The author extends her most profound thanks to all who submitted questionnaires and to all who allowed an interview. Without all of you, this paper would not be possible.

Michele Dowd is a student at California State University, San Bernardino, where this paper was submitted as an assignment in an advanced writing class. She is currently working on her Liberal Arts degree.

As I open my eyes, I can't believe what I am seeing. I am in a forest. There are tall trees everywhere. That's not the difficult part to believe. As I begin to walk down the path in front of me, I pass animals, but these animals are not the cute little woodland creatures that I am used to seeing, like in the Disney movie "Bambi." These animals are cartoon characters, that is, we all are cartoon characters. That's right, I am, too. These animals that I am seeing are the size of people. They act like animals, that is, they have the mannerisms of animals. I see a wolf and he growls as another wolf approaches the female he is conversing with. They talk to each other, but they also make sounds like the animals they resemble. There are two bears walking along on all fours and they are talking. Further down the path, I look off to the left and I see a bear up on its hind legs and it looks angry. Someone must be invading its turf. But for the most part, this seems to be a peaceful place. There are all kinds of animals: wolves, bears, foxes, and even skunks. There are a few lions and tigers, as well. This is such an interesting place. One of the creatures, a vixen, approaches me and asks me what I am doing there. I tell her that I am not sure. She asks me what kind of animal I am, since I have no fur. When I look at myself more closely, I realize that I am not like the others. Yes, I am a cartoon character, a drawing, but I am in human form. I don't fit in, I don't belong . . . and then I wake up.

What was that dream all about? Why am I dreaming such strange dreams? Wait a minute I'm at the con, which is short for confurence or convention. I came with a friend to see what this whole furry fandom thing is all about. Now I remember. The first time I walked into the building, I thought that I was walking into a costume party. Everyone had animal costumes on. The costumes were made in different degrees. That is to say, some people were more hidden behind their costumes, whereas others were obviously male or female. Of course, the costumes themselves gave away some of the participants. There were quite a few costumes that completely hid the gender of the participant. These costumes were more like the costumes that the characters at Disneyland wear. The heads are large, staying in proportion with the size of the animal costume. The participants whole body is covered with fur, the costume that is, and the gender remains a mystery unless the person reveals themselves. As I look in the different rooms and check out the different areas of the con, I see some interesting things and some things that are not to my liking, at all.

For the most part, this is an interesting group of people. As with all groups, there are certain factions that stand out and make themselves more visible than the rest of the group. Something that I have seen and heard is that there is an abundance of sexual and homosexual activity, predominantly the latter, prevalent in this group of people. In one of the confurence rooms, there is a fashion show going on. Some of the participants have the cutest costumes. They look like giant stuffed animals. And then there are the other participants, who seem to be involved in this for all the sex they can get, sometimes forgetting even the gender of their partner. Some of the costumes have "openings" for genitalia, so that the participants can literally have sex while in costume. There are other participants that enjoy the furry fandom for the fantasy level only. They enjoy pretending to be someone else, or maybe representing another part of their personality by the animal that they choose to be while in character. This latter group is the one that has gotten the short end of the stick in recent years. The fandom has been represented as a predominantly homosexual group. I have been told by one participant that that is the main reason that many furries will not answer questions if asked. They are a close-knit community. Hopefully, with the help of a few furries who are willing to talk, in hopes of dispelling the bad press that they have had so far, I will be able to get the truth of the matter. So, come along with me as I venture into another world, the world of the furry fandom.

There is not a lot of history written about the furry community. George Nemeyer said, "Furries date back to pre-historic times when cavemen drew art with mixed human and animal characteristics. More recently, cultures like the ancient Egyptians and Greeks depicted human/animal creatures as gods or other mythical beings." In my research on the Internet, after many hours of searching, I found a very short history at the http://felis.org/FurryHistory/ website. Specifically, the author, Tina Smith, was defining FurryMUCK, which is a type of Multi-User Database (MUD) in which players interact with other players or objects in real time (felis.org). Ms. Smith states that FurryMUCK is the longest running MUD, as well as the largest, and it's still growing. She says that there are at least 8,000 other characters that call it home. The beginning, she says, was back in 1979, when Roy Trubshaw wrote MUD. It was a game originally with little more than a series of interconnected locations where you could move and chat. The idea behind creating MUD was to make a multi-player adventure game and to write an interpreter for a database definition language.

