the page, but in some cases, the context is retained just fine. I think this is one of those instances.

There is an important insight here extending beyond Christianity: whether the proposition "It is morally OK to be X" is true or false, one should still investigate if X is helpful or harmful. Certainly, I think being a furry could be one or the other for different people. To some, it has been a grand positive. For me in particular, it has put me in diverse company and challenged my views, resulting in a healthy reconstruction of my faith. To others, it has been an avenue for temptation. If something is harmful to one, it might be fine for another. But in any case, if something has control over you, that is not healthy. Unless the subject in question is something as fundamental as your faith or basic needs, anything that you simply "cannot live without" has reached a dangerous level of desire and dependence. The furry fandom has been a help to me and is in some way part of who I am because of my experience and sense of community within the hobby, but it should never become my center or purpose. But the same is true for most things.

The second passage: Matthew 22:36-40.

[A] lawyer, asked [Jesus] a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
"The Law and the Prophets" refers to the books of law and the writings of the prophets, which suggests that more than the "letter of the law" is carried by the two laws cited. Further, the author of Romans in chapter 13 (although in the context of submitting to government authorities) suggests that if there is another command besides the prohibition of adultery, theft, coveting, or murder, it is covered under loving your neighbor. So, the question might be, "Does being a furry impede my ability to love my neighbor as myself?"

I suspect, in light of these passages, that it is not obvious that "furriness" should cause any moral problem directly. I posit that being a furry is morally neutral, and any accusation to the contrary likely depends on associating some secondary item with the argument. For example, "Being a furry means thinking you're an animal." This is an assumption. Before making such an accusation, one should really find out what a person means by "being a furry." If the question is directed at oneself, the question should be, "What about this would be wrong, and what am I making of 'being a furry'?"

-- Thom
​

Originally conceived as a follow-up to Wolfenstein 3D entitled ‘Wolfenstein 3D Part 2: Rise Of The Triad’, Rise Of The Triad was originally released in 1995 by legendary developers Apogee Entertainment and became a cult classic amongst gamers and FPS fans. Now, Nightdive Studios and New Blood Interactive, the later being the minds behind the FPS hits ‘Dusk’ and ‘Amid Evil’, have teamed up with Apogee to remaster the game and bring us Rise Of The Triad: Ludicrous Edition, along with bringing it to consoles for the first time. Does this game live up to its boast of ‘Really Cool Explosions’ or should it have stayed a cult hit? Let’s get psyched and find out!

Special Bump celebrating our milestone of hitting 3,000 subscribers, featuring all 15 members of the group. Milestone reached on APRIL 10TH, 2024 First featured in Episode 127, “Artist Interview! w/Weka” https://youtu.be/rlu0QgzjiYE Editing: @BanditTheRaccoon Fursona Artwork: Weka http://www.Twitter.com/DrawsWeka See more at: http://www.TheRaccoonsDen.com FACEBOOK: http://www.Facebook.com/TheRaccoonsDen TWITTER: http://www.Twitter.com/TheRaccoonsDen FURAFFINITY: http://www.FurAffinity.net/user/TheRaccoonsDen INSTAGRAM: http://www.Instagram.com/TheRaccoonsDen #TheRaccoonsDen #3kSubscribers #FurryFandom

TigerTails Radio Season 15 Episode 31. Join the Discord Chat: https://discord.gg/SQ5QuRf For a full preview of events and for previous episodes, please visit http://www.tigertailsradio.co.uk. See website for full breakdown of song credits, which is usually updated shortly after the show. If you like what we do and wish to throw some pennies our way to support us, please consider sending a little tip our way. https://streamlabs.com/tigertailsradio/tip * Please note, tips are made to support TigerTails Radio and are assumed as made with good faith, so are therefore non-refundable. Thank you for your support and understanding.

国际兽视首次与兽时报联合报道活动取得巨大成功

Summer Fest has rolled around and with it, a number of reveals, announcements and so much more. In particular what got my attention was the Wholesome Direct, which showcased a lot of cute and cozy games, most of which are upcoming and have demos already out. Some of these are even headed to multiple systems. Check out some of the more notable titles below.

Mystery “whodunit” type stories are a fount of opportunity that have produced some really good movies, novels, and games over the years. The concept of deducing which of a slew of suspects has committed the crime carries with it a sense of discovery and sleuthing that’s fulfilling and exciting. Skeletal Games’ upcoming visual novel “Spill the Beans” aims to turn the familiar plot device on its head by having you be the known culprit as you try and pin it successfully on someone else while you’re the detective. It’s an idea ripe with webs of ways the story could go, and luckily you’ll be the one in charge of directing the charade. 

MOOBARKFLUFF! Click here to send us a comment or message about the show!

It's the Season 5 Premiere! In this jam packed episode (I hope it's strawberry jam...I love strawberry jam) we've got Racc Furmations, jokes, The Past Today, Media, Furry News, Upcoming Events, Cheetaro's Movie Review, and Taebyn tells us a story! All the content you've come to expect all in one convenient podcast! Join us for the start of SEASON 5!!!!! LETS GO!!!!!!!!

This podcast contains adult language and adult topics. It is rated M for Mature. Listener discretion is advised.

Support the Show.

Thanks to all our listeners and to our staff: Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Taebyn, and Ziggy the Meme Weasel.

You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

Bearly Furcasting S5E1-Season 5 Premiere

Michele Light has spent years working to become one of the most recognizable furry artists working today. Now she’s turned her attention to a special project: Creating a series of sexy feline acrylic standees. Meet the Kitty Cat Cafe. “All my standees are solid acrylic, with an upright two-sided image secured to a thick base, which is custom fit to that particular image. All the artworks are my original creations, the actual standee production is handled by a third party in the UK. They have produced all my standees so far, and their work has been exemplary. All of the art for the initial five standees in this campaign have been submitted and proofed and are ready for production.” From now through June 21st, there’s a Kickstarter campaign to get the initial run created. It’s already (far!) surpassed its goal, but take a look to see what designs are available.

image c. 2024 by Michele Light

Hey Papabear!

I'll almost be 15 soon, which means that here in Oregon, I can get a low-level, probably fast food or ice cream, job. I want to save money for a fursuit, but I also want to put money towards college. For the maker I wanna commission, with a low-level job, it'll be probably a year of saving, to rack up at least 900 USD (to fit head accommodations as I wear glasses) with the calculations I've done with starting wages at my local fast food.

But that's not my actual question. My question is: I can't commission a fursuit on my own. I'd have to ask a parent or relative, and then give them the money I've saved. I'm thinking of asking my aunt, but how do I tell her without being embarrassed to the heavens and back? She's very accepting and knows that I'm a furry, but I'm terribly embarrassed to even bring it up.

How do I even do that?

Best wishes,
RaveCat Ivy
* * *

Dear RaveCat Ivy,

Thank you for your email, which can prove to be a great lesson for you and my other readers about a dirty word. And that word is this: Budgeting.

There is no reason that, with proper budgeting and planning, you can't save for your fursuit head yourself and begin saving for college (hoping that your parents will help, at least a little, with college?). Let's tackle the fursuit head first.

The $900 sounds reasonable for a quality, custom head. Make sure that you have a reliable maker on your side. This is very important. Do thorough research on the maker you want and ask their clients whether or not they had a good experience with the maker. That is, the maker should back up their work, make a quality product, be responsive to questions, and turn the work around in a reasonable time frame (and give you progress updates if it is taking time). Good makers are often backlogged, so if they ask for a turnaround time of a year or even 18 months, don't be too surprised (on the other paw, be very suspicious if they say they can give you a completed head in a few weeks). Most makers will want all or part of the money up front, so don't commission a work until you have the money saved up.

