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Furpocalypse 2025 Wrap-Up + 2026 Con Plans!
a day ago
Greetings, Dimension Hoppers! It was not all that long ago that this wolf returned from the Stone Age, but rather than landing back in our time, he found himself in a place altogether much stranger... The Midnight Dimension at Furpocalypse 2025! This anomalous event took place at the Doubletree Hilton in Stamford, CT from October 30th to November 2nd, 2025. Despite the strangeness and mystique that the theme of the con theme gives off, it is a convention that is quite familiar to me. In fact, this is the furry con I have attended the most, with 2025 being my fifth year attending Furpocalypse, and for good reason! This year, I branched out a bit more into doing new things, like hosting not one, but two panels, more than fulfilling a goal of mine set earlier in the year! Outside of this, Furpoc still has no shortage of fun events, hype happenings, and this wolf's friends around every corner! Take my paw, hold on tight, and don't lose your mind, as I recount my trip to Furpocalypse 2025!
My plan for travelling to Furpoc this year was to get to the hotel as early in the morning as possible, check in, and lend a hand where needed to the con staff for setup. I was able to at least leave for the con when I had planned, but wound up arriving over an extra hour over the duration such a trip would normally take me. The reason being the inclement weather. A nor-easter was expected to hit the state all day, and it showed its might in both wind and torrential rain. There were several accidents up and down I-91, and I had to make swaps between the Wilbur-Cross and I-95 in order to get around them all. Thankfully, I did make decent time and was able to check in to my room very early! A number of friends of mine had arrived the day before and were having breakfast in the lobby while I was unpacking. When I finished, I went downstairs to say hello to them and shared my plans for the day. I invited one of my pals, Dax, to go with me to the bus station like I had done the previous year in order to get a bus pass for the weekend. We walked over to the station, unfortunately, by the time we arrived, the ticket office was closed for lunch. Instead I opted to use the kiosk just outside the office, but it only offered local day tickets. I intended to buy a few so that I would have one for each day, but to my surprise, unlike the 10 ride tickets I normally get, these ones were activated immediately, not upon first use! In other words, I had three tickets that were only good for Thursday. Whoops! I gave one to Dax and we walked back to the hotel, chuckling about it (with a bit of facepalming on my part) on the way back. The walk to and from the station only takes about 20 minutes, but it takes another 10 to get into downtown Stamford proper, where all the shops, things to do, and restaurants are, which is why I prefer taking the bus compared to doordashing for food. It certainly is a lot cheaper! (By the way, I updated my route list for the con for 2025, and it is now hosted On the Furpocalypse Con Site!)
After returning to the hotel I offered up my time to help set up what still needed to be done, and I went with a group of volunteers to set up the headless lounge! We spent about an hour setting both lounges up, but time flew by in the blink of an eye, and it was already an hour before registration opened! I got in line with a few friends, and we were able to get through the line fairly painlessly, though I know others did not have the same experience over the weekend due to technical issues behind the scenes with registration, so I am glad I lined up when I did. I had intended to go do some early bucket brigading through the reg line at this time, but the Charity room did not open until the following day. Instead, I made plans to get dinner with my friends Rags, Celsic, Andrew, and Laz. We met in the lobby and I was able to convince them to take the bus with me into downtown. It didn't take too much convincing as the weather had taken a turn for the worse, in both the wind and the rain. We bussed up to downtown, then walked through the flooded streets to the Mecha Noodle Bar (a chain some of you may be familiar with) and had some nice hot soup bowls for dinner, something great for a rainy day, especially after getting soaked by it! We all decided after dinner that we didn't want to wait in the rain for another bus, so we took a taxi back to the hotel instead.