There were a series of MUDs that followed. Ms. Smith tells us that most people agree that TinyMUD, created by Jim Aspnes in 1989, was the first popular MUD. TinyHELL followed right after that, written by Random (Russ Smith) and Moira (Jennifer Smith) in 1989 (Random and Moira are character names). Islandia was one of the biggest. Islandia was more of a social MU, any series of Multi-User database engines that allow multiple users to communicate and interact via the Internet or other serial communications (furcen.org), rather than a role-playing one because its players were more into chatting and building. Islandia was started by Garrett in early 1990 and was around for about a year and a half. Ms. Smith tells us that there were too many users for the machine to keep up with, so the plug was pulled.

The first MUCKs that Ms. Smith tells us existed were Brigadoon, started by Wanderer and Caine in June 1990 and lasting until the winter of 1991, and Chaos, a MUCK which was started by Random and Moira, after TinyHELL , which only ran from April of 1990 until Oct. 31 of the same year. TinyMUD was the server code used until Steve White wrote TinyMUCK in March of 1990. She says that many newer versions followed, written by various authors. People wanted more realistic mechanics behind the MU, so that objects and such could be created and used in such a fashion that you could actually see them work. DisneyMUCK was the original Furry, which was worked on by both Drew Maxwell and Melissa Whitfield (Gypsy). That failed and Drew took over, wiped out the database and began again. He asked his then housemates (Ashtoreth, Centaur, and Shaterri) to help him come up with a theme and FurryMUCK was suggested by one of them. No one remembers who actually thought of it. The theme was agreed upon and Drew wanted Furry to be the union if the 'original' Furry fandom, a combination of terms, furry - of or having to do with anthropomorphics and fandom - a term for Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that describes members of that group (furcen.org, 3), who had to deal with communicating via e-mail, snailmail (regular mail, letters and stamps), fanzines, and over the Internet, stifling them; and the MUD crowd who understood high-speed role-play, but really didn't have that furry mindset the fandom people did (Smith). She then proceeds to go through the history of the Furry Fandom from 1990 until 2000, which I won't cover because that would cover the rest of my paper and then some. Feel free to check out the website and find out the rest of the history from her perspective.

According to Dr Pepper (online name), a furry is a funny animal taken seriously. Roger Rabbit, bugs bunny, and Mickey Mouse are funny animals; they are anthropomorphic, mostly behave like people, and are pretty much the cartoon equivalent of character actors. Usagi Yojimbo, Omaha the Cat Dancer, and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are furries (even though turtles don't have fur); they are even more anthropomorphic in appearance than the funny animals are, but behave like crosses between humans and animals. They are sapient, and just as much "people" as any fictional character, but they aren't represented as animals for laughs. Most furries tend towards their human aspects, their "species" is not all that important. Some are more strongly tied to the animals they are, to perhaps 'regressing' under stress (for example, Vincent on "Beauty and the Beast," who is perhaps the 'furriest' creature known to audiences-a nonhuman, animalistic character portrayed in a fairly realistic manner) (furry.com, 1). If you ask Rob Staeger what a furry is he'll tell you that furry characters are anthropomorphic creatures. He mentions Usaji Yojimbo, a samurai rabbit created by Stan Sakai, and Shanda the Panda, a modern single-girl panda by Mike Curtis. He also mentions that not all furry stories are escapist fantasy. He cites the example of Art Spiegelman, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Maus, a wrenching depiction of the Nazi holocaust, using mice to depict the Jews and cats as Nazis (xydexx.com, 1). Another description that I got for a furry was this: there are two sides to the word "furry". The fiction, and the fan. The author of this webpage agrees with the other two definitions on the technical side, but enlarges the definition to include some that look completely human with the exception of a pair of ears and a tail (most commonly found in manga and anime, types of art). The author goes on to say that furry might also be referring to the fan of the characters that have been described. But not just any fan, in describing someone as "furry" you are usually talking about someone who not only enjoys the art, but also identifies with the phenomena personally, and any characters they might have on a MUCK or conventional role-playing game. An extreme of "being furry" is the controversial furry lifestyle (a lifestyle that is marked by behaviors that are animal-like -i.e. purring, stalking)(home.webuniverse, 1). Now that we have gotten a fair description of what a furry is, I want to tell you some of the things that I found out when I asked some questions of the SoCal Furs, an online group my son belongs to on Yahoo.com©.

