Yes, it's true. My fursuit was stolen out of my locked car this past Saturday night. He was stored in his bin, out of sight, in the trunk. I think the thieves may have seen me put him in the trunk, and assumed the black plastic bin I keep him in held something expensive and easy to sell, like electronic equipment. They were right about the expensive part, but not the easy to sell part.

I won't soon forget opening my trunk and seeing the empty space where my fursuit bin was supposed to be. I didn't comprehend what had happened. Then I saw the broken window, and I knew he was gone.

I was convinced I'd never see him again. I figured the thief would have carried the bin a short distance, opened it... and discovered a pile of soggy fur--I'd been dancing in my suit all night in an overheated nightclub. In shock, I and a group of 5 loyal furs canvassed the area around the nightclub that night, hoping we'd find the bin, or the suit itself. But we found nothing. Dejected, I sent my friends home. Having been up all night, I crawled into bed around 7:30am, utterly devastated.

I sent out a tweet about this terrible turn of events, and then the inundation began. Hundreds and hundreds of messages, words of support, offers of help. I got messages from all over the world: Greece, Ireland, Mexico, Japan, England. If there was a silver lining to this whole thing, it was realizing just how wonderful this community, this fandom, really is. I was overwhelmed by an outpouring of love. I will never forget it, as long as I live.

Hundreds and hundreds of you were on watch, keeping an eye on eBay, Craigslist, or the furry auction sites.
Everybody retweeted my original message hundreds of times. There were offers of money, offers to help build a new fursuit, offers to check in with contacts in the SFPD. The response, in short, was AMAZING.

Smashwolf got a local blogger, BrokeAss Stuart to tweet about the theft: suddenly 36,000 more people knew about it. Catwoman69y2K, down in southern California, drew me up a "Have you seen me?" poster, the one you've all been circulating and retweeting. I didnt ask her to do that-- she just leaped to the task. Glitch made some adjustments to it, including tear off strips with my contact info. I printed out a bunch of copies, preparing to distribute them around the area where my car was broken into.

Although I deeply appreciated all the efforts of all of you keeping track of where Zarafa might show up, I was convinced he was nearby, sitting in a dark corner of pavement or worse, a dumpster, waiting to be thrown out. It was agonizing. DJNeonBunny, the creator of Frolic, volunteered to help distribute the flyers. The plan was to cover the area around the nightclub and breakin of my car. We met at 6:30 Tuesday night, and began putting up flyers on lightposts and trashcans. We put up flyers in the walls of many bars. and distributed to Goodwill stores and second hand clothing stores. We put up posters in the Stud, and when Bernadette, one of the bartenders heard the news, she was horrified. The hug I got from her was so meaningful--it felt like family.

We headed to a large tent city filled with homeless folks, about 3 blocks from the break in site. There, we passed out flyers to the folks there, and they seemed genuinely interested in helping. Multiple times, people said to me. "Sorry for your loss. That sucks". I was humbled that someone living in a tent on the streets of San Francisco would even care about me and my suit. They, to be honest, had much worse problems than I.

After two hours of wandering the streets and alleys of late night San Francisco, it was time to move on. I went to the Berkeley furmeet to get some dinner and much needed hugs. Went home, went to sleep, got up the next morning and headed out to work, a 2 hr drive away. Around 5pm, I got a text message. like something out of a movie. It said "We have the purple giraffe you are looking for". The person had seen one of our postersl But I was at work till 8pm, and then there was still a 3hr drive to SF. i called Neonbunny, and he volunteered, without hesitation, to run into SF to check out this lead, accompanied by his mate, Skibit. An exchange location was negotiated-- Neon was going to meet them at the DNA Lounge Pizza, A public place was safer to make the exchange.

For the next hour it was very difficult to concentrate at work. It could of been someone trying to scam us and get the reward. Was this real, or a fake? Finally a msg from Neon: It's legit! Two women had seen the suit lying in a pile in an alley, and when they saw the flyers, they texted me. It was only a block or two, we think, from the site of the break in. Neon gave them the reward, two sleeping bags, and bought them a large pizza.

When Neon and Skibit were on their way home with my fursuit, I got a more detailed report: One of the fursuit handpaws was missing, as well as a footpaw. There was no sign of the bin, or the 3 custom collars and bells that had been inside. BUT...I had most of Zarafa. To say this was an emotional moment would be an understatement.

After work, I drove straight from Lake County to Oakland, arriving after midnight, and took Zarafa off of Neon's hands. Aside from the missing items, he just looked a little wet and disheveled. As soon as I got home, the body of the suit went into the wash.

This really was an exercise in teamwork. Without Catwoman, there would be no flyers. Glitch added the telephone number. Neon"s contibutions were immeasurable: He showed me where to put the posters. He recommended putting my phone number on the flyers we were distributing. (People on the street have little access to the internet, but they do have cell phones). He ran into the city and made the exchange, picking Zarafa up for me, at around 6pm, and giving the reward to the two homeless women who had found him.

So, he's back! I have my purple giraffe again! And I'm eternally grateful for all of your support, and for all the people who made this happen. i especially wanna thank NeonBunny, who helped me with so much: putting up posters, talking to clothing stores, taping up flyers. I dont' think I would have gotten Zarafa back without his assistance.

But there are many more of you: Smash, who got the blog publicity, Ryu, who almost got me an interview with Channel 7 news, Sarge, who worked his connections at SFPD, KituneClover, who did a lot of work to get me access to video cameras that may have seen the breakin. And then there were the hundreds of you that just sent me messages of support, of understanding, of being in tears, just like I was.

My community, my village, my fandom, came running to my aid. I will never be able to thank you all enough for all that you've done.

Zarafa 1.0's missing parts will be repaired, though I'm not sure when. Syber, of MadeFurYou, Zarafa's maker, has already contacted me about getting him fixed up. Zarafa 2.0, who was already in the pipeline, will eventually be here as well. Now, it's time to rest, recuperate, repair, and recover.

All the hugs, and my love, to you all.





















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