I changed my now-soaked socks for some fresh ones and put Ringgar on for the first time in the evening, first to attend Opening Ceremonies, and then to attend my suit sibling Ripley's Hockey Furs Panel! I will admit, I am not much of a hockey fanatic, but I did happen to bring my Western MA Furs group jersey with me, which is a hockey jersey, and decided to crash the party! It was a comfortably-sized meetup, with folks going in and our over the hour, while the majority of the panel was either talking about or watching the Ranger's game, or ranking the NHL mascots by [REDACTED]. By the end of Ripley's panel it was late at night, and because I was feeling brave, I decided to head to an 'unofficial' dance event hosted by a number of friends of mine, hosted by
Kittybean, Artimio, Jedi, and Lucid, called The Battle of Subway vs. Metro! The premise of the event was that it was a 1v1 Dance event for very, very beginner dancers. I decided to participate, and I danced! Very poorly I might add, but I still did! I didn't go far at all in the contest aspect, but it was nice hanging out with friends regardless! Speaking of friends, the last event I did on Thursday was to go to my pal Mey's panel about advanced photography! Their panel was different from what you might expect from a name of "Furtography 102." While they did discuss some techniques, their focus was primarily about the 'why' you would want to do furry photography. Who they admire as a photographer, why they do so themselves, and I couldn't help but feel how personal this panel was to them. Panels like this are one of my favorites, because it is not only educational and interesting, but because it gives a window into the life and emotions of the presenter. Learning more about the interesting people of this fandom is one of the reasons I love being a furry so very much. At the end of the panel, the clock had long since stuck midnight, so I decided to retire to my bedchamber for the eventful day ahead.
Halloween has descended on Furpocalypse once again, and with it, the busiest day of the convention for this wolf! I woke up in the morning and used what was left of my bus pass from the day before to get some breakfast before making a beeline back to the hotel. I decided to split my breakfast for tomorrow so that I wouldn't have to buy too many additional bus tickets for finding food. I took my time with breakfast as the day didn't truly start until a little before noon that day. My first event for the day was one of my all-time favorites, the annual Fursuit Games! I love doing the fursuit games every year because I find it an interesting challenge to balance doing a team game while also being a silly animal at the same time. Usually, that all comes together into one, very funny, perfect harmony for the audience to watch! I joined the purple team again this year, in keeping with previous years, while the majority of my friends who were in attendance were on the red team! We played a few different relay games: tray balancing, trick-or-treating with plastic balls, charades, and of course, musical chairs. During musical chairs, I was eliminated early because I, very confidently, planted my rear onto a chair that was not, in fact, present. At least I fell on the ground tush-first, but because of my fursuit blind spot, I wasn't expecting to do so, so I was quite surprised! I was OK in the end though, and while our team didn't win this year, we still came third! At the time the games had ended, I had been in fursuit for 3 hours, so I decided to take a break from suiting, and returned to semi-human form to go to another panel. My pal Vought had suggested I attend the panel he helped write for, the VERY popular Change The Game panel! This panel is a furri-fied clone of the Change The Game T.V series, in which the game is different every time. I had never seen Change The Game on T.V before, so I wasn't quite sure what I was going to watch. Turns out, it was a barrel full of chuckles! There were two games during this two-hours long panel, the first involved contestants giving a bunch of answers in the form of one-liners and pick up jokes, and the second game involved contestants needing tickets to answer questions, tickets that they had to earn by doing various challenges from the audience! I even got to participate by throwing a foam football! My throw needed a little work, but it did accidentally make things more hilarious (Sorry Leon!) and I got called out for it on stage. I can absolutely see why this panel is so popular now, despite this only being its second occurrence at Furpoc! It's a nice mix of improv comedy and silly fursuit antics, two things I always get giddy about! If I am able to go to the panel next year, I'd love to do so again!
