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Reflections on Mephit 2000
This was my first fur meet/convention. Although I had been lurking in
the shadows of the Internet for years, I had decided that I needed contact
with other furries. There were about 400 furries at the fur meet,
filling up the hotel, except for top floor that was reserved for a wedding.
I managed to book a room at a hotel on the other side of the highway.
Upon arriving late Friday night, as I approached the hotel, I saw the
silhouette of a human face with cat ears looking out at me, from the second floor.
I joined the back of a crowd of furries, as I listened with interest as
uncle Kage, described a bone marrow transplant in comically graphic detail.
The next morning I bought a tail from Bushy Kat. I rescued a kangaroo plushie
from a demented hallmark lady who thought I was Australian because I was interested
in her kangaroo stuff. (I swear I was not using my fake aussie accent either.)
I attended a SIG on fursuit design, and spent the weekend with fox and kangaroo
furries. One of the best parts of being furry, is the caring altruistic culture.
Furries are family. I greatly appreciated being able to step out of the cold world
of agendas, ego wars, materialism, greed, hatred, and attitudes.
I could relax with furry friends to scritch and chat, who just enjoyed being happy together.
Scritching is a way of validating, and showing care and concern, unity with other furries.
I spent much time just enjoying the company of other furs.
Several times over the weekend I would jog back and forth over the bridge and across two highway ramps between the two hotels (mine being across from a cemetary), wearing a kangaroo tail, a backpack, and carrying a stuffed kangaroo. The irony of this was not lost on me, I imagined the headlines in "news of the weird" if I was to be run over: "Man dressed as furry animal, becomes roadkill, trying to get to the other side" As I hopped toward the elevator, I passed a small boy and his mother. The kid looked at my tail and then commented to his mother "Look how long his tail is!", "Is that a real tail?", the elevator door closed before I could hear the mothers response. I can only imagine the thoughts of the hotel staff as I came hopping in at 4am smiling and bouncy, with my tail hanging out, as if it was the most normal thing in the world at that hour.
Some of my favorite moments were the fur dance, the paw pets show ("throw her out the window...the window"), and a spontaneous moment I sat entranced in the hallway where Brody sang and played the guitar, while BJ Buttons mouthed the words with his fox paw puppet ("I am an astronaut" - I loved that song). On, one evening, 14 of us went to a bar next door, to snack and chat, as we looked out the window we saw about a dozen more furries comming, though they didn't stay, probably due to the loud band. I watched some films of previous furry cons/meets, in one memorable scene someone opened a hotel door and found 40 furs in a room watching tv. This was similar to my experience in the movie room, we kept making room as more furs arrived to watch movies. Another neat thing about furries is no one tries to hog all the space, we are all comfortable with each other, so we make room for as many as we need. At genetics SIG I listened as the SIG leader talked about tails balancing out the rest of the body, but I felt my jaw drop when, to make the point he used the example of "If we cut off a Kangaroos tail....". Even though it only lasted Friday to Sunday, with last minute socializing on monday, so much had happened, it felt like a month had passed. I left happy, content, and proud to be furry.