Question 1: What is/are your furry names?

One person requested that his name be withheld, so I will refer to him, as Anonymous and one other person that I interviewed didn't have a furry character, so he said just to call him by his given name, Chris Sawyer. There were many others. Their furry names are cat, Psahro, Lavender (aka Catty), Tiberius Wolf, Artimus Foxx, Showtime, norenxaq, T. (Timm) Woolfe, Pantheress, Lupinetiger, Mystee, Kiyo Fox, Wolfwings, Trace, HunterKitty, Mayhem, Crassus, Tess theredpony or simply theredpony, Delariand, Kensan (who was named Matisha, and has a puppet named Darleena), and CatSkills. The names are suggestive of the characters they portray, or in one specific case, the people that they are. There was one person who responded who referred to himself as a lifestyler, who said that his "furriness" is more a Sociopolitical and spiritual thing and has nothing to do with fannish things (cat, 1).

Question 2: How old are you?

Now you might think that the people who participate in the fandom are all young, irresponsible, bored, useless, and any other terms that would indicate a lazy personality (not that young means lazy, it doesn't, not to me anyway). The people who responded to the survey ranged in age from 17 to 66 years of age.

Question 3: How many fursonas do you have?

Fursonas are the online furry characters that they use when participating in online chat, role-play, or however they define their participation online. The number of fursonas ranged from none (cat - the lifestyler who doesn't consider his furry personality separate from his RL, real life, personality) all the way up to five (Mystee - but three of them she doesn't talk to anymore) and then there's Trace, who has more than ten. An interesting answer came from Lupinetiger who said that it depends. How many do shapeshifters have? Another interesting answer came from Kensan who said that she has 1 ˝ fursonas.

Question 4: How long have you been in the fandom and how long do you plan to be a furry?

This question received some very interesting answers, ranging from a couple of weeks to 12 years. Then there were some people who said that they have always been furry and plan to be furry even after death. This is a very interesting group of people. I think that some of them are very intense, but that's cool, it's good to be intense about something. This just happens to be their thing. One answer that I really liked I would like to share in its entirety. It came from Crassus, who said:

First, I wanna clarify, "being furry" and "being in furry fandom" are two very, very different subjects. Most people get the two confused as they're used interchangeably, and most people don't realize there's a difference, but I've given lots of thought to this, so I'll try and see if I can convey it properly:

"Being Furry" . . . I've been furry since I can remember. What does it mean to be furry? It means that you personally identify yourself (possibly from toddlerhood) with what the fans just like to see and read about. It's more of a role-playing concept: "being" means to be one, yourself, whether that means thinking you're a dragon (hear 2's rant on the subject), or just liking the idea that in some fantasy world, you could be one yourself. Personal identification with furries usually means you like to meow occasionally or like to be pet or scratched, or just viewing yourself *as* your character walking down the street. I basically think it's humanity's way of giving one's self an ego boost that's sometimes needed to get through life a little happier. I've always enjoyed furries since I was a kid: Tom and Jerry, Battlecat from He-Man, Disney's Robin Hood, etc., etc., etc. I personally never consciously identified myself with my character until I learned about the furry fandom, but that's a whole other story.