College, of course, is much more pricey than a fursuit. It's great that you're thinking of saving up now. But don't think you have to do it all yourself. Assuming you are not getting a full scholarship because you are a star athlete or have a genius grant, you're going to need some strategies here. Some ideas:

• For your first two years of college, attend a community college. Community colleges are actually quite excellent and their tuition is far lower than a four-year college, even if it is a state college. The student-to-teacher ratio is also much better at a community college (at big universities, too often you get stuck in lecture halls with hundreds of students being taught not by a professor but by an assistant, except for the lectures). Research 2-year colleges that have reciprocity programs with universities. That is, the credits you earn at the two-year college are fully transferable to the four-year college or university. Most of these agreements are between colleges in the same state, but sometimes there are interstate agreements such as the Oregon to California Reciprocity Agreement between select schools in California and Oregon. Also! In Oregon there is a program called The Oregon Promise that pays tuition to Oregon high school graduates attending community college!
• If they haven't already done so, have your parents set up a college fund for you. These are savings programs that accrue interest and also have tax benefits toward saving for college, such as the Oregon College Savings Program. The one catch, usually, with state programs is you will have to attend an Oregon school. That's not a big deal, though, as there are some fine colleges in Oregon.
• Research scholarships and grants. Every year, Oregon funds 40,000 students through the Oregon Opportunity Grant, which is aimed at students in lower income families. There are many other grants and scholarships available to you, many only require a 2.0 GPA. Check them out here. Now, you're too young yet to fill out a FAFSA, but you can still learn about what money is available to you by checking that page out.
• Don't forget, there are also work/study programs like this one at the University of Oregon. This is where you get a job working on campus or in government or in a nonprofit and the money goes to your tuition and expenses.
• Too, if you ever get birthday or Christmas money from relatives (or bonds), put them in the college fund.
• You don't have to go through this all alone. When it gets close to time (a year or two from college) set up an appointment with a financial advisor at your school of choice.
• If at all possible, try not to get bank loans. While college loans have pretty low interest rates, they still have a way of chasing you around for years after you graduate. Only use these as a last resort.

Whew! That's a lot of information, eh? You're at a great time to start learning about all of this stuff, though. It may give you a better idea of how much you will need to save in order to achieve your collegiate dreams. 

Once you have a financial goal in mind, it's time to budget. (There's that word again!) Once you find that job to start earning, start by setting up an Excel or other spreadsheet. Each month, put in your income, subtracting taxes and FIFA payments. Add other expenses, such as gas (if you drive) or bus fare to get to work. Then you are left with your actual income. Take a look at that and then establish a percentage or dollar amount you want to save each month toward that fursuit head and then, with what is left, decide how much you can put aside for college each month. (Go ahead and leave a little for yourself for "fun money" like going to a movie, but not too much).

Have a good idea of what your income is and where you are going with your money can really help lower anxieties you might have about paying for things. It really does help to have a plan!

Once you have that plan in place, I bet you won't have to ask any family members for help. If you can set aside, say, $150 a month toward a head, you will have your $900 in six months. All on your own, which is a matter of pride! Then, once you have paid off the head, you can take that $150 you were saving for the fursuit and add it toward your college fund.

Last issue: You're 14 and can't legally send money over the internet, so you need help from an adult. If your parents are amenable to the idea, one thing you can do is set up a Teen Checking Account. Many banks and credit unions will allow a teen under 18 to set up an account if their parents will sign for it. Tell your parents that this is a way to help you learn about money and balancing a checkbook etc. Then, you can write a check to the fursuit maker via snail mail or set up a PayPal or Venmo or suchlike account linked to your checking account. Or, set up a savings account, and you can write a Money Order based on the savings account.

If the above are not options, then yes, perhaps your aunt is the best person to turn to. If she already knows you're a furry, then what is there to be embarrassed about? Just tell her, "Hey, Auntie! You know I'm a furry, right? And one of the fun things you can do with being a furry is wear a costume, which is called a fursuit. I have saved up money for a fursuit head based on my fursona (my character). But I can't order it myself because I'm not 18 yet. If I give you the money, could you order it for me?"

Being direct is the best way to do it.


Happy Saving!

Papabear

“What the hell am I looking at?!” These were, no joke, the first words in my head and the first words out of my sister’s mouth when I first booted up PO’ed: Definitive Edition. Of all the games I’ve played, this one really tops the list of weirdest games I’ve played.

Happy Pride!

The furry community has always been strong with huge diversity from the LGBTQ+ community, and writers are no different. This month, we would like to respect those who identify as LGBTQ+, whether out and proud or still in the closet. Just know that you all have a welcoming environment within the Furry Writers Guild spaces. We do not tolerate bigotry of any kind.

And LGB is always with the T.

At the start of the month, we started to share posts on social media to spotlight LGBTQ+ authors – whether they’re members of the guild or not.

You can see our posts – and contribute your own works if you have not already done so, here:

https://furries.club/@furrywritersguild/112538465433534482

https://bsky.app/profile/furrywritersguild.bsky.social/post/3ktt5t3rcrs2a

https://twitter.com/FurWritersGuild/status/1796696108862959764

For the moment, most of the guild staff are hard at work on the editing phase for Blood and Water – we adored the stories submitted for the anthology, and we are very excited to share this work with everyone. After editing has finished, we expect to start pushing on with some of our plans for the remainder of the year. We hope to start sharing some things in the coming month.

For those looking to submit their stories to anthologies, we have the current open markets:

Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline August 1st 2024
F/F Non Erotic Anthology – Deadline August 31st 2024
Isekai Me! – Deadline August 31st 2024
Spirit of the Wolf – Deadline March 31st 2025
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full

Please also check out our upcoming and recent releases from FWG members:

Gravitational Pull, by Ty Fox. Released April 15th.
Sun Runner, by Frances Pauli. Released May 30th.
Squeak Thief, by Kyell Gold. Released July 2024.
The Heavens Within Our Grasp, edited by Maddison Scott-Clary, featuring stories by multiple FWG Members. Available for pre-orders. Released July 1st 2024.
Far Flung, by Utunu. Available for pre-orders. Released July 3rd 2024.
The Eternal Party, by DarkEnd. Released July 4th 2024.
Therianthropic Dreams, by NightEyes DaySpring. Available for pre-orders. Released July 15th 2024.

As always, FWG members – let us know when you have a new book coming out soon!

Wishing you all a safe and joyful month of Pride.
J.F.R. Coates

This week Valraven played Wolf Territory, Blood of the Werewolf, and continued Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood! (May 28, 2024)

Valraven with the Uncivil Gamers Stream team is on a mission to play EVERY Wolf Game on Steam! Every week she'll choose at least one game that features or includes a wolf or werewolf! Then, the day after she'll give her likes and dislikes of each! Tune in every week at 8 PM CT on her Twitch channel, Twitch.tv/The_Valraven!

This comedic video series from the Uncivil Gamers stream team for GamingFurever.com explores new released games on a weekly basis. Our streamers each select one game that was just released within the week and each play through their own game. We then edit together the best and funniest moments from the gameplay and deliver them to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 PM ET!

Description on Steam of "Baladins":  Embark on a whimsical journey and bring joy to a bright fantasy world in this roleplaying adventure for 1-4 players. Craft your own story and solve quests how you like, but beware, for every time you fail the Dragon will send you back in time! .