After several hours of making and having fits of laughter, I had some dinner in the hotel, then returned to my room to get ready to pass out candy for trick or treating! I had tricks and treats this year again, similarly to last year, and regrettably, the treats went significantly faster than last year. I thought I had been prepared, but I wound up being woefully short on candy to give. I almost struggled to get rid of all my candy last year, which is why I thought I was prepared, but instead I got cleaned out within the first 45 minutes. Thankfully, Blush, a good pal of Jedi's, was in the room down the hall, and gave me a large bag of extra Tootsie Rolls they had to pass out. Unfortunately for me, those also all went in about 20 minutes. I was about ready to call it for the night, but I still had more than enough tricks to give out; my never-ending fountain of earplugs! I do hope some folks found that useful, I know my room neighbors also ran into a similar situation with running out of goodies this year! Thanks to my bucket of tricks, I was able to last for the duration of the event. I'll be better prepared with more treats, and tricks, next year too! I didn't have long to tarry at the end of trick or treating though, because immediately afterwards, I had a panel to co-host with my pal Carbon! This panel was all about turning your fursona into a Magic the Gathering Card! For context, Magic the Gathering is a hobby of mine, and one of my favorite things to do with Magic is to make my own, unofficial custom cards! Especially when it comes to making versions of my friends fursonas, and my own! Our panel focused on what makes a Magic card a Magic card, as well as first design tips and a whole section dedicated to designing cards for folks live on the spot! We decided to run a lottery with the audience to choose those who wanted to have their fursonas turned into a Magic card concept! These were all quick and dirty, V0.1 designs, but they were fun to do quickly and by the seat of our pants! Better yet, we packed the room for this panel, with folks even standing to watch! Overall I would say the panel was a GREAT success, and I am very happy to have helped Carbon host something that aligns with both of our interests! After the panel, we chatted for a little bit to give each other feedback about what should be done for the next time we host this, like having some fewer slides and a longer time slot for more audience participation, so we will work on implementing that the next time the con comes around!
After the panel wrapped up, I was still riding high with energy, so I decided to do some late night fursuiting! I also decided to do something a little different from what I normally like to do: I went to a public room party! There was a room party being hosted in the Presidential Suite at the top floor of the hotel for several hours that night, and because it was being held for the con charity, I decided to check it out! The room was absolutely PACKED. It was hard to shuffle around folks, fursuit or not, with how much was there! DJs, beer pong, Nintendo games, and of course, booze! I didn't partake in any food or drink as I was in fursuit, but the vibes, especially at this time of night, were immaculate. Better yet, I ran into a few friends there too!
Gale_Frostbane and 
Strobes were in attendance, as well as some friends of my pal Shyama from way out of town! I didn't know this at the time, but apparently fullsuiting at a large room party is not something people typically do? My guess is because of the food and drinks being around, but it could also be because of the heat, though truth be told, I didn't feel any heat difference up there than what I do normally! The party was great, and I even popped and locked a little bit with Strobes, and bounced around with Shyama's friends to the DJ before I left shortly before the party wrapped up! I went downstairs into the lobby to suit around longer, and also to get a fursuiter badge (I chose #088!) from Con-Ops in the short window I had to do so before they handed out random numbers the following day! I actually lost track of time at this point and wound up suiting for another 2 hours before getting back up to my room late late that night. I took a little bit of time before bed to wash my underarmor for future use, and finally went to bed with the buzzing of fans in my room drying everything out!
Thankfully, despite me being out very late Saturday, my day didn't truly start until a little before noon, so I was able to get a good 7 hours of sleep. I had the other half of my breakfast from yesterday down in the lobby, and suited up around 11AM to get ready for the fursuit parade and photo! The parade didn't start until 1PM, so I took the opportunity to do an hour of bucket brigading for the charity, and an hour of catching up with friends I hadn't had the chance to do so with yet! Once the parade lineup was about to begin, I walked over to find that the line was, in fact, quite significant this year (more on this later!) So much so, in fact that the con staff had to direct us through the registration room to keep the line in the lobby down! Despite the line, the parade was able to proceed on time this year, but with a new route for people to view us from! The route was significantly longer this year, so that, instead of everyone walking down the curving flight of stairs in the lobby, we walked outside around the dealer's den up a small gravel path on the hill, before walking down along the sidewalk and on to the lawn! The temperature outside was perfect for the photo, and while the glare from the sun was a bit annoying, it wasn't enough to dampen my spirit! What was damp, however, was the ground... Despite a dry day yesterday and a dry windy morning, the lawn outside had still not dried out from the nor-easter, and my outdoor feetpaws got fairly muddy. I was able to somewhat clean them with the folex I brought later on, but at that point, I decided not to use them for the rest of the con, as the claws especially didn't fare too well, even after a manual clean. Despite this, I still walked around to be chatty with the folks I saw before heading up to the room to swap for my indoor feetpaws, which I appreciate having SO much more after this incident!
