Animals And Furries

I wonder what dogs make of furries walking around in collars and leashes. I wonder what foxes think when they see a furry walking around in an over-sized strap-on fox tail.

And I wonder if certain animals have anthro parties where they act as humans and walk on all twos (thanks blacksnip , I think, for this image).

Animals And Furries

I wonder what dogs make of furries walking around in collars and leashes. I wonder what foxes think when they see a furry walking around in an over-sized strap-on fox tail.

And I wonder if certain animals have anthro parties where they act as humans and walk on all twos (thanks blacksnip , I think, for this image).

The Tenth Anniversary London Meet

Ten years is a long time and it's hard to believe that organised furriness in the UK has been going for over a decade. I can't think of anything whistful that happened in 1999 so I won't do a nostalgia piece, but it's fair to say that the furry community has been going from strength to strength in that time.

To celebrate, there was a special after meet party at Jamie's Bar, at City Thameslink, just around the corner from traditional bar, The Saint. There, the fantastic LF committee laid on free chocolate cake, coffee cake and biscuits. Champagne was going around (although I never got any *cries*) and there was a five hour musical bonanza from a selection of furry DJs, all playing tunes above a giant LondonFurs banner. At one point, the furfaggiest rainbow cake appeared, with each sponge layer having a different flavour. It was an impressive piece of workmanship.

The London Fur Meets have become significantly more inclusive since the new committee took over. I think The Saint is conducive to this as it's an open, airy bar with a large outside area, making mingling very easy. The staff are friendly and although the toilets are not the most pleasant, the executive ones on Paternoster Square that slinkat  showed me, allowed holes to be unbunged in luxury.

It was great catching up with some of my dearest friends again - particularly londonwolf , alfafox , blacksnip , slinkat  and gothicat . The five hours I spent in The Saint passed very quickly and it was another fantastic triumph for the London fur meet organisers.

After a quick trip to McDonald's, where I was stared at considerably for wearing a dog collar, Wolfie and I headed back to Jamie's Bar for the party. It started in the same vein as how The Saint had ended and I had a fascinating discussion about bridles, potentially revealing too much about my deepest desires. Still, it made people laugh so who cares?

Whether it was excessive drinking or tiredness I am not too sure, but as the night wore on, I found it more and more difficult to talk to people. There was far less mingling going on and a lot of my friends had gone suiting, meaning that I needed to scout around for other people to talk to. However, most people had fractioned off into cliques and it was very difficult to approach people and get talking to them if you didn't know them. I am hardly the shyest person when it comes to social interaction but the feeling I started to have was akin to that at the London Furmeets two years ago when it was almost impossible to make new friends. After all, it's very difficult gatecrashing a group who already know each other.

I have only been to six London Meets, so I hardly know vast swathes of the Southern contingent. However, I still feel that when it comes to meeting new people, it is far easier to do it in the North, where the meets are generally smaller (which helps) and people seem to be a little more open and friendly. That's my perception anyway and I know I am not alone in that view.

Another thing that didn't help is the music. I accept that most furries have wildly different musical tastes to me but I don't understand why furry DJ events can't be more varied. After a promising opening of indie music, there was four hours of relentless techno. This alienated a sizeable number of furs, who simply do not like that type of music. In fact, for some, like myself, it just gives us headaches. I accept it may be a good thing to dance to in fursuit but judging by the number of people on the dance floor, I think that the musical offerings only catered to a fraction of the number of people there (I think a maxmium of 20% of furs made it on to the dancefloor and on occasions less than 10 people were on it). I'm not saying do away with techno altogether - I accept its popularity - but why not mix it up with other musical genres? Even a bit of cheese would have gone down well and I would hazard a guess that more people like cheese than techno.

Still, maybe I will just have to accept that these events aren't for me. Jamie's Bar was very much like the last London After-Show Party I went to, one of the RBW ones in the City Golf Bar back in March 2008. I left that one at 9pm because I was bored and almost did the same again on Saturday. Thankfully I didn't as I ended up having in-depth and rather beautiful conversations with Spade, lsfiox 's mate, gothicat  and itstheoutkast , but I am unsure whether I will go to any After-Show Parties again. I think the Meet itself is often enough and the simple fact is that they just don't cater for what I am into.

