u/AChaoticCollie

Even though I can't remember the exact day that well (my memory can be crap sometimes), I do know that in August 2021 was the month I joined the furry fandom. Funny, this whole time I thought it would be six years, but my math wasn't mathing right with 2026 minus 2021.

I thought it would be cool to give the nice poorly explained story on my introduction to the fandom. I've typed this story before hand, but I don't remember sharing here. If I did - oh, well.

*AHEM* My name is Walter Hartwell White. I live at 308 Negra Arroyo Lane, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87104. This is my confession…

Kidding, kidding! Here’s the story…

It was back in eighth grade when I was sitting with a couple of students I used to hang with during lunch when one of them started mentioning the furry fandom. I don't remember much of that conversation, but it got me curious, for at the time, I didn't know much about the fandom. So I did what I do best and went to the most trusted site for information: YouTube. I typed the word "furry" on the search bar...and so my journey began.

The first video that popped up was a video about some dude going to a furry convention. I didn't watch it, only looked at the thumbnail - which was him hugging a fursuiter with a terrified look on his face. I scrolled past it and then I came across what would be my first furry YouTube video:  "The 9 Levels of Being a Furry" by the youtuber named BetaEtaDelota. Now, I don't know why that video interested me in watching it, but it did. It was a video explaining the "levels of being a furry", via a dante inferno method, or something.

After watching  the video from start to finish, I decided to check some other videos on his channel, which is where I came across some of his informational videos on furry topics (which is the kind of videos I was looking for to begin with). I watched some, along with some videos from other channels I can't seem to remember the names of. It was then I knew I fell in a rabbit hole of some kind. Suddenly, a good 20% of my youtube recommendations were videos about the fandom, and of course I watched them. Some time passed, and I discovered furry artists such as Zillion Ross, and others. I fell in love with the art aspect of the furry fandom almost immediately. The designs, the expressions, the colors, everything about it got me hooked. As someone who already loved to draw, I was in awe.

Months would go by and I would've watched and seen probably a good dozen or so of videos and art pieces. I learned about the support towards the lgbtq community, the music artists, streamers, etc. Of course I did eventually learn about some reasons why some people hate the fandom, but what fandom out there doesn’t have hate towards it? So, to make a somewhat long, probably confusing story short, in August of 2021, I joined the fandom.

In the 5 years, I have/had five fursonas. A protogen (Name is Vizio – who I gave to a friend), a fox (Flick – average as heck), a nameless wolf (he had a cool garchomp inspired fur colors & pattern), another fox (Pix – still average, but he had some blue fur accents. Some of the sketches I made for him are currently personal lost media). Pix was eventually reworked to my current and permanent fursona, Pix the Border Collie. 

The first piece of furry art i made.