Finding your Fursona

[Kay Alett]

I have just begun trying to find my fursona and I was wondering how other went about it, was it easy? Was hard? Did you have help?

So I was hoping I could get others on this forum to post their stories of self discovery to better help me and anyone else who might have trouble.

[pocomouse]

Well... I guess I discovered mine when I was about 17 and saw Don Bluth's film "An American Tail"  for the first time in a decade.  I fell in love with the mouse characters.  Later that same year I watched "The Secret of Nimh" for the first time since childhood too. 

Those same films led me to the fandom a couple of years later.  It was while searching for fan art that I first encountered furries, so I guess I actually had my fursona before I knew what furries were?

My best advice is this:  was there a particular story/movie/whatever that lead you to furry?  If so, did you feel an affinity to one character or species?  Make that your starting fursona.  I say 'starting' because most people change at least once, and some change fursonas as often as they change clothes (or more often, judging from the con funk  ).  Don't stress over it too much.

[Relaxing Dragon]

I'm actually not too sure as to the origin of my Fursona. I can't really remember any Raccoons in movies or the like that I really enjoyed, and in fact I was kinda on the road to a fox. I guess the reason I went with a Raccoon is because we get them outside our house from time to time, just wandering about the porch. I love seeing them out there, their such beautiful creatures. So, around the time I became a Furry and learned just what a Fursona was (and decided that I wanted one), picking a Raccoon just felt right to me. Haven't changed him a bit since I first went with him, either, so I must've done something right

Poco's suggestion is one that works well for a starting point. It basically comes down to what species of animal do you not only enjoy looking at, but also enjoy being around and feel some kind of connection to (be it spiritual or simply 'I would look great with a tail like that'). Take your time, there's no need to rush it.

[Baako]

for me, I have had a fascination with dragons and all lore/mythology surrounding them since I was about 7 So when it came to becoming active within the furry community, I pounced upon the opportunity to have a dragon fursona immediately 

So for me it was relatively easy, just do some soul searching and see if there are any animals that you think, 'WOW, they are SO cool!'.
Or maybe you could choose one that you know a lot about but don't particularly obsess over.

Hope I helped 

[Serathano]

I discovered furry fandom when i was over at a freinds house and he said to pick an animal that i was most like, so i immidiatly went with the tiger.

[Traumerei]

I wasn't really aware of red pandas until April or May of 2007, to be honest. I guess it was a "love at first site" kinda' thing... 

[josh down]

mine just kinda came to me... i loved the lion king, and loved lions way above all other animals, researched them (going to see some for the first time soon, should be awesome)

it'll just come to you... and even if it doesn't there's no shame in changing it every now and again, or even identify as several, or a combination, or something you made up, or human, or anything... it really doesn't matter.

[Kay Alett]

  I see, thank you everyone. I've been thinking it over these past few hours and I think I've come to a solid conclusion. I appreciate the advice and am reliveed to hear that others change fursonas from time to time. As usual it seems I'm overestimating the situation instead of taking a lighthearted approach.

[Arquin]

'Find' it? It's not necessarily something you discover - it's something you create. Or it was for me. I thought about it over several days, trying to work out the best way of representing myself in another form. Choosing the species was the easy part - everything points to feline. But I've always had a love for dragons (they're not really 'me', but I have an affinity for them), so I opted for a sort of 75% cat, 25% dragon hybrid.

And then it was basically a process of picking out what characteristics I thought defined me, and incorporating them into the design... eventually resulting in this freak of nature:

http://q09.deviantart.com/art/Cyberkitten-93468506

I don't really know how appealing this sort of method is to a non-artist, but I always treat character development as a creative exercise. It's fun, it stretches the imagination, and it's disgustingly self-indulgent. ;}

[Kay Alett]

Nice picture, I like it. I wish I could draw but I can only write. I have a talent for it, give me a few words and I can spin a good yarn that paints a nice picture.

I'm not able to make a tangable image of my characters but they are just as real for me as for any artist out there. Often times I see thier lives play out in my mind and see harsh things happening for them that I want to change, but oddly cannot. If anything I consider writing to be a far harsher misstress than drawing, you convey the image of what the character is going through, writers must describe it all, almost experience it for ourselves in order to convey it.

Or at least thats how it is for me.

[Acton]

I selected a bear because I ma a large fella. I been called boo boo or Yogi and do exhibit some bear like traits. Most import Acton give me a way to fursonify my own life. His back story is much like my own story with some embellishments.

[Vintage]

my 'story of self discovery' goes as follows:

1) i like how red pandas look

that's it. there is no connection, i do not believe i was this animal in a past life, they just LOOK cool.  i wouldn't even really call it my fursona.  i am getting a red panda fursuit, though!

[Pensive]

The story of mine is kinda unusual, actually. My first fursona, back in 7th grade, was a black and white wolf (like almost everyone's first fursona, if you ever existed on deviantART xD). Over time, deviantART influenced me to change my fursona atleast 20 times (rofl), until I finally quit dA and settled on a fursona (a purple border collie). Or so I thought. Around that time I discovered I was Otherkin/Therian, which began to make me wish I had a more realistic fursona, and so I started messing around with one of my old characters, changing her markings and all that, and eventually she became my fursona. The only change since them has been to her tail, because I keep getting a long, curved phantom tail and so I changed my fursona's tail to reflect that.

