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Finally Letting Family Know I Am A Furry
9 years ago
General
Nearly a full year after letting non-furry friends know I am a furry I finally let my two sisters know of Jaru's existence (I know it is a shock, but Jaru isn't my real name and non-furry friends and family do not know me by that name .) Furry is just one of many circles in my life, and I try to keep them all healthy. I did keep furry fairly segregated, but as I've been involved in more aspects of the fandom and been bumped up to Chief of Staff for AnthrOhio I felt I should start letting friends and family know a bit about my furry side.
To read what happened last year when I let my non-furry friends meet Jaru for the first time:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6832851/
On Thursday, June 9, 2016 I went down to Lexington, Kentucky to visit some friends and help prepare for the KY Furs picnic that was going to be on Saturday. Friday, June 10th happened to be the 9th anniversary of my Mom's death. The same virus that has set up shop in the lining of my brain and has caused repeated rounds of brain damage over the years attacked my Mom's internal organs. At the time I had already moved out on my own and was living in an apartment in Columbus while my parents still lived in the house I grew up in, in Perrysburg, a suburb of Toledo. She was life-flighted from Toledo to Columbus for higher level trauma care. My Dad drove down and we were able to see and visit with her at the Ohio State University Medical Center for a bit before they took her to surgery.
Initially the hope was that once they removed her gall bladder she would recover from there. Once they got her sedated and opened her up for surgery they realized the infection was much worse than they expected, and all her organs were failing. They sewed her up and returned her to the ICU, keeping her sedated. My younger sister, Amy, arrived from Denver, Colorado, and my older sister, Kathy, from Dallas, Texas that afternoon, but after six days of operations, treatment, observation Mom passed away with all of us present but having been kept sedated the entire time and unable to be responsive to us while we had visited with her for hours each day.
When I got a call from Amy on the 9th anniversary of Mom's death she was really broken up. Normally on the anniversary she is a bit somber and reflective, but this year the date really hit her unexpectedly hard, and she was crying on the phone. We talked a while, then she asked if I was doing anything special that weekend. I told her that I was actually already down in Lexington visiting friends and preparing for a big group picnic on Saturday, not mentioning anything about furry. I told her I had brought down a bunch of lawn games for the picnic, but was not sure how much they'd be played since it was supposed to get above 95 degrees on Saturday with perfectly clear skies.
Jaru: "I really don't know how people are going to handle the heat, especially those in full fur...." <ah, what they heck, about time I let her know> "those in full fursuit."
Amy: "Those in what? I didn't catch what you said."
Jaru: "In fursuit."
Amy: <laughs a bit> "What do you mean, Fursuit? What is a fursuit?"
Jaru: <explains what a fursuit is, referencing mascots and cosplay a bit>
Amy: "That's really cool!" <silence for a bit, then laughter>
Jaru: "What's so funny?"
Amy: <intermixed with some giggling> "I got a picture in my mind of you in one of those suits, and I can't get it out of my head!"
Jaru: "Erm, well, actually,...."
Amy: "No! Really? *giggles* No, no, nooooo! No! I don't believe it! No..... *giggles*"
Jaru: "Yup, I'll be one of the people in fursuit tomorrow at the picnic!"
Amy: "Really?!?! What do you guys do? Do you rent them or borrow them?"
Jaru: "People usually have their own or borrow one from a friend. I borrowed one for two years before getting my own."
Amy: "You have your own?!?!" *fair bit of laughter as I wait for her to be able to talk again*
...
...
Amy: "I have an all new respect for you!!!"
Jaru: <stunned by this response and laughs that this is her response to this crazy revelation about her normally very conservative, traditional, not into fantasy, doesn't like to stand out, nearly 42 year old brother>
From there she asked about my fursuit, so I described Jaru to her, and mentioned his floppy ears. I gave comparisons to anime/sci-fi/treckie, etc, and uniqueness of furry usually being about your own unique character vs being true to someone else's creation, etc. She asked the name of my character, and I let her know it was "Jaru". She asked how I came up with that name, and I let her know I had found it on a map of Australian aboriginal tribes since Jaru is an Australian dingo. I also told her I liked how I could howl it out, and of course had to demonstrate:
JARUUUUUUUuuuuuuuu
That brought on another round of laughter She said she'd love to see him sometime, so I sent her a range of pictures after the picnic. I tried to call my older sister Kathy to fill her in as well, but couldn't get ahold of her and didn't want to just leave a voice mail message about Jaru, but decided to include her on the e-mail. The e-mail was simply titled "Pictures of Jaru", with a message saying "Amy got to hear a bit about Jaru, so I thought I'd share some pictures
and leave Kathy wondering what this is all about " I included seven picture of Jaru: in suit with the rest of the AnthrOhio 2016 staff at closing ceremonies, Jaru "at work" with walkie-talkie in hand during the convention, at a picnic playing croquet in full suit, by a grill with a fake dismembered foot in his mouth, on the sidewalk in downtown Columbus during a Gallery Hop, etc.