I decided to swap the feetpaws rather than swap out of suit because Dax and I decided we wanted to get some photo room photos taken! I agreed because it had been several cons since I last had a photo room session, and we came up with some nice poses to do together! However, when we arrived at the photo room, we were told there would be an hour wait before our turn was up. As such, Dax and I went to the tail-end of the Exotic Snack panel right next door. We didn't have too many snacks as the time was already wearing thin for the panel slot, so afterwards, we both returned to our respective rooms to chill for an hour before returning to the line. I didn't get out of suit in my room in case I had to run down quickly for our number, but an hour came and went, and we both met back up at the photo room only to have to wait for another hour. It was at this point that I remembered I had written about this experience before in another journal and that I wouldn't be doing Photo Room photos again unless I was very lucky, and this was the reason. Once you are in line, you don't know when your number will be up, so you don't want to get out of fursuit, and at the same time, you don't want to start any other activities. Despite all this, we did get some nice photos together like we had wanted to! The photos were taken by Lingling Fennec, and they did a great job! I noticed that my fur was a little bit disheveled in one of the photos, but that was certainly because I had been in suit for 6 straight hours at that point. Unsurprisingly, after the photo, I took Ringgar off and let him rest while I went uptown to grab dinner for Sunday! Dinner for Saturday night was quite the nice event however, as several friends and I met in the hotel restaurant to have a belated birthday dinner in Dax's honor, as his birthday was just a week before Furpoc! The food wasn't anything to write home about, but the company made it all the worthwhile! (Happy birthday again Dax!)
After dinner, the night was still young, and I wore Ringgar's fullsuit one more time for the night to attend one of my all-time favorite panels from several New England furry conventions: Furry Improv hosted by
heathclaws! I've mentioned this before, but I've fallen in love with doing improv at furry cons for two primary reasons: It gives you an avenue to be goofy, off-the-cuff and make others laugh, and it allows you to do so while being a silly animal person! I attended this event along with my pal Tripp, who actually recently started a job as a middle school theater teacher for improv! We played lots of games, went completely off the rails several times, and I'm fairly certain our laughter could be heard down the hallway! If you haven't been to an improv panel at a furry con yet, especially here in New England, I'd highly encourage you to do so, if not to participate, then to watch a late night comedy show featuring absolutely everyone! Shortly after the panel, I returned to my room to get out of suit after being a dog for another 3 hours, but I decided to stay up longer as I wanted to so some Karaoke! While waiting for my song, Daylight Savings Time ended, and the cheers could be heard through the hotel for an extra hour of party and rave time! (Thanks to the con staff for sticking the extra hour out for all of us!) At some point I realized that my song wasn't going to be played for another couple of hours, so I decided to instead bring my beyblade arena down to the lobby and spin metal tops with random passer-bys and friends! I enjoy sharing one of my little hobbies with others, and it wound up being a big hit, even that late at night! Though later on I found out that a number of my friends went to Karaoke and were able to sing even after I left the Midnight Lounge believing my time would come way too late. Had I known, I would have stayed! I've been trying to do Karaoke at any con since Furpoc last year, but I always arrive too late. I will sing again, I swear it! However, I did want to be in bed not too incredibly late, as I had something quite important to do the following day!
