Hello, I’m a Furry. Do You Think I’m Cute?

By Neven Humphrey

From past articles, you know that I love to travel, and I also took part in sports for the visually impaired. But there’s another hobby that I love to do; and that is walking around in an animal costume and making people happy. Yes, I’m a furry!

But what is a furry? A furry is a fan of all things anthropomorphic, i.e. where animals walk and talk like humans, such as in cartoons, animated TV shows or movies. A furry will take on a nickname (or furname) and choose an animal, either real or imagined, with which they’d like to be associated with. And contrary to popular belief, only one-third of furries actually have a costume (or fursuit), since fursuits are quite expensive. Indeed, a simple one can set you back at least $3,000! So, most furries just put on a pair of animal ears and/or a tail.

The furry concept has been around for millennia; from animal-headed gods to Aesop’s fables. During the Victorian period, many authors, like Rudyard Kipling, used talking animals in their stories. Later, just after WW1, a will to return to innocence inspired animal stories, such as Felix Salten’s ‘Bambi’. And after the second World War with the arrival of TV and the increasing popularity of animated movies, more people were inspired to write stories featuring animal characters.

The furry movement itself started with fans of science-fiction in the 1950’s. When, in the 1960’s, Japanese animated series, or anime, started being shown on TV in North America, it created a rift within the sci-fi community, with many members forming separate anime clubs. Since many of these Japanese series had talking animals, it created its own minor club for those who liked cartoons with talking animals. And not just Japanese, but also those made by Hanna-Barbera, Warner Brothers, and Disney.

And speaking of Disney: many say that the 1973 movie ‘Robin Hood’, with humans portrayed as animals, was the true launchpad for the furry fandom. Inspired by this movie and other talking-animal media, some tried to sew together costumes of their favourite characters or animals. Also, with the advent of the computer age in the 1980’s, furries started communicating with each other, using primitive messaging boards, In January 1989, the first furry convention, (ConFurence Zero) was held at the Holiday Inn Bristol Plaza in Costa Mesa, California. And while only 65 furries attended, the fuse had been lit; and within a few years, there were furry conventions all over the United States. The first Canadian furry convention was in Toronto in 2010; and since then, furry conventions have been held all over the world.

And now, for me. Since my teen-age years, I’ve been a big lover of animals, especially foxes and wolves. I’d buy books and magazines on animals, collect animal photos, and get involved with animal causes. And it was the cause of wolves being massacred in British Columbia that brought me to write my first novel, ‘To Save a Wolf’, published in 2000.

In 2003, I discovered the online cartoon Faux Pas©. Created by Americans Robert and Margaret Carspecken, it’s the adventures of two red foxes, named Randy and Cindy, and their friends, living in a huge barn. The Carspeckens called themselves ‘furries’, as they were drawing cartoon animals. And investigating the term, I discovered that it also applied to people who wrote stories featuring walking and talking animals. Thus, I’m officially a furry. But were there others near where I stayed? Hard to say.

But then, in March 2017, a friend of mine asked me to help him at his table at the Ottawa Geek Market, a sci-fi event at the Nepean Sportsplex. Amid the tables selling sci-fi books and other materials, there was a display advertising an event called CanFURence. I inquired and was told that it was an event for people who drew, or just liked, cartoon animals. Seeing a potential market for some of my books, I picked up their information, and later registered online for the next conference, in November.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sell any books at that (and any subsequent) conference; apparently, the attendees preferred buying art and fursuit accessories. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun there, taking part in various activities, and talking to, and photographing fursuiters. I even bought myself a big fake-fur fox tail and gave myself the furname Dr. Softpaws. And after the conference, I joined the local furry chapter, called the Ottawa Furs, going to meetings every Thursday evening at a local mall.

However, not everyone in my family was as enthusiastic about my new passion. While my sister Dani, (who has visited sci-fi and anime events before), was perfectly okay with it, my other sister said that I was playing a ‘dangerous game’, and that I would ‘wind up beaten up and left for dead in a dark alley somewhere’. As for my mother, she was incensed that I was associating with, as she said it, ‘clowns who walked around, mocking animals’. (She did apologize later, saying that she was afraid that my association with the furry fandom would deter potential employers from hiring me.)

Now, I temporarily did remove any online association with the furry fandom, but I wasn’t going to quit it. Indeed, I put together my own fursuit, including buying a used huge fox head. A few months later, I attended CanFURence again, even hosting there a panel on writing. And the year after, I went to Toronto to attend a furry event called Furnal Equinox.

I’ve gone to events such as G-Anime and Ottawa Capital Pride as Dr. Softpaws for many years, as well as walked through many areas in Ottawa and Gatineau in that fursuit. But last year, after I determined that my fox fursuit was now too damaged to wear anymore, I bought a new one: Minxissar the Mink. And I’ve been wearing Minxissar since last April.

And I’m planning to remain a furry until I can’t anymore!

If you’d like to learn more neat facts about furries, I have written on the subject for my book, ‘Tales of Conscience: Part 2’ . You can request a free copy by emailing drsoftpaws2017@gmail.com