Link to video (also embedded below:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp0yt_18W0U

Subscribe to Uncivil Gamers on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UncivilGamers

The first four episodes of Fur and Loathing are HERE (six episodes are coming out weekly.)

Before Episode 5 comes out, here’s a surprise bonus episode. This mid-series break is making time for the investigation team to develop new leads that emerged after the series began.

Patch interviews Nicky, and pitches him listener questions about investigating the 2014 Midwest Furfest chemical attack. This Dogpatch Press exclusive video is 20 minutes longer than the official half hour audio edit published everywhere else. (In the extra run time, you can hear about another attempt to disrupt the con… Video transcript below).

Exclusive document: FBI interview about the chemical attack.

Never published before, this document is a result of FOIA requests to law enforcement. The team at Brazen gained much more robust responses than past journalists did. From the stacks of papers, this is the FBI’s interview with a member of the Hazardous Materials Team at the Rosemont Public Safety Department.

FBI Interview of Rosemont Public Safety Department Sergeant Greg Brosch_(Redacted)

Interview video transcript

00:00:00:10 – 00:00:12:15
Patch O’Furr
Hello and welcome to the Fur & Loathing bonus episode with me and Nicky Woolf. I’m Patch O’Furr, and I’m here live from sunny, midnight California.

00:00:12:18 – 00:00:18:11
Nicky Woolf
Nice and thank you for staying up so late for this.

00:00:18:11 – 00:00:23:22
Patch O’Furr
I’m a bit of a werewolf, you know. I like the full moon. I like all the night times.

00:00:23:24 – 00:00:29:24
Nicky Woolf
Hell yeah. For listener context it is 1:15 a.m. in San Francisco right now.

00:00:30:10 – 00:00:36:24
Patch O’Furr
Yeah. So, Nicky, let’s do a quick refresher about the developments in the show so far.

00:00:37:07 – 00:01:10:12
Nicky Woolf
So episode four came out on Monday of this week. So we started out the show, we went to Midwest FurFest. We went to see the scene of the crime. Absolutely fabulous time at Midwest FurFest, and seeing the scene of the crime was a real kind of game changer, I think, for us, because the geography of the space is so different from how I’d been imagining and the things that would mean about how the gas had to spread completely kind of changed my view on things.

00:01:10:16 – 00:01:38:13
Nicky Woolf
And then we had this massive reach out through Freedom of Information requests to the FBI and to Rosemont Police, got an incredible treasure trove of documents back, which included the massive twist that the FBI’s final suspect that they were investigating in 2019, which is the last action we know the investigation took, was not the person that you and I started out thinking was our lead suspect.

00:01:38:13 – 00:02:02:15
Nicky Woolf
Well, we’ll get to those in a little bit. But a new suspect at the board, Caleb Kinkade, who we tracked down, he wasn’t named in the docs. We tracked him down using a combination of Google Street View, we knew what town it was in. We did sort of Google Street View around the town. We found the house. We knew he was in a blue house when he was interviewed and we found one.

00:02:02:20 – 00:02:22:20
Nicky Woolf
And then we zoomed in on it and saw a furry paw decal in the window. So we were like, Oh, this is our guy. And so then we found contact details for him. We got in touch and we went to Oklahoma to to chat with him and do our own little interrogation. And that was the episode that just just came out.

00:02:23:05 – 00:02:31:02
Patch O’Furr
I saw that you brought some insight on the police investigation that was even surprising to people who told me that they were there.

00:02:31:07 – 00:02:56:05
Nicky Woolf
Yes. The police investigation, it turns out, looked entirely different from how it did on the outside from the FBI docs. We know that they were working behind the scenes quite a bit more than you and I had both gone into this story thinking, in that they were running down leads in 2015, 2017 and and as late as 2019. So there was stuff going on beneath the surface.

00:02:58:02 – 00:03:19:21
Nicky Woolf
The problem was and we’ll get into that a little bit later, is that despite working on it, they made some pretty colossal screw ups, which seem to have been our guesses as that’s what kind of hobbled the investigation from being able to make any arrests or charges.

00:03:19:24 – 00:03:31:20
Patch O’Furr
Now, tell me, Nicky, what did we do to deserve a bonus episode? Were there any developments after the show started coming out? Can you give us any hints?

00:03:32:10 – 00:04:03:22
Nicky Woolf
So, yes, we’ve had we had a tip. Actually, you had a tip that we’re now chasing down and a few more bits of information have come out still in ongoing conversations with the FBI and a couple of other sources. And so we thought we’d put out a bonus episode to give an extra week to do a bit of reporting and chase down a few more leads before we go into the kind of final, final stretch of the show.

00:04:03:22 – 00:04:09:10
Patch O’Furr
Oh, man, that’s so exciting. Yeah, you’re changing it as we go.

00:04:09:21 – 00:04:18:14
Nicky Woolf
Yeah, I don’t want to say too much about those about those leads, but there’s some some pretty dramatic stuff in there. But no spoilers.

00:04:18:20 – 00:04:30:20
Patch O’Furr
We also got questions from from furry listeners coming up. Yeah, let’s go. Well, let’s see. I’m trying to operate my mouse with my giant paws!

00:04:31:04 – 00:04:58:23
Nicky Woolf
Oh, in the meantime, we can talk about one of the police screw ups, which is relevant to episode four that just came out. And we were doing a kind of re-dive through a lot of the Freedom of Information Act documents. And what happens in episode four, we end episode four coming out pretty much kind of catching the Oklahoma suspect in what we think exonerated him fairly.

00:05:00:10 – 00:05:30:03
Nicky Woolf
We were fairly confident and how we came out of that interview and then relooking through the FOIA docs and we had, you know, 300, 400 pages of documents buried really deep because we were looking at the investigation into Kinkade. One of the things that went wrong on the Caleb Kinkade, we’ll get into this in kind of episode six wrap up the two of the weird things.

00:05:30:03 – 00:06:05:17
Nicky Woolf
Actually, one of the things is that the tip off the FBI were chasing down with Caleb came four years before the incident and we thought that was a typo at first we thought, you know, they got a tip off in 2010. That must have been a typo. Right. But then when they go to interview Kinkade in 2019, they say, Hey, can you explain how this tip off came four years before the incident, to which they note Caleb’s response was, “What the fuck?”

00:06:06:07 – 00:06:27:21
Nicky Woolf
Which, yeah, that’s quite a reasonable response, to be honest, to being told that that some kind of time machine tip off came from before the event. We we have no other information in the documents about what the hell that was about. They said it was with some specificity to the incident. God only knows what that I mean. Honestly, that’s super weird.

00:06:28:19 – 00:07:01:14
Nicky Woolf
But the other thing that came out of this recent deep dive into the documents is that buried, buried way deep in one of the documents is that a different set of officers straight after the incident, when they said they first started looking into Kinkade pretty soon after the chlorine attack and quite early on, two task force officers who didn’t seem to be all that much in the rest of the documents, I think they were just kind of attached to it on the beat for that part of the investigation found–

00:07:01:21 – 00:07:32:21
Nicky Woolf
So Kinkade’s alibi had been that he was home with his disabled father, who he looks after, and that he’d gone to visit his nephew on the Saturday and they found a witness who said and it’s super heavily redacted and poorly phrased, so no one seems to have noticed it, including the rest of the FBI. But they chased down his alibi and it stood up in 2014.

