Letting Your Inner-Furry Out For Some Fresh Air

[blue-vulpine]

Do you ever get urges to just put on your fursuit and run to your local park? Or on more animalistic terms, ever howl at the moon?

What I'm getting at is I'm curious as to what kind of things people do to explore and expand their furry side. Maybe its writing, or drawing... Maybe its acting like an animal at your local mall, growling at people... who knows? I don't, and I'd like to, so post if you care to share! :3

-TJ

[KapitanVonWolf]

The urge to Howl at the moon for fun is strong some nights, but then I don't want to wake everyone.

Mostly I just Draw & write, but I love expanding my Naturalist side, I have a few books one Local Plants, local Animals, Traking, and books on old cultural ways. When I can I usually have fun applying these skills in the woods near my house, since I live on the edge of Calgary, but these woods are small, and REALLY differet from the Costal Woods I explored around Comox. Really it's just trying to connect back with Nature again, something I have not done in a long time and I am just reapplying in the last year or so.

Also when Hyper, or a Few beers (<.<...>.>...>.<) act more "animalish" by Barking or Howling or growling.
Dah, Curse ta drink know as Vodka! (<.<...>.>...>.<) May take Half a 26er to get me crazy, but man do I get crazy. (note, Hide the Vodka from me at parties, or I'll drink it all )

[Puma_Concolour]

I'll wear my collar in public, but that's about it. Or at least until me and daakshi figure out a way to get my ears to actually stay on my head >.<

[Cobalt Wolf]

I have a collar I sometimes wear, and a hat with ears, I'm also getting an ear and tail set made, that I'll end up wearing out.

Sometimes I act wolfish just for fun, and having a dog helps when I'm acting wolfish in the park, lol.

[RappyRaptor]

Nope!  The suit sits in the closet until a convention, not big on the whole open furry stuff.

[Lady Serpent]

As far as the public eye, I generally try to keep things 'normal' as far as portrayal of furriness goes.  Not that I'm attempting to hide my interests, it's just that I don't need to portray parts of my own alternative interests to people who don't necessarily care or need to know.  (The same concept as not telling people I keep snakes, or do art, unless it happens to come up in conversation.)

However, I don't hide it as much when I'm visiting other cities.  If we're going to walk around in fursuits for fun, I have no problem with it.  It's mostly a matter of trying to maintain some kind of professionalism in areas where I might actually be seen by my employers/colleages/future employers.

Aside from that, I always have a massive desire to be free to move more animalistically, or even just to run and climb, in everyday situations.  The structure of society is so restricting on our basic evolutionary nature that we're really not that far out of yet.   We were meant to move; really move, not just walk casually down the sidewalks.  I love this kind of movement whenever I get the chance to express it, although I tend to avoid it in public areas because people tend to think you're a crazy person if you run and jump over things.  (That's why parkour is so great, but again, I do hesitate to do it anywhere local to me.)

This past weekend in Seattle, we were walking along and a guy was doing parkour running towards us, and he went up to kick off a cement barrier, but when he landed back into a run he went into this prolonged stumble, and eventually fell and totally smashed his face on the sidewalk.  We were pretty concerned but really couldn't help laughing as it looked hilarious.  He got up and carried on, though.  (A little shaken.)  It's funny; people feel the need to comment to random strangers when they do something like that, generally to save some kind of embarrassment.  He told us 'It's all good' as he ran by.

Cheers;
-Sephren

[Daakshi]

Acting like an animal is becoming more and more normal for me. I regularly wear my ears and a tail around the house, and when I go out. I wear my collar almost all the time. And I frequently communicate with my boyfriend using growls, whimpers, yips, and such.

Wah! Sorry about the ears Puma!

[Drewdle]

I haven't been wearing my collar much lately, but itching to change that. Also! I totally howl at the moon when it's full. Usually I notice when I'm out driving at night, home from work or whatever, so I'm not waking anyone, and anyone at a stop light just thinks I'm a psycho.

[ShadowKitten]

sadly my beloved ears died (they got stuck under a box for too long and the headband got WAYYYYYYY warped as well as one of the ears is a bit 'eh' now :S) so I've been without those for a while and have been very hesitant to get anything else comissioned due to the fact the past 2 comissions I've done after that pair were horrible experiences (anywhere from 50-150 dollars down the drain on a crudely made or unwearable too small product or something else goes horribly wrong) which have really deterred me from wasting the little bit of cash I have (100 or so dollars a MONTH tops) on such things.