Sunday was the most important day of the con for this wolf! My day started early with breakfast and preparation. Just like at AFC just a little over a month ago, I was given the opportunity to host my Furry Con Smashbooking Panel! I had made a couple of changes to my presentation style and was a little bit more comfortable with what I was presenting since AFC, so I was eager to take my lessons learned and make this the best panel it could be! I was also able to bring my smashbook and a shadowbox with me this time as a live example, as I didn't need to pack them on a plane! I'll be honest, due to the fact that my panel was in nearly the same time slot as the AFC panel was, and the fact that people were up even later due to Daylight Savings time the previous night, I didn't expect many more attendees than I had at AFC. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the ~20 people who attended the panel for the whole duration! I also got some positive feedback from the attendees, both at the time of the panel and later in the day! If you are reading this and you were at my panel, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude for taking the time out of your day to attend while I yapped about stickers, tape squares and paper for half an hour! If you did not attend, I apologize, it WILL happen again . My afternoon plans for Sunday were slated to be chock-full of things to do, so I decided to have the dinner I got yesterday fairly early and made my first (and only) trip around the dealer's den, so that I could attend this year's Fursuit Dance Competition in time! One of the major highlights of any furry con, this competition felt especially different for me. Several of the friends I've made and people I've come to know and cherish were competing this year, including Tommy, Typo, Shinu, Heathclaw, Sprynx, and for the first time, Proxy (Mey!) This was also the debut for Proxy, not only as a dancer, but as a fursuit! Cooler yet, Proxy was connected to the hotel wifi, and the lights on their eyes flickered in and our with the beat of their routine, which was something completely unique for a dancer to do! All of the skills shown during this comp, and all of the love shared, made this year's competition one I will always remember more than fondly. Also silently, because I got a little carried away from cheering for everyone and lost a bit of my voice later on on Monday :P.
Once the dance competition had concluded, I decided to suit up one more time for the con and do my last round of bucket brigading before closing ceremonies. However when I arrived at the charity room, the live auction was about to begin in the main events room, so Taylor the Wolf and I decided to team up and do bucket brigading together during the auction! I had actually never been to the live auction at any fur con, so I was surprised to see how simple it actually was to understand! For some reason, I always had this perception that the bidding process was much more complex than just shouting a number, but that was in fact, all there was to it (for the most part!) Better yet, both Taylor and I wound up with a healthy number of bills for Q+! We stayed for the entire live auction, and because closing ceremonies happened immediately afterwards, we decided to stay in the room and continue collecting! While we ran around to keep raising the charity number, Mr. DeWolfe shared some important numbers about this years convention: 950 Fursuiters (in the parade alone), $18,000 raised for charity (bucket brigade additional amounts not known as of writing), and 3,150 attendees for the year, another 300 up from last year! I think the most remarkable number this year is the fact that almost 1/3rd of all attendees had a fursuit or partial! I don't know if there is any other furry con out there with a ratio of suiting attendees and non-suiting attendees as high as this one! The more the furrier, as they say! Better yet, the theme for next year's Furpoc was announced: Rock and Roll Nightmare!! Looks like I'll need to get my screamo skills into shape! I left closing ceremonies with a charge of energy at the exciting announcements, and Taylor and I turned our buckets in together! Despite the con coming to a close, there were still several major events occurring in the evening! First off was something that was undoubtedly the highlight of the con for most: A stand-up comedy show with Gianmarco Soresi, of Game Changer fame! Unfortunately, by the time I came out of Con Ops to turn in the charity bucket, the line for the show was wrapped around the entire lobby and I was not able to see the show. Most of my friends did though, and they told me the he handled a crowd full of rowdy furries well! To this day, I'm still not sure how he came to a furry con, but lo and behold, there he was! I'd like to know how this came to be someday soon! I got out of fursuit after saying goodbye to a handful of folks who were heading out that night, and went to go play Jackbox games for awhile before giving some feedback at the dedicated feedback panel! I walked around more, this time in partial, to say my goodbyes to more folks, before finally attending the last (official) event of the con: The Dead Dog Dance! This is something I like to attend more than the other dances, because of the smaller crowds, and at this point in a con, I'm still (probably) not ready to put the fun of the convention down! However this time, I was asked to do something a little different: bring my beyblades to the dance! I met up with my pal Typo, and we went to town doing beyblade battles, right there in the middle of the Dead Dog, even on the dance floor! In essence, we made a bey cypher! As silly as it sounds, it was the perfect vibe to end the con with: a little bit of whimsy that we all carry with us, and let loose at furry cons just like Furpoc! Once the Dead Dog dances were over, I went back up to my room to start pre-packing for the trip tomorrow, only to find that, apparently, Animal Art Crimes had set up an exhibit, right there in the parking garage, just like last year! It was 2AM at this point, and this little slice of the garage was still a well-attended party, with people watching movies and playing games from projectors, while also doing art together! I hung around for awhile to marvel at the setup, before finally returning to bed for my last night in the Midnight Dimension.