"Furry Fandom" you can compare to Sci-Fi Fandom or Anime Fandom. The term Fandom isn't a furry term, but more of a "trekkie" term used by all sorts of people who enjoy something or other. You could even be a part pf "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fandom" if you chose to call it that. Fandom is basically the (semi) organized collective of furry fans who like to participate in online activities, conventions, furmeets, etc.

So, in conclusion, when you ask "how long do you plan to be a furry", I'm guessing you're actually asking "How long do you plan to be in the fandom and associate yourself with this crazy bunch before you grow up and become a responsible adult?". Which is fine to ask J. Most people think that someone can't enjoy a normal, responsible life while being associated with a fantasy group or an RPG club, or even Renaissance Faire. Believe me, there's people in their 50's and 60's still attending Ren Faire and they're doin' fine. I do this furry gig as a hobby and a major pass-time. I personally identify with my character, because I personally think it would be kick-ass to be an anthro lion with a mane and stuff, but it doesn't mean I don't realize my value as a human in society.

i.e. I plan to be in it indefinitely (1-2)

Another interesting reply came from cat, who said that he had never been a fan and never will be. He said that he would most likely cease being a fur when he dies (if then) (1).

Question 5: What constitutes being furry?

The answers for this question cover quite a large span of ideas. cat said that what makes him a Fur " is a lifelong species dyspora and a strong animal connection via my religion." (1-2) (I'm not sure what dyspora is; however, I looked in a dictionary and found the word dysphoria, which means, " An emotional state characterized by anxiety, depression, and restlessness. [New Latin, from Greek dusphoria, distress, from dusphoros, hard to bear: DYS- + -PHOROUS.]) (The New Book of Knowledge Dictionary, p.407). Some other answers were as simple as: a love for animals, an affinity for and with animals, simply having a fursona, and wanting to be an animal. For Tess, "A Furry is someone who role plays as an Anthropomorphic animal/human morph or hybrid persona. Often they would literally like to be that animal being in real life. A Furry also connects with animals on a spiritual level and may have an animal spirit guide (2). Lupinetiger said, "Depends on where you stand, could be from loving the stories you read as a kid, various myths and legends from different cultures. Liking science fiction/fantasy (lots of anthropomorphic/talking creatures there) books, being your totem animal [an animal on a totem pole, which is "a pole or post carved and painted with totems (among primitive peoples, an animal or natural object considered as being related by blood to a given family or clan and taken as its symbol) (Webster's, p.1502)], etc, it can come from anywhere and you might take notice of it at any time of your life (1)."

Question 6: How did you get involved in the fandom and what was your motivation for joining it?

Again, the answers varied quite a bit. Some of the answers were: a Sci-fi art CD; my lover was involved in it; a high school friend; just showed up, no "joining" involved; found some furry art on the web; and T. Woolfe said, "Timm (Woolfe) started as a mucking persona after I got semi-disabled. He was/is all the things that I could no longer be or wished I was (1)."

Question 7: What is appealing to you about being furry?

Without a doubt, the most common answer to this question was the fact that furries are very accepting. They are a live and let live group. Wolfwings said that you can have a gay fur, a Christian fur, and an agnostic fur all sitting at the same table, talking and not arguing, but having a pleasant conversation (personal interview).

Question 8: Have you ever been to a "con"?

Most of the furs I spoke to personally have been to a "con" and so had most of the furs that responded to my survey online. Wolfwings has been to a total of almost twenty, is on staff at three, and is a volunteer at two more. Kensan was the head of the Information Booth for two years. Crassus was on staff for ConFurence 10, 11, and 13, and was the webmaster twice. [Crassus also informed me that the term "conference" is misleading. He said that convention is the proper term and the only reason why "conference" is sometimes used is because the first furry convention was wittfully titled ConFurence (2).] Chris Sawyer said that he has been to all the conventions, except the first four and many more back east (personal interview).

Question 9: What is your profession and level of education?

According to those surveyed, education levels go all the way from high school student to college graduate with a PhD. Some of the given professions are: owning a motion picture SP/FX (special effects) company, web designer, graphic designer/ programmer, housewife and furry herder, and writer.