But my fursona is very similar to myself. Being an australian shepherd, I love the sanctuary of nature and being in the middle of nowhere. But I also love being around people, and have a funny habit of trying to "herd" people (make them follow me, or go in a certain direction haha), which I didn't notice until quite a while after discovering my fursona. There are a lot of other similarities as well, such as me being a country girl at heart and having total Napoleon Syndrome (I'm short, so I try to make up for it by being tough XD), but overall...it just clicked perfect, and I hope it never changed (especially since I just spendt a crapload of money to commission a realistic fursuit of her haha).

But overall, my best advice would just be to think about animals you like and animals you relate to, and don't worry if you have to change your mind a few times...eventually, you'll "find yourself". :3 good luck.

[lucky_white]

From what I have come to know in most cases one of two things will happen; either you sit down and design your fursona based on yourself, your beliefs, or what you like; or it just comes to you, instantly or gradually.

I guess it all depends on what your fursona means to you, or what you want it to mean to you.

[Fendras]

Can't say I have much of a story myself, but I'm one of those.... uh... species experiment..er... types?  Couldn't really figure out what I wanted to be.  Then in a roleplay once I was a kangaroo.  Something about it felt... special.  I went with it.

I've swapped species a few more times since then, but I keep coming back to kangaroo.  Seems to be a good fit for my personality.

[TCD]

My first fursona was made for me, by a (now ex) girlfiend. Purple and pink striped dragon--she was the "Mad Hatter" I was "The Cheshire Dragon."

Dumped the girl, dumped the fursona, though I kept the letters. Picked a base animal (lion) that was more in tune with an animal I've long admired. Put wings on, cuz wings are cool.

[Zoopedia]

Bah i can't decide fox or wolf and i don't want to be a hybrid.

[Igm]

I suggest that you don't decide on something right away. It often depends on mood, so keep yourself open to any species and don't avoid changing them if/whenever you feel like it. Eventually one of those just... sticks out more than the rest, or you find yourself switching back to it often. That's how you'll know it's the right one.

(Incidentally, Lander's story is a perfect example of that )

[Zing]

For me, I always knew it was a feline. But choosing it was the hard part. I've shifted though many different feline species, and have decided that since im such a homely person, Might as well go with a house cat. However since I have a unique flare I added green highlights to a black and white house cat. ^.^ Not much of a story but all the same...

[red_kitsune]

for me, it is a long story.
it all started when i was really interested in lucid dreaming. i was in a forum clan on ld4all i was in animal clan and i chose badger to represent me. when we were trying to decide how to work the clan better i suggested that in our dreams we make our "fursonas" be the same style as redwall characters. any ways someone said that those were called anthropomorphic. so i did some research and found out about furry fandom.as i got more and more into it i found out about furtopia and that the fandom wasnt all clean. any ways, i had always been a fan of foxes but also otters. so at first i chose a fox as my fursona, but latley i decided to make a hybrid betweeen the two . though, i still havnt come up with a name.

[Gwyndolium]

For me it's pretty short.

I think huskies look cute.

The end 

[Simo]

In my situation, I didn't so much find my fursona. It found me, and that happened quite suddenly, and long before I ever heard the term "furry" used as anything other than a reference to that which covers the exteriors of most mammals. I suppose that could be considered a therian/otherkin sort of thing.

As for finding out that there was a fandom, that happened in December, 2003 -- on a tech forum of all things -- so it was indirectly due to THAT CSI episode.

[sasuke2910]

i was originally into cats scene i was like 7 and now i like foxes slightly more i don't know how that came it i think it's because i played inherit earth

[Kairo]

My preferred species changes from time to time so I decided to put a lot of thought into my fursona to make sure I wouldn't change my mind any time soon.

First, I thought about the species that appealed to me the most at the time (that being Feline).
Second, I took my personality and started comparing aspects of it to different species to find one which I had most in common with.
Wanting to make sure I wasn't being biased, I took a few of those online tests that determine what animal I'd be. I found that 4 out of 7 of the tests agreed with me about being a feline (thankfully).

To top it off, I had a dream the following night about dressing up in a cat fursuit and it felt a lot more vivid and comfortable than most other dreams I've had involving furries!

So all in all, my fursona did come to me naturally but I had take my time making sure it was the right one.

[Greeblig Venn Aridarr]

Foxes have always been in the forefront of my mind, not least as I grew up in the "Animals of Farthing Wood" (the BBC children's animation - in which foxes featured predominantly) generation. At that time, I had a group of friends that would roleplay as foxes regularly. The friends faded away, but the influence remained. During a mental illness in which I was unable to make sense of myself or the world I internally made stories in which I would symbolize aspects of myself as vulpine characters.

It's taken me quite a while to settle into this particular form, however. I think this is partly due to my low self-esteem; I believed that foxes were such brilliant animals that I couldn't possibly be worthy.

But I've gradually come to recognize more and more aspects of vulpine nature in my behavior; and come to realize that I am more comfortable in this silver-furred skin than in my own.

And the wings... well, I just thought they were cool.