Location: Virtual Desk, Givenchi Skyloft
by Guest Writer Tenchi Morigi

Iggy’s Note: This topic is so good we’ll make a two-course meal out of it. Thanks, Tenchi!

A friend of mine wrote about his SL experience: “I especially like the furries . They are so cute that you simply have to believe them everything.“ I find this to be a common reaction to furries yet I do not think that it does not pay respect to the full extend of the furrydom in SL and in general.

Most people have a very clear picture in mind when talking about a furry. They usually think of the comic-like characters that have a cute design by deformation of proportions and overemphasizing the cuteness by colour and other body features (like Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse or even the Roadrunner). But this is only a small part of the whole. The furryfandom is subdivided into several subgroups like the were animals (wolves, bears and lots of other animals depending on the cultural context) or the animals with an attached personality and human behaviour which includes several mythological figures ranging from minotaurs to dragons and more…

Why is that? Quite simple. Pop culture reduces the furrydom to the anime-and-manga characters that are widely popular at the moment. The fandom defines itself in a broader way though. The original idea of the furrydom is the interest in anthropomorphic animals which means to attach human behaviour and characteristics to animals.

As most of you know from an earlier blog of Iggy’s I am on the prowl as a furry in SL myself. I chose a form as a were tiger keeping as much of my human “self” while being transformed. I guess I am to sentimental about my “real” form to distort it to far or I simply want to set a contra point to the dominant cute furries that you will find in SL.

Being a tiger implies power and danger to those approaching me and so people tend to treat me differently when they do not know me well ... ok having huge paws and claws and those wrist blades are unmistakable signs yet I do not change my personality a lot except that I tend to pounce unsuspecting victims (Pappy has a story to tell about this one)...

Footnote by Pappy: I ain’t a-touchin’ that wun agin’ wif a hunnered-foot pole.  Miz Tenchi dun pounced, an’ clobbered, n’ left uncornshush this po’ feller wunce, wen I wuz in fuzzy-wuzzy format…as a po’ raccoon. I still cain’t walk rite tuday on account o’ that pouncin’...

To be continued…

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