00:07:32:21 – 00:08:05:24
Nicky Woolf
And that’s why we didn’t see it, because it was in the old docs. They were still investigating him for five years after that. So it seems like someone at the at the task force maybe filed the papers wrong or something. But I think the rest of the FBI don’t seem to have seen that part of the documents any more than we did before just a few days ago, because it’s so deeply buried and it’s phrased in a way that unless you really, really parse it, looks like it’s hidden.

00:08:06:07 – 00:08:34:23
Nicky Woolf
It says that they hadn’t seen him since Thanksgiving and was at his mother in law’s house. And we thought that meant that he was there for Thanksgiving. There’s actually a full stop there, which is partly covered by one of the redacteds. So that means it actually says, but on the night at ten so 1030, he was placed in Oklahoma, which on top of what he told us, that we feel exonerated him

00:08:34:23 – 00:08:58:10
Nicky Woolf
in the interview, the FBI had also stood up his alibi. So why he was their the main and final suspect in 2019 is even more baffling and speaks even more to the situation where the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing in this investigation. That’s just been so completely wild to me. But yeah, institutional, you know, fuck ups at every turn.

00:08:59:05 – 00:09:33:19
Nicky Woolf
And that’s also on top of the fact that they screwed up the evidence testing on site. And we spoke to someone from the FBI who was in a few episodes ago who said that it was wildly beyond— it seems like the FBI, where we’re trying to get confirmation of exactly when the FBI was informed. It doesn’t seem like they were informed until much later on the Sunday after the attack, because if the FBI had been informed at the time, there is no way they would have allowed people back into the hotel.

00:09:33:21 – 00:10:03:24
Nicky Woolf
They would have treated it as an active crime scene until all investigations were. But the Rosemont police, the Rosemont first responders cleared up the stairwell, cleared the crime scene, tidied it up. Wild, absolutely wild. I can only imagine someone someone at the FBI when they found this out, must have hit the roof. I mean, absolutely gone, like, “What the hell were you doing?”

00:10:03:24 – 00:10:20:23
Nicky Woolf
[Laugh] It was the Weapons of Mass Destruction Unit was called in, and they must have been like, “What the hell are you doing? What the hell have you done? There’s people in our crime scene.”

00:10:22:06 – 00:10:36:06
Patch O’Furr
Well, hey, it’s it’s really interesting to hear it from you. Well I wanted to jump to the other topic, I wanted to ask, how do people like the show? Have you been hearing from people?

00:10:36:09 – 00:11:03:06
Nicky Woolf
Yeah, seems to be going down really well. The reviews have been great. People seem to like it. It seems like— and this was very meaningful to us while we were making it, because obviously it’s a show for a general audience, but this is also really meaningful to us that the that it be something that the very community could enjoy and be proud of and that would do justice to representing that community.

00:11:03:06 – 00:11:05:09
Nicky Woolf
And I hope we’ve— I hope we’ve achieved that.

00:11:05:09 – 00:11:20:10
Patch O’Furr
Yeah. So I had a question from a listener Dralen Dragonfox over in Toronto, just asked “What kind of response have you received from the broader furry community?” And I guess you just answered that.

00:11:22:12 – 00:11:23:15
Nicky Woolf
Very positive!

00:11:23:15 – 00:11:29:02
Patch O’Furr
But I can jump in as well because I think—

00:11:29:02 – 00:11:30:11
Nicky Woolf
Yeah, what have you been hearing.

00:11:30:11 – 00:11:54:13
Patch O’Furr
So I am seeing fantastic reactions from anybody who’s ever heard the show. Just just beautiful, really great reviews. They love the quality of the show, but also how much you care. And that’s kind of surprising to some people. And I think we’re just lucky to have your professionalism on the story.

00:11:54:13 – 00:11:55:01
Nicky Woolf
Thank you.

00:11:55:01 – 00:12:23:21
Patch O’Furr
There is another side to this, because I am seeing people who obviously have not listened to the show and they’re still spreading the same old denial and the story that, “Oh, it was just an accident. We don’t believe there was ever any crime at all.” And there’s sometimes people are attacking the people who are doing the reporting, calling it fake news, saying there’s nothing new here.

00:12:24:13 – 00:12:47:00
Patch O’Furr
And, you know, it’s kind of disappointing, but it’s— I don’t know how surprising it is, but I also say that’s a great reason that the story needs to be told and people should also know how much work it took. And how much effort we’re putting into it with the whole team over at Brazen.

00:12:47:00 – 00:13:06:15
Nicky Woolf
And also, you’ve been working on this for four years. You’ve been, you know, putting in the lonely legwork of of standing this story up and being like this. This is something that matters. And I think to a certain extent, I think some of it comes down to what we were talking about just before, which is the police didn’t seem to be taking it all that seriously.

00:13:06:15 – 00:13:11:04
Nicky Woolf
So I think quite reasonably, people’s reactions have been, “Alright. So why should we?”

00:13:11:11 – 00:13:21:08
Patch O’Furr
You know what we know. Let me just ask you for a little rundown on the kind of work that you’re doing. First off, how many states have you gone to?

00:13:21:08 – 00:13:46:18
Nicky Woolf
So we have been to Illinois to to Midwest FurFest, and we have been to Oklahoma to talk with Caleb Kinkade, the Oklahoma suspect, the FBI suspect. And we have been to Wisconsin. And that is that trip is going to be a episode five, which comes out next week, a week today, when this when this broadcast.

00:13:46:18 – 00:13:50:14
Patch O’Furr
I remember there was a little bit with me over in California that was pretty cool.

00:13:51:04 – 00:13:56:02
Nicky Woolf
Oh, yeah. Well, I didn’t get to go., which was— I was very sad about that. That was with Nick.

00:13:56:15 – 00:13:58:21
Patch O’Furr
Yeah, we have to meet. I’m going to have to get you a drink.

00:13:59:03 – 00:14:00:21
Nicky Woolf
I know. I’m going to get you a drink.

00:14:01:05 – 00:14:05:06
Patch O’Furr
Yeah. How many helpers are on the team, by the way?

00:14:05:19 – 00:14:32:19
Nicky Woolf
That’s a really good opportunity to shout out to all the people who’ve done so much hard work on this, Arnav and Lucy our researchers have been so fantastic. They’ve done just incredible work. And Goat Rodeo, the whole production team, especially Max and Ian, who worked extremely hard on this. The total size of the team. I mean, it sort of depends how you count it.

00:14:32:19 – 00:14:49:13
Nicky Woolf
There were like some producers who also helped out. Then Nick has helped out with a whole load of edits. That’s Nick who you met in California, but yeah, everyone at Brazen and everyone at Goat Rodeo, it’s just been terrific.

00:14:49:23 – 00:14:54:01
Patch O’Furr
And in your travels, how many people have you talked to so far?

00:14:55:23 – 00:15:38:21
Nicky Woolf
Oh, I’d have to go into our interviews. I think we we reached out to, and in some cases exchanged some messages with, skyward of 100 people. And I think we’ve spoken to and done formal interviews with at least 20, 25 spoken off the record or informal interviews with maybe another 25. So yeah, lots and lots of people, lots of voices have gone into informing this reporting. There’s been a real — and I think quite understandable — reluctance of of people in the community to speak because of how often, you know, the community gets burned by the media, and how often journalists will come in and sort of ridicule or not really

00:15:38:22 – 00:16:04:02
Nicky Woolf
understand, or go through the old kind of tropes of just being like a sort of internet sex thing, you know, from the George Gurley article [in Vanity Fair], even the title of the podcast, Fur & Loathing, as any furry listening to this will know, is the title of a CSI episode that was really just a hit job on the community.