Question 10: Where do you live?

Most of the furs that I surveyed live in California. The majority were from the SoCal Furs list, so, it makes sense. However, there was one survey that came in from Texas. It was from Lavender, a fur that my son chats with online.

Question 11: What other hobbies do you have?

This question generated one very interesting response, that is, a general response that came from different sources. Some of the respondents said "Other hobbies?" which was indicative of the reasons that the specific person is a part of the furry culture. Those who questioned my question indicated to me that being furry was not a "hobby" with them, but rather a facet of who they are. Some of those surveyed just answered the question with different types of hobbies. Some of them were: photography, Renaissance Faire, sculpt and paint miniature figures, write, draw, surfing, taking bobbin lace classes, canoeing, roller skate, shopping, actively compose/perform music, playing video games, voiceovers, numismatics, rock climbing, Disc golf (like golf, but with sort of Frisbees), reading books on physics, low stakes gambling, going to the movies, motorcycling, and skateboarding. They are just a bunch of "average" people, nothing bizarre about any of them.

Question 12: What characteristics do your fursonas have?
AND
Question 13: Are they similar to you? In what ways?

Most people answered this one by saying that their characters are a lot like them. There were those who stated that they became more like their character as time passed. For example, Crassus said that his character "has always been a rather obnoxious yet lovable bad-ass lion" and that he was not the same as his character at first, but he is glad to say that he feels that he gained the confidence of his fursona (3)." cat said that there is no difference between his character and himself. "I am me 24/7/365 (366 in leap year) (2)." Kensan's character is "Female, coy, deer, polite." Which is very alike, in behavior, to himself, but he's not female (2). Delariand said that his character is "bouncy, cute, childish, and a little feminine." He also said that he created his character with a similar body type as his own, but said that "his personality is basically how I would act if I wasn't afraid of what people thought of me (2)."

Question 14: Have you seen the MTV Sex 2K special about "furries"? If so, do you think that it is representative of the fandom? Why or why not?

The answer to this question was almost a unanimous "NO". There were three answers that I would like to mention specifically. Mayhem's answer was disturbing: "I only saw part of it and I didn't like it, so I didn't watch it. Then at school, someone saw me drawing a furry and asked if that was one of those 'porn animals called a furry'. Then he proceeded to explain to everyone that furries are people who dress up in fursuits and have sex with plushies (stuffed animals). I'm dead serious (1)." Tiberius Wolf said, " It's not entirely representative of the fandom to me, but I feel it represents it more than most furries will admit. I think it failed to make a few distinctions, such as, not all furries are fursuiters and not all fursuiters are furries. Also, not all furries are gay men and not all furries are into the sexual side of the fandom. Other than that, I feel it was a good look at the fandom, if a bit sensationalistic (1)." And finally, Lupinetiger said,
"I have seen the special and was surprised they only did a half an hour thing on it and mainly focused it on sex and kinks. When it finished, I was wondering how come they didn't tell anything else about it, still kinda erky thinking about it. On one side, it wasn't prepared right, on the other, it was just a video journal on one person's point of view of what furry was and added other things to show how weird it could be. A good idea is to think of this subculture like as if it was a star trek fandom, minus the major sci-fi stuff (there still is that in this subculture) and add some more fur to the people, and more nature and magic into it, stir well, wait for the fur to, umm, anyways. That special was from one person's pov (point of view) and the director seeing how he can make it 'kinky' (someone told us who made it and their website is just, well, let's say, real bondage and ropes very tight), not my cup of tea *shudder* (2)."

For the most part, it seemed very sensationalistic to me. Wolfwings, Hunter, Trace, and Chris all agreed with the idea that it was just sensationalism, the director trying to sell his video. After all, sex sells.

(I skipped Question 15 because I was unable to find a copy of the Vanity Fair article that started such a furor in the furry community and I didn't think it would be right to address the issue when I was unable to read the article myself.)

Question 16: In your opinion, why is there such a focus on erotic art within the fandom?