I also need a proper collar, I ordered one eons ago from Collarfactory and frankly it was rubbish workmanship, improperly sized and all that jazz so again I've been deterred from ordering custom ones due to that as well, I may soon be trying out a place 'someone' (you know who you are XD) recommended to me as the price is much more reasonable than that rubbish Collarfactory and the quality of product looks great, I've also seen glowing reviews for the craftmanship elsewhere so feel it's worth giving a shot.

however I will admit I have very much a kitten/big-cat side to me that sometimes comes out in public situations albeit not as much the past year due to the utter failure of the local meets crashing into the ground due to seemingly lack of interest (who knows if people have been meeting privately though none of my business *sigh*) when I'm at home I do sometimes mew and purr for no good reason, it just feels right to me, as for out in public back last year when I still had my ears and tail intact and usable I did do a fair amount of trips out in public with both ears and tail (and a wool longcoat! ) and did get PLENTY of looks, though that's what over-ear (no pun intended ) headphones are for, I didn't hear a word of society's idiotic nonsense and could have cared less, if someone has a problem with me or doesn't like what I'm wearing they should either say it to my face like a sensible human being or I know that they're just immature little ****s that have nothing better but try and make others feel bad due to some inadequacy in their own lives, so screw them

overall though I feel I have an overly feline-human personality in how I act, think, and communicate beside the above of course.

[Kesarra]

I really don't get how a collar is "inner furry"...

[Drewdle]

I really don't get how a collar is "inner furry"...

Hence "letting it out". See above.

[Lady Serpent]

And I frequently communicate with my boyfriend using growls, whimpers, yips, and such.

Is your boyfriend furry as well?

Drew:  Ah.. I'll do that, too.  Not so much for the full moon, though; I actually practice all kinds of animal noises if I'm driving by myself.  I'll also sing, beatbox, and play the harmonica with one hand if I get really adventurous on long trips by myself.  That certainly gets some looks.  (Aside from the fact that the car looks like this..  That seems to get us lot of looks already.) 




We'll definitely howl at the full moon if we're walking at night and feel inspired to do so.
Cheers;
-Sephren

[T3hSmashfur]

OMG I know what my next farm car is gonna look like...

[blue-vulpine]

Damn, I love that paint job! I wish I had the nerve to do something like that to the jeep... Mayhaps one day. 

Some really good posts so far as well.

I don't really wear my collar much any more, though I'll loop it around one of my belt loops every now and then. However, I do enjoy a good howl. 

-TJ

[Daakshi]

And I frequently communicate with my boyfriend using growls, whimpers, yips, and such.

Is your boyfriend furry as well?

Yup, he is!

Also, awesome paint job!

[Lady Serpent]

Haha, thank you all.

TJ; if you want a hand, I would certainly lend one.  Two, even.

The major work is getting it sanded down to an appreciable level.  The painting itself was easy and actually only took a few hours.

Cheers;
-LS

[blue-vulpine]

Hmmm, I may take you up on your offer sometime when I can afford it. I've got a list of things to be repaired as long as my arm and I need to save up some cash for moving after the summer. I Was actually going to ask you at to join us in painting the interior of the hard top at last year's FurBQ (Though it would have sucked to drive all that way in the summer with the top on XD), but painting the whole thing would be fantastic!
We shall see what the future holds.

Sorry for getting off topic XD

-Tj

[Hallucinogenocides]

I don't have a suit but if I did I would go out it in I wouldn't mind at all. I go out in stranger clothing and people can see my face.

I make dog noises but i believe that's because i live with a lot of dogs and like they learn our mannerisms i have learned some of theirs. Like the Rottweiler's low growl she does when your doing something she doesn't like but will put up with while letting you know its annoying. It's almost a low rumbling.
I do that if someone hugs me or traps me in a hug or gets up in my face. Mostly to my boyfriend as I dont really hug people but he always hugs me. (<3 duh) He is not a furry and knows nothing of the fandom and doesn't find it odd but cute.

I study dog behaviour on my own with some of the most well known books on animal behaviour. I also take note and observe the dogs in my life. There are only 6 but that's a good start. If I lived closer to the shelter i would be there working again and taking more notes. My boyfriend rehabilitates the dogs and its interesting to watch behaviour change i think this is where i pick up a lot of the mannerisms.

When I talk about mannerisms I also mean body language. Your face your mouth your teeth.( Dogs may not be able to read our facial expressions as good as your or I but make a mad face or sad one and a dog knows.) The way you stand, hover, if your square on if your side on and what these mean to a dog. Square on your boss I use this with people to. I if felt threatened I might stand square on so as to show I wouldn't back down little things like that.

Sorry that was a long post.

[Lady Serpent]

Nothing at all wrong with long posts. 

It's certainly interesting how small, concious (or, more often, subconcious) changes to your own body language can make a huge difference in how people react to you.  In highschool, my good friend (who was, at one time much earlier than that, my first boyfriend) used to go into parties and play with this kind of thing, and you could control a whole room full of people in a conversation; make them leave when YOU left because they're all following, and treat you like the 'alpha' or the leader.  It's bloody interesting, and without knowing it, you can also do the exact opposite and attract negative attentions or a lower level of 'social standing', or even just invite certain responses or behaviours, just by the way you position your body and control your eye contact, expressions, and voice tone.

Interesting (and useful) how people's social reactions are so deeply ingrained into our social processing.  It's very much like dog behaviour, although they have their own little nuances and species-specific signals that we don't.  Some of them, though, are very much the same.

-LS