00:16:04:18 – 00:16:27:05
Nicky Woolf
And so then you were talking about this. We talked about how the title will will be received. And I think in that sense, it’s also been positive. People have people have said it— but, you know, people have mentioned it. And when that’s come up on on Twitter or BlueSky, I’ve said, yeah, we went back and forth.

00:16:27:10 – 00:16:41:06
Nicky Woolf
I just personally liked the name and hopefully we can reclaim it. Hopefully we can be the the Google search for that above the CSI thing and sort of memory-hole the CSI. That’s the idea.

00:16:41:11 – 00:17:10:22
Patch O’Furr
So you’ve got a whole ton of people, some very fuzzy and colorful ones and now that makes me curious about one of the very clever ones we’ve already heard from: Caleb. I want to talk about meeting him. And I actually have a listener question from Flen, the silly wolf-otter. So Flen asks, he says, “I’m from North Georgia, but I want to know what Oklahoma was like.”

00:17:10:22 – 00:17:16:09
Patch O’Furr
“I bet it was culture shock and Caleb seems like an interesting guy.”

00:17:16:20 – 00:17:42:06
Nicky Woolf
He’s a fascinating dude. I mean, going to Oklahoma was less of a culture shock for me than than it might have been because I’ve been based in the U.S. as a general assignment news reporter for a really long time. So I hadn’t actually been to Oklahoma, I think, before, but I think that made it the 46th state I’ve been to.

00:17:42:18 – 00:18:12:09
Nicky Woolf
So I’ve only got, I think, Montana, one of the Dakotas and one of the states, two of the states that are basically next to Montana to go. So I’m yeah, I lived in Ohio for a while, so Oklahoma’s bit more southern, but still where we were had a bit of Midwestern vibes as well. That’s going to annoy more people than anything else I say on this show.

00:18:13:11 – 00:18:15:14
Nicky Woolf
But yeah, I think Ohio prepared me for Oklahoma.

00:18:16:03 – 00:18:37:03
Patch O’Furr
Well, a lot more states than I’ve been to! I got to catch up with you, right? Yeah, so when you were chatting with Caleb, I thought it was, you know, really funny to hear stories about fart competitions. But, you know, I told some friends actually recording it is a feat of podcasting.

00:18:37:21 – 00:19:01:00
Nicky Woolf
So yeah, we had a a microphone, a shotgun mic that was on a boom. Luckily for Nick, who was holding it— I don’t know if Nick or Max was holding it, but very much at arm’s length trying to capture the sound. But yeah, I can well believe he’s a champion. He was really a powerfully good farter.

00:19:01:10 – 00:19:04:24
Patch O’Furr
Quite a voice. Did you have to do extra takes?

00:19:05:17 – 00:19:08:13
Nicky Woolf
Oh, he, gave us as many takes as we wanted. Yeah.

00:19:10:01 – 00:19:13:11
Patch O’Furr
Good job! A new milestone in your career.

00:19:14:00 – 00:19:38:18
Nicky Woolf
He was pretty, obviously, and as I say in the episode, somebody being charming and nice doesn’t preclude them from you know, it doesn’t mean their innocence. I think his innocence was showed by the mistakes he made about not knowing in the episode how the attack took place, but boasting about knowing. So he he got it wrong.

00:19:39:05 – 00:20:02:07
Nicky Woolf
So he thought that was a strong indicator. And then that was backed up by the fact that someone on the task force in 2014 before five more years of investigating him, but nonetheless his alibi stood up to the FBI. But yeah, he was he was really nice and he was generous with his time and spends a heck of a yarn.

00:20:02:19 – 00:20:31:01
Patch O’Furr
Okay, well, you know, it must be hard to view just sort of put in the spotlight like that with such a serious story. So I will let that rest for him and move on, because coming up, there’s another suspect. We named him: Robert Sojkowski.

00:20:31:01 – 00:21:03:08
Nicky Woolf
Yeah. This is Robert Sojkowski. Very controversial figure in the community. In the next episode coming up, we start to evaluate where things are with him and but but yeah — another really interesting angle of investigation. I don’t want to go too much further down down that road, but I think I think people are going to be really interested to hear what happened when we went up to Wisconsin.

00:21:03:14 – 00:21:07:20
Patch O’Furr
Yeah, I would avoid spoilers, but you know, I interviewed him in 2018.

00:21:08:06 – 00:21:09:06
Nicky Woolf
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:21:09:16 – 00:21:16:07
Patch O’Furr
Let me just ask, what did you do to try to reach him?

00:21:16:07 – 00:21:43:00
Nicky Woolf
It was it was hard to track him down. Not as difficult as tracking Caleb down because, you know, he still has things like his YouTube channel running and we got a whole bunch of numbers for him and a Telegram handle. And the Telegram was still active. So one of the cold calls were made to him is on Telegram and that’s the one he responded to.

00:21:43:16 – 00:21:59:20
Nicky Woolf
I mean, again, this is neither proof of guilt nor innocence, but he has also been open with us and has been willing to talk and has also been generous with his time. So well, you know, that’s not a data point one way or the other, but I think it’s it’s worth saying.

00:22:00:16 – 00:22:05:22
Patch O’Furr
Okay. Did you want to say anything else about the behavior or are we just going to find out?

00:22:06:03 – 00:22:09:17
Nicky Woolf
Let’s let’s hold off on that. We’ll get to that.

00:22:09:17 – 00:22:24:10
Patch O’Furr
Okay. Well, let’s get back to what the listeners want to know. I’ve got a lot of questions and I guess, yeah, we can start out with BowieBarks. And Bowie. asks—

00:22:24:10 – 00:22:25:00
Nicky Woolf
Hello, Bowie.

00:22:28:10 – 00:22:39:18
Patch O’Furr
And Bowie has questions about going to the Midwest FurFest. Seeing that it was your first furry convention, what did you enjoy most?

00:22:40:11 – 00:23:43:14
Nicky Woolf
I loved every second of Midwest FurFest. It was just such a joyous, just a brilliant environment to be and just so visually overwhelming and the vibes were fantastic. My favorite moment of it, and actually someone I forgot to give a shout out to is Tommy Bruce, photographer who was the first furry we ever got in touch with for the show. First person we spoke to, and was very kind and showed me around Midwest FurFest, and has been also kind of our furry moral compass with this. We’ve had this kind of fascinating conversation going and we went to this screaming— er, screening review of a whole bunch of short films made in VRChat.

00:23:44:16 – 00:24:20:21
Nicky Woolf
And they were fabulous. There was a lot of in-jokes that only a few people were getting, so we’d have one film, and like one very specific group in the room would burst out laughing and they were just surreal kind of comedic things. And then interspersed into those were these just beautiful, heartbreaking kind of, you know, goodbyes to to someone who maybe passed away or just I-miss-yous to people who live across the world, many kind of people who only interact and get to get to meet in VRChat.

00:24:22:06 – 00:24:30:18
Nicky Woolf
And so it was like swinging between like laughter and tears the whole time. It was just beautiful, like, really, really moving.

00:24:30:24 – 00:24:43:03
Patch O’Furr
So nice. Wow. Yeah. So Bowie went on to ask, was there anything that challenged you?

00:24:43:07 – 00:25:31:24
Nicky Woolf
Challenged— I mean, just trying to see everything was such a challenge. There’s so much on. We were running from— we went from a panel on the very beginnings of history of the fandom, which was fascinating. Running from there to a panel on— this was dramatic to me., it was not just a panel on fursuit making, it was a panel by three big fursuit makers on just how to get your commission even noticed by them. And you know these are people who are making a suit for $10,000, $15,000 and just to get your commission noticed by them was something that needed a panel that gave advice.

