Why would that be dangerous? They know me well enough to know that, even if they know of the furry fandom and the bad rap that surrounds it, I wouldn't get involved in most of it. (Heck, I don't think I'm even truly aware of all the negative stuff about it. And I'm glad to keep it that way)

The Fandom has its good sides as well as its bad sides. But, that's pretty much everything in this world. I avoid the negative side of the fandom as much as possible, and I haven't really had any problem in doing that.

And on another note, I recently changed my fursona. I'm now a Shetland Sheepdog.

Being a furry is one of those things that people will make the wildest accusations about just from the word, you never know what someone will think. That being said, I'm sure Jeff knows his friends well enough to expect if they'll judge him so harshly, not to mention he's only asking if they've heard of furries. My dad saw me posting here saying I like furry webcomics (he always seems to walk past when I'm on this particular topic) and he didn't know what I was talking about. And he's not even old!

Awesome! They're so fluffy!!!

I approve of this change!

Yay!

I have to agree with you that the fandom, like all, has its bad side and there is nothing that we can do to stop it because people are out to simply have a good time :3
The thing that bothers me about said people having a good time in their own ways is that it give the clean sides of the fandom a bad press.
But I digress, I am a total furry and I am not afraid to show it!

Heh, The way I told my family was when I drew my first bit of 'furry' art..

I'd thought they'd ask a lot of questions, but all they said was "You can't change what your into, and it's a nice picture.."

I was extremely surprised!

Anyway, I've been a furry ever since finding a furry webcomic whilst looking through cat pictures, funnily enough..

Oh, and I'd be a cat. To be more specific, i'm a Tuxedo/English Shorthair cross. Called Rook!

Huh weird I always thought "furries" (outside of art of course) were mostly people who were into the whole suit scene.
I can attest that while I am not A furry by my definition I've enjoyed the art and writting (along with some wiley characters( *you know who you are*)) ever since I was a kid.
It's really in no small part due to my love of nature, animals and the feeling it gives me to see places like Africa, India or Montana filled with life.
Or in contrast the small down to earth stuff like coming home and playing with your grumpy best friend in fuzzy pants as he tries to greet you to death.
I can't help but get misty eyed when I see life at work in all it's complexities and splendor, and I believe i'm certaintly not alone when i say this.
So maybe there should be a new term for Furry art enthusiasts or perhaps over time people will come to see the that the word is used far to broadly to accurately define what people really like or dislike.

I think the original title was "anthropomorphic fan" / "fan of anthropomorphics", which got shortened to "furry fan" until the fan part fell off to become just "furry". So technically, a fan of anthropomorphics (things having both human and animal characteristics) = a furry. I've said it before that it's a shame both society and the fans have contributed to the notion of a furry being a deviant, but it is what it is, and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Was also thinking back of past furry conventions and looking at the attendance records and WOW, furry has grown, if con attendance is any indication. MFF 2001 was (I think) around 500 people total. 2012 there were like 700 fursuiters ALONE, and about 3,200 total attendees. My math may be horribly off but if furry is seeing a %20 increase BEYOND the growth of the human population as a whole... total assimilation is inevitable. ;)

The fursuit thing is actually a later addition to the fandom. Originally that kinda thing wasn't even a furry standard.

I was thinking about telling a friend I was furry the other day when he called another friend a furry because they said they thought an animal cartoon character was cute. He was just joking but he said in such a derogatory manner I was instantly turned off the idea of telling him I was a furry. Then I asked him later what his definition of a furry (and a potential furry) was and both were a LOT less innocent than simply liking anthro stuff. So I told him I definitely wasn't a furry by his definition but I did like anthro stuff and he was like "Yeah, that's fine! Nothing wrong with that." Then the next day he saw me looking at a comic and he was like "Eh, stop looking at that furry **** man."

I love my friends.

Sounds like he's been misinformed about the fandom somehow. Maybe you could try to explain to him that being a furry is not defined necessarily by bad things. Maybe show him good examples of furry stuff in the media like in games and movies and things like that.

Agreed entirely. Usually it just takes being shown the real fandom to turn that around, assuming they aren't really immature and/or judgmental.

He is extremely immature but that's why I know he doesn't mean it. He'd totally be judgemental of anyone who does involve themselves with the bad part of the fandom but he doesn't assume it's actually true if someone says they like furry stuff. I asked if he'd be alright if I recommended some anthro stuff for him to read and he said "Yeah, that's fine." knowing that I wouldn't send him anything that was mature. Any guff he gives me is totally in jest, by his standards I'm not even a potential furry so he doesn't even feel like he needs to "save me" (his words not mine).

I'm going to show him Housepets! soon, it might not be his kind of humour but it'll show him the kind of stuff I read, although the name of the first book doesn't really help my cause...

Hopefully you can get him to see what the fandom's all about. who knows, he may actually like it.

I've been pondering whether or not I should try to get my friend more interested in the fandom. A little while back I showed him the fandom, and he seemed interested in it, and he even made a fursona. But now he seems kinda "meh" about it. :/

@ Alastair. People have different tastes and i'm sure your friend has something he's really into as well. Plus if he went through the trouble of making an "anthro-avatar" i'd say he likes it well enough.

