by Quentin ‘Cubist’ Long ©2005 Quentin Long

   Zippy the Pinhead’s famous catch-phrase is like a hamburger: There’s a lot more meat to it than is visible around the edges. Particularly in the season just past, the Holiday Season, we all end up doing various things which we’re supposed to enjoy… even if they just aren’t enjoyable. It could be fighting your way through a crowded store in search of some child’s much-demanded toy; or wishing that your family didn’t insist on everybody showing up at the annual party thrown by your annoying cousin; or some other form of slow torture. But whatever it might be, you can bet your bottom dollar that at some point, you will be asking yourself, ‘Are we having fun yet?’
   Closer to home, how about those fursuits? Building one isn’t exactly easy or convenient; if you do it right—and what self-respecting fursuiter doesn’t do it right, to the very best of their ability?—it’s an expensive, time-consuming and painstakingly detailed task. And once the bloody thing is finished, you get the privilege of wearing a clumsy and restrictive costume that overheats like nobody’s business and reduces your field of vision down to an angle of approximately 1.4 degrees…
   Are we having fun yet?
   Moving right along: Furry artists. Practically speaking, anybody with a decent amount of graphical skill can write their own ticket in furdom. Good artists are fulsomely welcomed at any furry convention, and all they have to do is put up with untold hours of being surrounded by nonviable social mutants with a decidedly shaky grasp on this ‘personal hygiene’ thing… and subinfinite numbers of requests to copy thus-and-such a picture, ‘except with bigger tits’… and hey, let’s not forget those internet stalkers, I mean ‘fans who are just a teensy bit too enthusiastic’!
   Are we having fun yet?
   Well, maybe you’d rather create literary art. Not a problem! The best furry writers can rightfully count themselves among the finest writers in any genre or style, and they know who they are. Of course, nobody else knows who they are… Sadly, the best furry writers get every bit as much feedback, recognition, and support as do the worst—none whatsoever, for the most part. And if the latest installment of their current magnum opus happens to be delayed, because of a death in the family or unexpected overtime or whatever other Real Life calamity? In that case, they can be absolutely, stone-cold certain that they will receive Frith knows how many complaints, ranging from the merely whining to the arrogantly presumptive, from people who had never once bestirred themselves to say word one about any of the previous installments.
   Are we having fun yet?
   I could go on… but if I haven’t already made my point, laying it on thicker ain’t gonna help. Yes, Virginia, being a fur-fan can be a royal pain in the ass—so why are you one in the first place? What is it about being furry which makes it worth your while to put up with the annoying bits?
   That’s not a rhetorical question, by the by. I want to know the answers—and I am as sure that there are answers, as I am that different furries will have different answers. So clue me in on how it works for you! Let me know what it is that makes you glad to be furry! Let’s see if we can get some kind of dialogue going, eh?