00:25:32:08 – 00:26:00:12
Nicky Woolf
But just getting from all of these panels, from panel to panel to, you know, stall to stall, trying to see everything was exhausting. And I think Cara, who’s the producer who was with me, her Apple Watch or something, said that we’d walked something like 14 kilometers over the course of each day, maybe more. Just doing that in a full fursuit…

00:26:00:12 – 00:26:03:19
Nicky Woolf
… must be— and it is hot. I mean, it is like—

00:26:04:21 – 00:26:06:15
Patch O’Furr
Wow.

00:26:06:15 – 00:26:07:04
Nicky Woolf
So yeah.

00:26:08:09 – 00:26:11:08
Patch O’Furr
This is why they have a fursuit lounge.

00:26:12:03 – 00:26:16:20
Nicky Woolf
Air-conditioned all the way down.

00:26:16:20 – 00:26:37:09
Patch O’Furr
Saves lives. Yeah. Okay, so, boy, I’ve got quite a list here. One more for BowieBarks. And this is a hard one. You don’t have to spend a lot of time on this. But you called furries a bellwether for the rest of the world. What you think is coming?

00:26:37:09 – 00:27:01:05
Nicky Woolf
That is a huge question. And I think what I meant was furries and kind of all digital communities to me in this kind of— There’s like a deep theoretical answer to this that it’s more like an essay unto itself, but in brief, I think what the Internet has done is changed the geography of communication almost completely.

00:27:03:00 – 00:27:33:06
Nicky Woolf
And I think the furry fandom is a good example of how you can have a fandom that I think Uncle Kage said it in a really good way when we spoke to him, but it was that it’s a fandom without a corporate piece of content that is being fandomed. It’s like a self-made fandom, you know? It’s not cosplay in the way that people are dressing up as Marvel characters or Disney characters and things like that.

00:27:34:14 – 00:28:09:12
Nicky Woolf
And I don’t think you could have that without the Internet, without that kind of peer-to-peer communication network. But I also think that the effect of that peer-to-peer communication network that allow, you know, folks who might be in a small town, not have a huge amount in common with the people around them and have found the furry community online as that community and again, through these VR videos, we saw a lot of that emotion coming through.

00:28:09:12 – 00:28:50:14
Nicky Woolf
But unfortunately, that same infrastructure makes it much easier for the far right to both infiltrate and organize. And I think within the furry fandom, we saw a lot of that, especially in 2017 when oh God, to even have to name him when when you know who that guy started to try to come to furry conventions. And, you know, these alt right figures saw it as an opportunity to infiltrate and you end up with things like the furry raiders.

00:28:51:18 – 00:29:19:05
Nicky Woolf
So I think the Internet does both of those things. And I think wider society, more more traditional groups in society are starting to experience that as communication becomes more and more similarly online and more kind of mainstream groupings and and even politics. And we’re already seeing, you know, Donald Trump is running for president again. That doesn’t happen without the Internet.

00:29:19:17 – 00:29:24:11
Patch O’Furr
Okay. Next question from Arrkay the Bird. Yeah, Arrkay…

00:29:24:18 – 00:29:25:21
Nicky Woolf
Hello Arrkay!

00:29:26:05 – 00:29:32:10
Patch O’Furr
… asks, is there any hope for justice or new evidence that the police can use to prosecute?

00:29:33:00 – 00:30:12:08
Nicky Woolf
So the thing that’s difficult in that question is one thing we ran up against, we spoke to some experts to try and firm it out and all we could really got was it’s complicated, but we’re fairly sure that there is a statute of limitations issue on what happened. Now, the statute of limitations in Illinois is at a default five years, which is why we think the FBI made a final push to be interviewing Caleb in 2019 because that was just before the five year timeline.

00:30:13:11 – 00:30:42:23
Nicky Woolf
Now, there’s nothing in the documents that specify that there’s a statute of limitations. And one of the formal questions that we’ve asked the FBI for comment on was this question. And they said no comment. Statute of limitations would be different on a federal terrorism charge, which is one of the potential things that could be being looked into. Another thing the FBI wouldn’t answer as is this case still being it’s still open, still considered under investigation.

00:30:42:23 – 00:31:03:09
Nicky Woolf
They wouldn’t say, well, I think pretty standard for the FBI to answer those kind of questions with no comment. But we we don’t know if new information that we bring up from the podcast and we’ve heard from different sources. We’ve spoke to some of the same sources the FBI have. We think we’ve spoken to different sources. We have different eyewitness testimony.

00:31:05:04 – 00:31:18:06
Nicky Woolf
But no idea if if this will lead to more law enforcement action because they’re so opaque and because we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes and what kind of pressure they might be under.

00:31:18:07 – 00:31:24:09
Patch O’Furr
Well, that makes a good link to the next question. And this one is also from Dralen Dragonfox.

00:31:25:11 – 00:31:26:01
Nicky Woolf
Hi, Dralen

00:31:27:10 – 00:31:45:18
Patch O’Furr
Dralen says, I love the accidental support that you got from the FBI with the badly redacted FOIA files. Have you seen that before or have you seen them mess up on purpose, like some misspell names so they can say there’s no documents?

00:31:46:14 – 00:32:19:09
Nicky Woolf
That definitely happens. In this case, it doesn’t seem like they were doing redactions to avoid it. It was almost so dramatic compared to previous reporting that happened on this case. We got so much more documents than, say, Vice did when they sent their requests. That was a piece that this maybe five years ago. It could be some sometimes it’s as simple as you capture FOIA officer in the right mood and they’re like, okay, yeah, maybe we will.

00:32:19:13 – 00:32:42:24
Nicky Woolf
Sometimes you’ve no idea whether it’s been run up the chain or not, whether someone at the FBI has said, “OK, we want to get these documents out, maybe they can find something that will allow us to—”. There’s also a lot of accidents that go on. I think a lot of our documents were very poorly redacted and that may have been incompetence.

00:32:43:04 – 00:33:05:10
Nicky Woolf
We don’t know whose. Some of the documents were from Rosemont Police, but were given to us by the FBI for their response. We don’t know who did the redactions that we don’t know if it was Rosemont-redacted or FBI-redacted. I mean, in one case, they put somebody’s Social Security Number unredacted and now that’s—

00:33:06:00 – 00:33:46:01
Nicky Woolf
That’s a screw up. I mean, that should not be in a Freedom of Information Act document with that being there. They also — and this is an interesting sign about how how they think about the furry community — is that they would redact, uh, witnesses, real-world name and not redact their fursona name, which implies they just sort of don’t know how, how core a piece of identity a fursona name is and how easy it would be for someone who really wanted to, to identify, you know, to track down a person with their fursona name.

00:33:46:01 – 00:34:09:22
Nicky Woolf
And in the past I’ve had documents released to me accidentally. I did a FOIA investigation when I was at The Guardian into a national security story about police surveillance. And we sent a Freedom of Information request to, 50-something police departments. And one of them gave us classified documents either by accident or because they wanted them to come out.

00:34:10:07 – 00:34:22:22
Nicky Woolf
So it can it can happen positively. But yeah, there have definitely been stories of purposeful misspellings being introduced into FOIA docs in order to make journalists lives difficult, so it goes both ways.

00:34:22:22 – 00:34:40:17
Patch O’Furr
You really have to finesse it and know what you’re doing. BowieBarks dropped in another comment, he said another podcast was saying to be vague with FOIA to keep them from guessing exactly what you’re trying to get at so they don’t redact it.

