Maybe i should finally introduce myself, because i already posted a few things already.
I am Shinji, pretty much a newcomer fandom wise. I've had my fair share of encounters with the furry fandom over the past 25 years but until october last year, i hadn't really thought about it much.
At least not that much to consider myself a furry.
During the 80's and 90's, i watched a lot of television like Chip&Dale, Darkwing Duck, Samurai Pizza Cats, Thundercats and a lot of other shows.
It never crossed my mind that there was something linked to it but in the early 2000's i adapted a affinity for cat ears and i liked that a lot.
I wore mine to every anime convention i visited and enjoyed it a lot.
The first encounter with the word furry was back in 2007, at a convention in Dublin, Ireland.
People looked at it with disgust and called me a furry or "yiff in hell." which was very confusing to me.
I decided not to venture further, since i was still pretty new there and i was happy to have some people around me to talk about anime and games, because i usually move a lot for work and rarely stay in a place longer than a year or two.
Last year in october, i encountered a young fursuiter at the Frankfurter Book convention and she liked my cat ears, patted them and offered me a hug. That was kind of an eye opener for me, because there was this inexplicable feeling i didn't know that i was missing it.
I probably had that smile on my face for more than an hour and my friends were kind of fazed/confused by my good mood.
Once i came home, i looked into the whole thing and decided to dive into a world which i avoided due to the fear of social inacceptance for years.
I registered on the german furbase community and took the dive. I already met some people in my area and had only pleasant encounters so far, what i was kind of missing over the past 5-7 years in the anime convention scene.
My fursuit is already commisioned and will be finished in late April and i will actually go to a smaller furry convention in March, so EF won't be my first furry convention.
Anyways, i am looking forward to explore the fandom even further.
Quick run down, i am male, 34 years old and my fursona is a cat to keep that point short at least.