The majority felt that there is no more of a focus on eroticism in the furry community than there is with us mundanes (non-furs).

Question 17: What does your family think about you being involved in the fandom?

Many of the people that I surveyed said that their families are unaware that they are involved in the furry fandom. Tess said that her family is "clueless." My Anonymous participant said, "I don't think they know any such thing exists. They've always kind if known I have a strange animal obsession, but they might not know how deeply it runs. They patiently endured my decorations and facepainting habits while I lived at home, but might be shocked if they understood how my mind works. Or maybe they're not as blind as I suppose, and understand more than I suspect. It would explain why I receive more animal-oriented gifts than not (2)."

Maybe the families of some of the furs are aware of their relative's furriness, but accept it as a part of who they are. I never thought of my son as being weird or twisted. He has liked drawing animals, anthropomorphs I should say, since he was very young.

Question 18: How long are you online role-playing daily? Weekly?

The answers to this one varied from, "I don't enjoy role-playing, at all." all the way up to 35 hours a week. Many of the respondents said that they don't role-play all that much, but they chat a lot. Hunter said that he is online "infinitely" because of his job and since he is online anyway, he chats with his furry friends. Trace is online 24/7. He and Hunter have one phone line that is dedicated to the Internet 24/7. Hunter said that his cell phone is the house phone.

Question 19: Are you married/single/straight/gay/etc.?

Of the 23 people that I surveyed: 20 are single, one is married, one is divorced, and one is a widower. Their sexual orientations are as follows: 13 straight, 7 bisexual, and three gay. So, in spite of what some people would have the public think of the furry community, there are furries that are straight.

Question 20: How big a part of your life is the fandom?

Answers to this question range from "Not big at all" to the answer that Hunter gave, "90 to 100 per cent."

***Question 21: Do "reality" and being furry ever "blur"?

This was a question that I asked only two of the furries that I spoke to, Trace and Hunter. Trace's answer was very interesting. It went like this:
"I think that I can actually answer that with an example. About ten, fifteen years back, there was the exact same reaction about the sub- culture that evolved around role-playing games. In specific, Dungeons and Dragons©. Due to major propaganda media, for lack of a better term, from various Christian organizations, the mainstream culture thought that role-playing and Dungeons and Dragons© was a demonic cult. Nobody knew what was really happening. Everyone the only thing they knew about it, the only thing they had any information about, was all the propa- ganda that DnD is a pathway to Satan, that Dungeons and Dragons© players are all Satan worshippers. I think we're seeing a parallel of that phenomenon here with furry culture. In that, the only mainstream media representations that furry fandom has really had have all been "spin" stories. They've all been sensationalism stories and each one of 'em focuses on one extreme aspect or another that furry fandom has, that, if you look at, if you look for it, mainstream culture also has those extremes. So, I think what it is, is that people just they don't know enough. All they're seeing is one side of the story (personal interview)."

I would have to agree with Trace. It seems to me that most people are only seeing one side of the story and judging the whole furry culture by that one small aspect of it.

Tess invited my son and I to go to Rick's Place and meet some furs and maybe interview some of them, in person. My son, Psahro, and I, got in the car and headed west to visit Rick's Place. I found out that, in order to go to this gathering, there must be a personal invitation issued. I felt very privileged to be going because Tess knew that I wasn't a fur and invited me anyway, to help me with my research. I was expecting to arrive at a nightclub or something resembling a nightclub. However, we arrived in a residential area, houses and apartments, no businesses, and then found the correct address. It turns out that Rick's Place is exactly that. It's the place that Rick and Tess live, their home. I was nervous, but the people that I could see through the windows looked very "normal." Two young men answered our knock and we asked for Tess. In a very friendly manner, we were invited in and one of them went off to find her. This gathering looked not a lot different from a gathering at my house. There was a table piled high with food in the dining area and people sitting throughout the house having conversations. One main difference was the topic of each conversation. For the most part, the conversations were all about furry culture, in one aspect or another. When I first walked in, I just stood near the door, not sure where to go or who to talk to and Kensan came up and introduced himself. It was good to be able to put a face with the name. Tess and Rick came and talked to me, as well, and told me some things about themselves and fur conventions. Rick told me about things that go on at a convention. He said that there are costume judging contests, one of which is called "Hall Costuming." The participants put on whatever fursuit that they want to be judged and walk around the halls and receive prizes. Rick is a font of knowledge and I wish that I had interviewed him, but I didn't. Tess told me that Rick is an engineer and needs to keep things in order, so he came up with "The Rules of Rick's Café". I think that the second rule is the most important one, "Don't piss off the Red Pony (aka Tess)." Rick is not a fur, but I am told he is fur friendly, which is not difficult to see. Their house is full, about 28 people, and he does not have a problem with any of it. There is butcher paper taped to the walls in the hallway for artists to draw, if they so desire. My son, the artist, heads for the hallway.