00:34:40:24 – 00:35:12:03
Nicky Woolf
I would say if we’re doing advice to you know, general FOIA advice ,you can’t really ask a vague question because they aren’t giving yes or no answers, they’re either providing a document or not. So document specificity is the most important thing if you’re looking for a police report and you know roughly what date, all that kind of thing is what I would put in.

00:35:12:05 – 00:35:38:10
Nicky Woolf
It’s not the same thing as asking a journalistic question. So you can’t put a FOIA request in saying something like, is this still active? You have to say, we want all email communication between X and Y date between this agent’s email address and responding to a keyword search of X, Y and Z.

00:35:39:01 – 00:35:59:22
Nicky Woolf
That’s the kind of thing that helps with a FOIA response. If you know even more about what the documents might be, that’s your kind of best shot going in with a Freedom of Information Act request. If you give them any vagueness, that’ll give them an opportunity, an excuse to to not to not give you back anything.

00:36:00:23 – 00:36:42:00
Nicky Woolf
So that’s FOIA advice, okay. Let me look at Arnav and see if that’s good FOIA advice. Arnav’s the FOIA king. I’m getting a thumbs up on that advice. On the subject of FOIAs, we will be sharing some of the FOIA docs as we go and we will have one exclusively for Dogpatch Press, which will be the first original incident report that people can go through and read. It’ll go up on Monday along with this video, so people can have a look through and get a little window into what a FOIA document looks like and see what happened on on the night as well through the through the eyes of the first responders.

00:36:43:18 – 00:36:45:14
Nicky Woolf
So that’ll be fun.

00:36:45:15 – 00:36:57:18
Patch O’Furr
That is that is some exciting direct documents there. How much support did you have from the FBI and local police, versus how much did you actually have to work in spite of them?

00:36:58:19 – 00:37:27:15
Nicky Woolf
Except for the surprisingly generous FOIA response we’ve had very, very little cooperation from either the FBI or Rosemont. None of our direct questions to them, none of the official questions have been answered with anything other than a no comment. Even for working with the security agencies, which I’ve done a lot of before in my career., this has been a real code of silence.

00:37:27:24 – 00:38:05:01
Nicky Woolf
This is unusually unhelpful, non-compliant surprisingly, which is what makes this and this is just kind of vibe-based, it is how they would be responding— It’s more likely how they would be responding if this was still an active case or if they thought this could still be an active case. But it’s also, to a certain extent, it’s their default way of being so it’s hard to read too much into that.

00:38:05:01 – 00:38:22:06
Nicky Woolf
But yeah, we’ve had to work with the documents, which again have been hugely, hugely important to the to the investigation. But in terms of actively speaking with the FBI in Rosemont, it’s been despite them definitely.

00:38:22:06 – 00:38:39:12
Patch O’Furr
Okay. Well, that might actually answer the next question. And this is again, this is Arrkay the Bird and Arrkay asks, “Are there interviews coming up with law enforcement who took the case seriously?”

00:38:39:12 – 00:39:17:22
Nicky Woolf
No, they have not allowed us access to any of the officers involved or anyone who might even represent the officers involved. And again, I think we said this earlier, but Agent Defeo, Shaun Rose, if you guys want to get in contact, I think you guys have done good work and good for both of you for sticking with it in what seem to be quite difficult, internal conditions. If either if you want to chat my, you know, my emails are open. But yeah we’ve been offered no access to them whatsoever.

00:39:17:22 – 00:39:52:24
Patch O’Furr
Okay, let’s see. Well, we have a question from Bean and you know, this is a funny one. I want to start off saying that when you choose a fursona, there are certain cartoon characters that are just instantly, you know, it’s fun to recognize. Like, for example, if you want to have an animal who is a bank robber then it might be a raccoon — you’ve got stripes, you’ve got the mask.

00:39:53:15 – 00:39:54:15
Nicky Woolf
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:39:55:08 – 00:40:01:01
Patch O’Furr
So If you chose a persona, what would it be?

00:40:01:13 – 00:40:26:03
Nicky Woolf
So this is a great question because going into when we went to Midwest FurFest, we had this idea of doing a scene where we get people together and, you know, find find Nicky’s fursona. And obviously my last name is Woolf. So part of that might be easy. But I was also thinking of, you know, some based on puns and things like that.

00:40:26:13 – 00:41:14:09
Nicky Woolf
But the more people we spoke to, the more I started to get the feeling that actually that was maybe not offensive necessarily, but kind of in poor taste. I think it was Tommy again who who might have said this but it was or it might have been someone else we spoke to — but it was the idea that that it wasn’t taking it seriously, that a fursona is for a lot of people, a really meaningful and important part of their lives and picking one, you know, finding a pun and being like what’s mine felt like it wasn’t taking that as seriously as it deserved to.

00:41:14:09 – 00:41:37:13
Nicky Woolf
Someone even might have said that it’s sort of like, what’s your gaysona? You know, like and that kind of— they’re not directly comparable. But yeah, we sort of shelved that idea as being in slightly poor taste. But I think given my name is Woolf, if I was— it would be a wolf, I think.

00:41:37:13 – 00:41:54:16
Patch O’Furr
Let’s see. Well, now Bowie is here with another question. Boy, he’s a very curious dog here. Will you be involved with the community more or will you do any other investigations related to furries?

00:41:55:04 – 00:42:24:15
Nicky Woolf
So I already went into this with lots of friends in the fandom. I’ve come out with lots more. I’d love to go to more cons. I had such a great time. So yeah, I think I’ll definitely stay involved. And other investigations, absolutely. Looking for more stories. It’s part of my— my kind of beat is internet subcultures and furries are such a huge part of that

00:42:24:15 – 00:42:46:21
Nicky Woolf
Actually, so for example, in the QAnon podcast I did, we worked very closely with a guy called Fred Brennan who’s also in the fandom, which is interesting. So yeah, it just shows how much crossover there is with the furry fandom with other kind of internet subcultures and communities.

00:42:48:10 – 00:42:58:20
Patch O’Furr
Okay, let’s see. Well, Arrkay asks, “Are there any ideas for a season two?” I’m just going to say you’ll find out.

00:42:58:20 – 00:43:15:06
Nicky Woolf
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Watch this space or listen to this space, I guess. But I will say if people— help in terms of getting season two: if everyone can leave nice reviews on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and things, that always helps.

00:43:15:13 – 00:43:40:04
Patch O’Furr
So tell all your friends, share it around, since your fine work is worth sharing. I guess we’re getting towards wrapping up a little bit. And I just wanted to point out — one point the show makes is how much the police messed up. I’m just curious, do you see any lessons?

00:43:40:04 – 00:44:28:23
Nicky Woolf
There’s some specific ones and some general ones. Some of the specific ones, as we found out and a lot of this was in the first two episodes, but we found out some pretty unpleasant stuff about Rosemont Police Department itself. Rosemont is this weird, financially designed town. It’s got a population of about 3,000 at a budget in the high millions because all these conventions happen, there are all these kind of business centers, the airport hotels are there, and they’re a tiny police force run internally, that’s independent of a major police force like Chicago.

00:44:30:06 – 00:44:59:08
Nicky Woolf
And it seems like there were some quite serious organizational failures within that police department that we think may well have contributed quite heavily to the early mistakes that were made. And certainly there were other allegations of things going on in Rosemont Police Department that that we heard that build a picture of it being pretty disorganized place. And for some of the people we spoke to a kind of unpleasant place to work too.