I'll always remember my 5-year anniversary of Furpocalypse as a very special one. Not only because it is my home state con, and one near and dear to me, as well as it being my first time hosting a panel at this con, fulfilling a bucket list item of mine (which I plan on doing more of here in the future!) When I take a step back and look at this year's Furpoc, a number of things float across my mind. I now know a fairly large number of the folks who attend this con, whether they be friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, and beyond, and there are even more folks who now know me. It's quite surreal looking back at my first furry con, Furpocalypse 2019, and how out of place I felt there compared to now! I am truly blessed to know so many of the wonderful people who attend this con, and I am grateful for them, as these people are the ones who truly make the con what it is, and why I hold it so close in my heart. Despite this, I continue to meet new people here, and every time I come to this convention, I feel like I meet someone new and interesting that I didn't know before, or at the very least, people I vibe with!
On top of all of that, this year, I can't help but see myself in a number of the new attendees. I met several people who said that this was their first furry convention as well; people I met in the hall, people at my panels, and people I met in con events. Many of them seemed overwhelmed, but couldn't help but keep smiling through it all, and I can't help but remember that I felt the same way back in 2019. That PCD hit me like a truck, and I couldn't help but cry. Not from sadness, but from joy. It is a complex blend of emotions, but I'd like to think that the cherry on top is knowing that I've found my happy place. If you are reading this, and you are still feeling the melancholy after the con like I am as I write this, my message to you is: It's OK to feel that way. I hope you've found Furpoc to be your happy place! Be elated that it happened, and keep your chin up high; Furpocalypse will be back before you know it. So will I.
Now that the year is coming to a close, I am planning out the conventions I would like to attend in 2026! Next year, I will be returning to a number of conventions I've been to before because I have had such fun at all of them! This is a WIP as of the time of writing, but here is what I have...
- Anthro New England 2026 - January - It's a Western!
- Furcationland 2026 - April - Harbor Howl
- Undecided - Summer con (Anywhere between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Not Anthrocon this year as I have been there twice in a row now)
- Furpocalypse 2026 - Halloween - Rock and Roll Nightmare
- Undecided - Midwest Fur Fest 2026??
Hope to see you there, friends!
Ringgar's Furpocalypse 2025 Photos!If you have or see any photos of me or with me in them on any social media site or Furtrack, please send me a message and let me know! Thank you!Thursday, the 30thMy plan for travelling to Furpoc this year was to get to the hotel as early in the morning as possible, check in, and lend a hand where needed to the con staff for setup. I was able to at least leave for the con when I had planned, but wound up arriving over an extra hour over the duration such a trip would normally take me. The reason being the inclement weather. A nor-easter was expected to hit the state all day, and it showed its might in both wind and torrential rain. There were several accidents up and down I-91, and I had to make swaps between the Wilbur-Cross and I-95 in order to get around them all. Thankfully, I did make decent time and was able to check in to my room very early! A number of friends of mine had arrived the day before and were having breakfast in the lobby while I was unpacking. When I finished, I went downstairs to say hello to them and shared my plans for the day. I invited one of my pals, Dax, to go with me to the bus station like I had done the previous year in order to get a bus pass for the weekend. We walked over to the station, unfortunately, by the time we arrived, the ticket office was closed for lunch. Instead I opted to use the kiosk just outside the office, but it only offered local day tickets. I intended to buy a few so that I would have one for each day, but to my surprise, unlike the 10 ride tickets I normally get, these ones were activated immediately, not upon first use! In other words, I had three tickets that were only good for Thursday. Whoops! I gave one to Dax and we walked back to the hotel, chuckling about it (with a bit of facepalming on my part) on the way back. The walk to and from the station only takes about 20 minutes, but it takes another 10 to get into downtown Stamford proper, where all the shops, things to do, and restaurants are, which is why I prefer taking the bus compared to doordashing for food. It certainly is a lot cheaper! (By the way, I updated my route list for the con for 2025, and it is now hosted On the Furpocalypse Con Site!)