As Kensan began to talk to me, I remembered that I had my tape recorder in my backpack and headed into the bedroom to get it. When I came back, the search began for a place that I could "record" without recording other people who did not want to be recorded. I ended up outside by the hot tub. Tess said that the tub doesn't usually open until about 11 o'clock PM and it was still early. Another thing that Tess mentioned was the fact that clothing is optional in the hot tub. So I decided that when the hot tub was opened I would close up shop and head inside.

Wolfwings was my first volunteer. I was very thankful for his willingness to be interviewed because it paved the way for others to come and be interviewed. Wolfwings is a second generation furry. His mother is a fur, too, but wasn't there that night. He answered my questions without hesitation and was always around when I needed help with something, specifically, the digital camera. I was having trouble taking a picture of Tess because it was dark outside and the lighting was giving me trouble. Wolfwings was called and came to help me take the picture. After I interviewed Wolfwings, Hunter and Trace came and asked if they could be interviewed. Hunter, aka HunterKitty, and Trace are life partners. They are both very interesting people and I wish that I had the time to write out their complete interviews. They are both very entertaining and very intelligent, which is a pattern that I have found in my research. The furries that I have been introduced to, whether online or in person, are all interesting, intelligent, and very fun people to hang around with.

Another person that I interviewed was Chris Sawyer. He doesn't have an online name or a furry character. He said that there are enough Chris Sawyers online that he's not concerned about anyone knowing which Chris Sawyer he is. Chris had more of a serious nature, but friendly. He was more than willing to help me out with my research.

Unfortunately, it was getting late for me, about 11 o'clock and Psahro and I were supposed to be getting up early the next morning. Home was about one hour away, so we had to leave. All in all, it was a very interesting experience. I enjoyed the chance to get to know some of the people involved in furry fandom.

This was an interesting subculture to research. I never imagined the scope of the whole thing. The different facets of the furry fandom are various and as varied as people in mainstream society. There is no specific personality type, that I can see, that fits a "profile" for a person to be furry. This has been a fascinating "trip" for me. I began, having no idea where I was going and no idea where I would end up, but wanting to make this trip just the same. Due to some very kind, understanding, interesting, fun, intelligent, and helpful people, it has been a good trip. I have learned a lot and yet, I feel like I have only scratched (no pun intended) the surface, of all that the furry fandom is. I hope that you have enjoyed the trip as much as I have and hope that you will take a trip into the furry fandom one day and let me come along with you. And now, my trip is over, I am very, very, tired as I drift off to sleep, I begin to see a forest.

As a parting note, I (Psahro) would like to extend my thanks to all the furs, non-furs, and fur-friendlies who aided my mother in her research. Thanks to all of you who welcomed her curiosity and honest searching with answers and acceptance her paper has actually enlightened several of her classmates who, prior to the paper, thought of us as nothing more than a group that shared in a form of kink or strange, deviant behavior.

While no one paper will ever truly change the world and allow furs to be accepted, each honest look at this sub-culture moves us one step closer to the necessary change.

Once again, you all have my sincerest thanks and apologies for any trouble I may have caused.

- Psahro