00:44:59:16 – 00:45:31:00
Nicky Woolf
And then the organizational stuff is whenever something like this happens, you have so many different agencies that get involved, so much paperwork is produced. When you have three different divisions at the FBI, you’ve got field office, you’ve got the WMD unit, you’ve got the Behavioral Analysis Unit, and then you’ve got the Rosemont Police Department, you’ve got Chicago Fire, who were also some of the first responders, because Rosemont asked for their assistance.

00:45:31:00 – 00:46:12:03
Nicky Woolf
And that’s how you end up with stuff like one part of the investigation checking up on, say, Caleb’s alibi, but other parts of the investigation seeming not to have realized. And you just end up with all these communication failures where one part of the investigation doesn’t know what the other part is doing. Rosemont Police Department destroyed what might have been some crucial evidence, such as the tapes of police interviews with suspects. We are trying to figure out if that’s standard practice.

00:46:12:11 – 00:46:31:02
Nicky Woolf
That’s one of the things that we’ve asked the FBI. That’s another of the things the FBI has given us a flat “no comment” on is where the chain of custody of the evidence is, because, again, they cleared the crime scene straight afterwards. This is the Rosemont responders. We don’t know where the broken glass from the device ended up.

00:46:31:02 – 00:47:00:09
Nicky Woolf
We don’t know if that’s in some kind of locker somewhere or if it was literally just thrown away. That all kinds of different people who are handling evidence all with different aims, and then you’ve got what people are investigating for. We don’t know what specific crime is being investigated. And that’s an important question for the statute of limitations question because a federal terrorist defense will have a different statute of limitations to the basic Illinois five years.

00:47:00:24 – 00:47:33:10
Nicky Woolf
We don’t know if the case was being investigated as a terroristic crime or as something lesser. We think if they were making a push for the five-year statute of limitations, they were looking for something lesser than than a terrorist offense. But we don’t know. All of this stuff is very opaque. It’s hard to come out of this question with what is, I think, obvious to anyone who’s followed any kind of the news in the United States…

00:47:33:17 – 00:47:39:23
Nicky Woolf
… for any of the last ten years. But I think some law enforcement reform probably wouldn’t go amiss in general.

00:47:40:14 – 00:48:07:03
Patch O’Furr
So earlier I mentioned that there were non-listeners who were just denying and dismissing the story, saying there wasn’t a crime, there’s no news, you know, I mean they haven’t listened to it. So I just wanted to make a little reminder about the gravity of the story. And if we put the attack next to others like it, is it really fair to call this one of the biggest ones?

00:48:07:20 – 00:48:51:12
Nicky Woolf
Yes, ultimately. There has not been, as far as I know, an attack— a single attack of this scale. The reason that we’ve been calling it the second biggest chemical weapon attack is that the 2001 anthrax campaign, I think, hospitalized fewer people but killed three people. And some of that— one of the things we’ve heard from law enforcement that we’ve talked to who weren’t involved in the case, but former law enforcement who are giving us advice, is that the fact that nobody died, I think may have put it in a different law enforcement category, even though 19 people were hospitalized, including one infant.

00:48:51:12 – 00:49:18:22
Nicky Woolf
And it’s very serious. But, yeah, there’s not really been anything of this scale before or since. And yeah, we’ve spoken to a lot of former former law enforcement and former FBI who’ve all started off saying, Yeah, “What the hell are you talking about?” And we run down the details of the story, the scale of the, you know, the casualties, the number of people who were hospitalized.

00:49:19:08 – 00:49:42:07
Nicky Woolf
And universally, all of their responses have been, “Holy shit, how am I just hearing about this now for the first time?” And I think that’s a very good question. I mean, we’ve spoken to people who were working in the chemical weapons investigative unit for national FBI. And when someone like that is saying, “How the fuck did this not come across my desk?”

00:49:43:23 – 00:49:50:07
Nicky Woolf
I think that’s a really good question. How the hell did that not come across their desk?

00:49:50:07 – 00:49:56:13
Patch O’Furr
Is there anything we could say on behalf of the victims? Did you speak to anybody who was hospitalized?

00:49:57:01 – 00:50:20:07
Nicky Woolf
We didn’t. And I think quite reasonably so. We have a lot of written testimonial sources and lot of contemporary documents we got in touch with— we reached out to almost everyone who we knew was affected and people declined to speak, I think probably quite reasonably, because it was a very traumatic event.

00:50:20:07 – 00:50:45:20
Nicky Woolf
So I wouldn’t want to speak on on their behalf. I do think one of the questions and maybe a question for you and and also a question that we want to ask for people in the community is what should a punishment for this crime be? What would be fair justice? What would that look like? And that’s something that isn’t my place to answer.

00:50:46:20 – 00:51:16:08
Patch O’Furr
One of the things that stands out to me, which I don’t know, is part of your, you know, the math behind figuring out what to do with this story. But from inside the community, I recognize this attack is actually only the first one that was a terror attack or a would-be terror plan that was targeting Midwest FurFest.

00:51:17:01 – 00:51:37:12
Patch O’Furr
And the other one is generally not even recognized. People know half of the story but they don’t know the deeper half and that half of the story is in 2019 when alt-right personality Milo [Yiannopoulos] wanted to go to the con and people.

00:51:39:14 – 00:51:40:09
Nicky Woolf
He-who-shall-not-be-named.

00:51:40:14 – 00:52:12:15
Patch O’Furr
Yeah, sorry, we’ll just use— we’ll just call him Mr. M. Well, in 2019, Mr. M there, wanted to attend Midwest FurFest and it was recognized as a kind of a troll plan and he was rebuffed. He was rejected in advance of the con. But what almost nobody saw or knew was there was a deeper plan to bring the Proud Boys.

00:52:13:04 – 00:52:37:06
Patch O’Furr
And of course, they went on to do the January 6 riot at the Capitol. So this was a plan to bring domestic terrorism, street violence by a group that is now officially convicted of terrorism to a furry convention. So here we go. There’s this. This is the second time Midwest FurFest was targeted.

00:52:37:22 – 00:53:09:00
Nicky Woolf
And it’s not just that. Right. You know, even earlier this year, there was another bomb threat. The furry fandom is often targeted by by this kind of thing. And it is at that intersection where trolling can sometimes spill over into actual violence. Right. And that, I think, is a risk that the it’s quite active all the time. Thank you so much for chatting with me, Patch, for this bonus episode.

00:53:09:00 – 00:53:31:07
Nicky Woolf
Always a pleasure. Hello to viewers on Dogpatch Press. Subscribe to Fur & Loathing wherever you get your podcasts if you’re watching this. And if you’re listening to this as part of the feed, I hope you’re enjoying the show. Don’t forget to leave a review — unless you’re not enjoying the show, in which case, I guess, well done for getting five episodes in anyway.

00:53:31:07 – 00:53:41:11
Nicky Woolf
And yeah, tune in next week for our penultimate episode. We start to close in on some theories.

00:53:42:06 – 00:53:43:01
Patch O’Furr
Thank you so much.

00:53:43:04 – 00:53:44:19
Nicky Woolf
Thank you! As always, a pleasure.

00:53:44:19 – 00:53:55:17
Patch O’Furr
I’m so glad you gave so much time and attention and all of your professionalism and your talent. And yeah, I’m just looking forward to hearing more.

00:53:55:17 – 00:54:14:13
Nicky Woolf
And thank you so much for all your hard work on this story. It’s been fantastic and thank you for staying up so late to chat.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.Want to get involved? Try these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for news or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)