Amy's response to the e-mail: "You have no idea how much I love this! My head is exploding!"
Kathy's response to the e-mail: "So confused...."
I got to talk to Kathy on the phone shortly after that, but she did not react much at all about finding out that those were all pictures of me and that I owned the suit, and the conversation moved on to other topics.
I've been having about weekly calls with my younger sister to plan my trip to drive out to Denver to go camping with her and her family and bring out some family items. After an hour of covering that stuff she said she'd love to see Jaru's ears flop sometime. I was surprised she remembered me mentioning that, so I sent her pics where Jaru's ears were up and a clip of a YouTube video GoldenWolf had taken of Jaru flopping his ears:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVCVGgn1Yqc&t=4m12s
This past week after chatting once again for an hour about the plans for my trip she said it would be great if I could bring Jaru with me sometime. She said my 4.5yr old nephew would love to get dressed up with me He's got a range of costumes he enjoys, but sadly has outgrown the one-piece snowsuit he had that was basically an infant fursuit, something like this:
http://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.ne.....b862a70f42.jpg
Amy said the only issue would be that my nephew would probably call Jaru "Chase" since he's a big fan of Paw Patrol They also have two beagles, it would be interesting to see how they react to Jaru, and I'm sure my 2.5yr old niece would find the whole situation to be quite silly I have a feeling my brother-in-law would be a bit perplexed by it all but go along with the fun
Sadly I have FAR too much to cram into my car as it is for this trip, but will have to see if I can introduce them to Jaru in person some day
To read what happened last year when I let my non-furry friends meet Jaru for the first time:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6832851/
On Thursday, June 9, 2016 I went down to Lexington, Kentucky to visit some friends and help prepare for the KY Furs picnic that was going to be on Saturday. Friday, June 10th happened to be the 9th anniversary of my Mom's death. The same virus that has set up shop in the lining of my brain and has caused repeated rounds of brain damage over the years attacked my Mom's internal organs. At the time I had already moved out on my own and was living in an apartment in Columbus while my parents still lived in the house I grew up in, in Perrysburg, a suburb of Toledo. She was life-flighted from Toledo to Columbus for higher level trauma care. My Dad drove down and we were able to see and visit with her at the Ohio State University Medical Center for a bit before they took her to surgery.
Initially the hope was that once they removed her gall bladder she would recover from there. Once they got her sedated and opened her up for surgery they realized the infection was much worse than they expected, and all her organs were failing. They sewed her up and returned her to the ICU, keeping her sedated. My younger sister, Amy, arrived from Denver, Colorado, and my older sister, Kathy, from Dallas, Texas that afternoon, but after six days of operations, treatment, observation Mom passed away with all of us present but having been kept sedated the entire time and unable to be responsive to us while we had visited with her for hours each day.
When I got a call from Amy on the 9th anniversary of Mom's death she was really broken up. Normally on the anniversary she is a bit somber and reflective, but this year the date really hit her unexpectedly hard, and she was crying on the phone. We talked a while, then she asked if I was doing anything special that weekend. I told her that I was actually already down in Lexington visiting friends and preparing for a big group picnic on Saturday, not mentioning anything about furry. I told her I had brought down a bunch of lawn games for the picnic, but was not sure how much they'd be played since it was supposed to get above 95 degrees on Saturday with perfectly clear skies.
Jaru: "I really don't know how people are going to handle the heat, especially those in full fur...." <ah, what they heck, about time I let her know> "those in full fursuit."
Amy: "Those in what? I didn't catch what you said."
Jaru: "In fursuit."
Amy: <laughs a bit> "What do you mean, Fursuit? What is a fursuit?"
Jaru: <explains what a fursuit is, referencing mascots and cosplay a bit>
Amy: "That's really cool!" <silence for a bit, then laughter>
Jaru: "What's so funny?"