Apart from those minor gripes though, it's fair to say that the meet was a success. I made a few new friends - particularly BearNoiz and Tameli from Twitterland - and through them I met new people too. Some of the conversations I had were extremely interesting and I feel I also solidified many other friendships too. I don't know when my next London Meet will be but hopefully it will be in the near future - congratulations to the Meet staff for a well-organised event and here's to the next ten years.

The Tenth Anniversary London Meet

Ten years is a long time and it's hard to believe that organised furriness in the UK has been going for over a decade. I can't think of anything whistful that happened in 1999 so I won't do a nostalgia piece, but it's fair to say that the furry community has been going from strength to strength in that time.

To celebrate, there was a special after meet party at Jamie's Bar, at City Thameslink, just around the corner from traditional bar, The Saint. There, the fantastic LF committee laid on free chocolate cake, coffee cake and biscuits. Champagne was going around (although I never got any *cries*) and there was a five hour musical bonanza from a selection of furry DJs, all playing tunes above a giant LondonFurs banner. At one point, the furfaggiest rainbow cake appeared, with each sponge layer having a different flavour. It was an impressive piece of workmanship.

The London Fur Meets have become significantly more inclusive since the new committee took over. I think The Saint is conducive to this as it's an open, airy bar with a large outside area, making mingling very easy. The staff are friendly and although the toilets are not the most pleasant, the executive ones on Paternoster Square that slinkat  showed me, allowed holes to be unbunged in luxury.

It was great catching up with some of my dearest friends again - particularly londonwolf , alfafox , blacksnip , slinkat  and gothicat . The five hours I spent in The Saint passed very quickly and it was another fantastic triumph for the London fur meet organisers.

After a quick trip to McDonald's, where I was stared at considerably for wearing a dog collar, Wolfie and I headed back to Jamie's Bar for the party. It started in the same vein as how The Saint had ended and I had a fascinating discussion about bridles, potentially revealing too much about my deepest desires. Still, it made people laugh so who cares?

Whether it was excessive drinking or tiredness I am not too sure, but as the night wore on, I found it more and more difficult to talk to people. There was far less mingling going on and a lot of my friends had gone suiting, meaning that I needed to scout around for other people to talk to. However, most people had fractioned off into cliques and it was very difficult to approach people and get talking to them if you didn't know them. I am hardly the shyest person when it comes to social interaction but the feeling I started to have was akin to that at the London Furmeets two years ago when it was almost impossible to make new friends. After all, it's very difficult gatecrashing a group who already know each other.

I have only been to six London Meets, so I hardly know vast swathes of the Southern contingent. However, I still feel that when it comes to meeting new people, it is far easier to do it in the North, where the meets are generally smaller (which helps) and people seem to be a little more open and friendly. That's my perception anyway and I know I am not alone in that view.

Another thing that didn't help is the music. I accept that most furries have wildly different musical tastes to me but I don't understand why furry DJ events can't be more varied. After a promising opening of indie music, there was four hours of relentless techno. This alienated a sizeable number of furs, who simply do not like that type of music. In fact, for some, like myself, it just gives us headaches. I accept it may be a good thing to dance to in fursuit but judging by the number of people on the dance floor, I think that the musical offerings only catered to a fraction of the number of people there (I think a maxmium of 20% of furs made it on to the dancefloor and on occasions less than 10 people were on it). I'm not saying do away with techno altogether - I accept its popularity - but why not mix it up with other musical genres? Even a bit of cheese would have gone down well and I would hazard a guess that more people like cheese than techno.

Still, maybe I will just have to accept that these events aren't for me. Jamie's Bar was very much like the last London After-Show Party I went to, one of the RBW ones in the City Golf Bar back in March 2008. I left that one at 9pm because I was bored and almost did the same again on Saturday. Thankfully I didn't as I ended up having in-depth and rather beautiful conversations with Spade, lsfiox 's mate, gothicat  and itstheoutkast , but I am unsure whether I will go to any After-Show Parties again. I think the Meet itself is often enough and the simple fact is that they just don't cater for what I am into.

Apart from those minor gripes though, it's fair to say that the meet was a success. I made a few new friends - particularly BearNoiz and Tameli from Twitterland - and through them I met new people too. Some of the conversations I had were extremely interesting and I feel I also solidified many other friendships too. I don't know when my next London Meet will be but hopefully it will be in the near future - congratulations to the Meet staff for a well-organised event and here's to the next ten years.