@Nyaliva. Don't be so coy about it i'm sure he'll either take it or leave it. Houspets! comic is fairly tame and isn't trying to be anything negative ( in fact it's pretty much PG), Just put your best foot forward and show him. Besides if our generation has taught me anything it's that people are not as concerned about what is going on online and i believe the worst thing that could happen is that your friend could be "Snarky".

Take him to a convention, Alastair!

Im dragging some friends to a con with me.

I'd say it's just not something he'd consider part of his personailty, but that doesn't mean he'd shun you if you tried to get him more involved. I mean if he made his own fursona, I'm sure he'd be interested enough to get involved if you are. I'd agree with Sleet, take him to a convention if you know one that's pretty tame.

Housepets! is totally PG, which is why it'd be the first one I'd show him, and if he doesn't like it he's exactly the type to be snarky, but he wouldn't treat me any differently and I wouldn't feel put down by it. Now I just gotta wait until I see him next which could be several weeks.

Thanks for the reassurance guys!

There are plenty of PG furry comics out there to show him (though I would definitely put Housepets! there first ).

Precocious is another good choice (though I feel Housepets! has significantly more polish.)

You know, I've tried reading other web comics, but none appeal to me like Housepets! does.

They can be quite dangerous.

Especially when encountered in large numbers!

I completly agree with you, there just seems to be something more appealing (albeit simple) about Housepets! to me than other web comics.

@ Radio Blue Heart: thats hilarious i'd seen the japanese version but not THIS one!!

On the topic of webcomics, I know of one thats, okay, called Two Guys and Guy, and its only good for for one reason. There are 3 characters in it, I don't like two of them at all, but the character Frank(The goggled one) is SO GOOD. The humor with him is somewhat dark, but its smart, and what some people think Ill be like in the future. Heres a few examples:
http://www.twogag.com/archives/2558
http://www.twogag.com/archives/2638
http://www.twogag.com/archives/1705

I relate to dark humor, so I think I'll look into this comic and this character more. Haha

I'm sure I've posted this somewhere.

But on the subject of being a furry. This accurately describes me and what I went through roughly a year ago. Right down to the denial about "just being into werewolves" and a coyote fursona thing. Nowadays I'm quite open about being in the fandom. Most of my friends already know I'm a furry, I'm dating a furry, and I think a good chunk of the people I hangout with are closet furries.

Seriously like half of them make anthro animal D&D characters.

i think I'm gonna be stopping at the second panel of that comic. only semi-furry

That sounds like so many people I know.

@Radio Blue Heart: That was absolutely brilliant! Had me laughing for ages!

@The Grey Wolverine: I remember I started reading that but stopped because Frank was the only character I liked. That last strip is awesome!

@Honorable Intentions: Yeah I pretty much went through most of that. I don't really want a fursuit because they rarely look good enough, but that fact is pushing me to try designing my own one...Needless to say, I'm comfortable with it now but I haven't told most of my friends because I believe their definitions of "furry" are radically different to mine.

@RandomGeekNamedBrent: Well of course YOU can stop at the second panel, you're a shape-shifter, you could be any one of those panels you wanted!

I loved that show. They did some many funny things with fur suits. I winder if that poor fool had any idea of what was going on.

If you go to a web comic index called "The Belfry" you can set filters to get all the furry comics that they have listed.

Yup, I met a hater up close today. At school, we have this retro game club where you can bring in an NES or SNES game so you and the other people can play the games. Today, while the other guys were playing this one NES shooting game, I was watching a guy play Minecraft and when he was browsing the character skins, he came across some furry skins and said " Wow, this guy created furry skins. Ha ha, them furries and their love of I flunked middle school" in a half amused, half irritated sort of way. After hearing that, I proceeded to tell him that I have a few friends online who are furries(I'm not referring to just you guys), that they hate I flunked middle school, and that not all furries are like that. After which, he said something that I couldn't hear because of the other games obnoxiously loud bleeps and bloops, but I had a feeling that he said something negative.

Blugh, haters gonna hate. He certainly isn't making any friends by being so judgmental.

My media assistant friend was like that.
Then I got him into furry webcomics and now he knows the community isn't stereotypically creepy.

I had told one of my online friends I think he's a furry and he gotten pretty infuriated at me for doing so, anyways the gist is after he calmed down I asked him "Would you call yourself a furry if it didn't mean you would get lumped in with [those bad stereotypes?]" and he responds saying "Yeah, I guess. I do admire anthro art. It takes skill."

"CSI" did more damage to the reputation of furries than we will ever know.

But, webcomics are a good way to safely introduce people to this genre and not weord them out. That is how I discovered this fandom.

I thought the worst was MTV's Sex2K. That really led the way for the hatedom.

I'd say the same, but then I remembered one of my friends in high school was furry. So I was cool with it even before I joined the forums here.

To tell the truth, I started thinking I was a furry for all the wrong reasons before I learned better.