I haven't posted on here for a while and it's within good reason, my mental health isn't as strong as I want it to be especially considering that so many people have been dying lately.

Now onto something more important: one of the first furries that helped found the fandom and make what it is today has died last month due to liver cancer, Mark Merlino (Sysable).

It's genuinely such a heartbreaking time within the community, I feel for those that were close to him; his family, friends, and partners. Losing a loved one to cancer is so incredibly hard to handle, I'm genuinely not good with words but as someone who's dealt with people having cancer before, finding out that he died and how he died was absolutely devastating.

Him dying wasn't too much of a surprise unfortunately, I expected something like this to happen at some point one way or another, however it's how he died is what shocked me. He deserved to go out in a less painful way, however I'm glad that when he passed it happened in his sleep as I believe that's the least painful way to go.

Him and Rod O'Riley are such important people and it's completely inspiring the things they were able to do, never giving up on the way. The furry fandom is not only a unique fandom but also very artistic and beautiful, I ran across it in middle school and became my special interest since then. Genuinely I don't know where I'd be today or who I'd be today without such a wonderful thing existing if it weren't for these men, thank you for being here and being you 💗

Even typing all this was hard, no other major death in the furry fandom has hit harder than this and is something I won't ever be able to fully move on from it. Always in memory, always loved, rest in peace Sysable