Amy: <intermixed with some giggling> "I got a picture in my mind of you in one of those suits, and I can't get it out of my head!"
Jaru: "Erm, well, actually,...."
Amy: "No! Really? *giggles* No, no, nooooo! No! I don't believe it! No..... *giggles*"
Jaru: "Yup, I'll be one of the people in fursuit tomorrow at the picnic!"
Amy: "Really?!?! What do you guys do? Do you rent them or borrow them?"
Jaru: "People usually have their own or borrow one from a friend. I borrowed one for two years before getting my own."
Amy: "You have your own?!?!" *fair bit of laughter as I wait for her to be able to talk again*
...
...
Amy: "I have an all new respect for you!!!"
Jaru: <stunned by this response and laughs that this is her response to this crazy revelation about her normally very conservative, traditional, not into fantasy, doesn't like to stand out, nearly 42 year old brother>
From there she asked about my fursuit, so I described Jaru to her, and mentioned his floppy ears. I gave comparisons to anime/sci-fi/treckie, etc, and uniqueness of furry usually being about your own unique character vs being true to someone else's creation, etc. She asked the name of my character, and I let her know it was "Jaru". She asked how I came up with that name, and I let her know I had found it on a map of Australian aboriginal tribes since Jaru is an Australian dingo. I also told her I liked how I could howl it out, and of course had to demonstrate:
JARUUUUUUUuuuuuuuu
That brought on another round of laughter She said she'd love to see him sometime, so I sent her a range of pictures after the picnic. I tried to call my older sister Kathy to fill her in as well, but couldn't get ahold of her and didn't want to just leave a voice mail message about Jaru, but decided to include her on the e-mail. The e-mail was simply titled "Pictures of Jaru", with a message saying "Amy got to hear a bit about Jaru, so I thought I'd share some pictures
and leave Kathy wondering what this is all about " I included seven picture of Jaru: in suit with the rest of the AnthrOhio 2016 staff at closing ceremonies, Jaru "at work" with walkie-talkie in hand during the convention, at a picnic playing croquet in full suit, by a grill with a fake dismembered foot in his mouth, on the sidewalk in downtown Columbus during a Gallery Hop, etc.
Amy's response to the e-mail: "You have no idea how much I love this! My head is exploding!"
Kathy's response to the e-mail: "So confused...."
I got to talk to Kathy on the phone shortly after that, but she did not react much at all about finding out that those were all pictures of me and that I owned the suit, and the conversation moved on to other topics.
I've been having about weekly calls with my younger sister to plan my trip to drive out to Denver to go camping with her and her family and bring out some family items. After an hour of covering that stuff she said she'd love to see Jaru's ears flop sometime. I was surprised she remembered me mentioning that, so I sent her pics where Jaru's ears were up and a clip of a YouTube video GoldenWolf had taken of Jaru flopping his ears:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVCVGgn1Yqc&t=4m12s
This past week after chatting once again for an hour about the plans for my trip she said it would be great if I could bring Jaru with me sometime. She said my 4.5yr old nephew would love to get dressed up with me He's got a range of costumes he enjoys, but sadly has outgrown the one-piece snowsuit he had that was basically an infant fursuit, something like this:
http://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.ne.....b862a70f42.jpg
Amy said the only issue would be that my nephew would probably call Jaru "Chase" since he's a big fan of Paw Patrol They also have two beagles, it would be interesting to see how they react to Jaru, and I'm sure my 2.5yr old niece would find the whole situation to be quite silly I have a feeling my brother-in-law would be a bit perplexed by it all but go along with the fun
Sadly I have FAR too much to cram into my car as it is for this trip, but will have to see if I can introduce them to Jaru in person some day
Sounds like a great experience for ya :)
It will be interesting to see if my sister shows up as a Friend of Jaru on Facebook I do hope to be able to introduce Jaru to my niece and nephew in person sometime, but opportunities are limited since they live out in Colorado.
also yay oreos :D
I hope your family enjoys seeing it later on! I think they'll love it!
And also thanks for sharing that youtube video it is cute! And it is so weird to see both you and Kommy wearing badges by me. I forget that I do this art and then it gets to travel.
Can't wait to see you again my friend!
I'll be popping up to Toledo in July and August, will have to send you a message
It was great seeing you at the picnic Glad to hear you had a positive experience with your family Did you sit down and watch Zootopia with them while in fursuit?