Picture by Turbine Divinity.

Something struck me recently. Not literally of course. I am not dedicating two month’s worth of furry internet journalism to illness (despite a recent cold). What I want to discuss this week is what makes the average furry tick - why do we choose the fursona we come up with, how we express ourselves, and so on.

This thought occurred to me when I was watching a documentary series broadcast on the British TV network ITV1 recently. Called Martin Clunes: A Man and His Dogs, it was a programme which looked at the relationship between people and their pet dogs. In the first episode, presenter Clunes looked at the history of dogs and how they evolved from wolves and dingoes. The thing that got my attention at first was when it was mentioned that dogs are around 99.8%. Then I started to think, “Why then do I associated more with wolves, when the difference between them and dogs is so slight?”

The results of the Furry Sociological Survey held by Kyle Evans in 2006-2007 have finally been released to the public. Based greatly off David Rust’s survey in 1998, it shows a few significant changes in the state of the fandom. The fandom is younger, more heterosexual and is now composed out of many more ethnic minorities. I won’t ramble on, but be sure to check out the results of Evan’s survey.

Furry encyclopaedia WikiFur has had an exciting few months. With the new server up and running, the imminent migration of the current English WikiFur and a whole host of new languages joining the fray - it seems like things can only get better!

WikiFur and it’s aim to be the collection of furry knowledge has seen exponential growth in recent times, with the growth of the fandom and WikiFur’s lax policy on “vanity pages” meaning that anyone can be a part of the project, no matter what their status within the fandom. Because of this the English language version of WikiFur has surpassed 10,000 articles, a full six months after it passed 9,000.

Residential registration has already opened and nearly sold out, with only 37 “attending only” placements left at time of writing. Compare this to last year, when the last tickets were sold only weeks before the start of the convention. And all these sold before the events schedule is even announced.

The 2009 schedule is much the same as last year, with an opening day barbecue and the new “WikiFur PubQuiz”. One notable change is the Guest of Honour slot, this year occupied by Tabbiefox, and his cartooning workshop. The Furrylimpics is still a large part of the weekend line-up. Timduru’s FursuitTV makes a return too, followed on by QI parody quiz “Furry Interesting”.

One more guest of honour is due to be announced, be sure to get your place if you haven’t already!

Not just the big guns that can spew out crap (and the occasional piece of lovely) about the fandom! The indies can do it too!