After returning to the hotel I offered up my time to help set up what still needed to be done, and I went with a group of volunteers to set up the headless lounge! We spent about an hour setting both lounges up, but time flew by in the blink of an eye, and it was already an hour before registration opened! I got in line with a few friends, and we were able to get through the line fairly painlessly, though I know others did not have the same experience over the weekend due to technical issues behind the scenes with registration, so I am glad I lined up when I did. I had intended to go do some early bucket brigading through the reg line at this time, but the Charity room did not open until the following day. Instead, I made plans to get dinner with my friends Rags, Celsic, Andrew, and Laz. We met in the lobby and I was able to convince them to take the bus with me into downtown. It didn't take too much convincing as the weather had taken a turn for the worse, in both the wind and the rain. We bussed up to downtown, then walked through the flooded streets to the Mecha Noodle Bar (a chain some of you may be familiar with) and had some nice hot soup bowls for dinner, something great for a rainy day, especially after getting soaked by it! We all decided after dinner that we didn't want to wait in the rain for another bus, so we took a taxi back to the hotel instead.
I changed my now-soaked socks for some fresh ones and put Ringgar on for the first time in the evening, first to attend Opening Ceremonies, and then to attend my suit sibling Ripley's Hockey Furs Panel! I will admit, I am not much of a hockey fanatic, but I did happen to bring my Western MA Furs group jersey with me, which is a hockey jersey, and decided to crash the party! It was a comfortably-sized meetup, with folks going in and our over the hour, while the majority of the panel was either talking about or watching the Ranger's game, or ranking the NHL mascots by [REDACTED]. By the end of Ripley's panel it was late at night, and because I was feeling brave, I decided to head to an 'unofficial' dance event hosted by a number of friends of mine, hosted by
Kittybean, Artimio, Jedi, and Lucid, called The Battle of Subway vs. Metro! The premise of the event was that it was a 1v1 Dance event for very, very beginner dancers. I decided to participate, and I danced! Very poorly I might add, but I still did! I didn't go far at all in the contest aspect, but it was nice hanging out with friends regardless! Speaking of friends, the last event I did on Thursday was to go to my pal Mey's panel about advanced photography! Their panel was different from what you might expect from a name of "Furtography 102." While they did discuss some techniques, their focus was primarily about the 'why' you would want to do furry photography. Who they admire as a photographer, why they do so themselves, and I couldn't help but feel how personal this panel was to them. Panels like this are one of my favorites, because it is not only educational and interesting, but because it gives a window into the life and emotions of the presenter. Learning more about the interesting people of this fandom is one of the reasons I love being a furry so very much. At the end of the panel, the clock had long since stuck midnight, so I decided to retire to my bedchamber for the eventful day ahead.Friday, the 31stHalloween has descended on Furpocalypse once again, and with it, the busiest day of the convention for this wolf! I woke up in the morning and used what was left of my bus pass from the day before to get some breakfast before making a beeline back to the hotel. I decided to split my breakfast for tomorrow so that I wouldn't have to buy too many additional bus tickets for finding food. I took my time with breakfast as the day didn't truly start until a little before noon that day. My first event for the day was one of my all-time favorites, the annual Fursuit Games! I love doing the fursuit games every year because I find it an interesting challenge to balance doing a team game while also being a silly animal at the same time. Usually, that all comes together into one, very funny, perfect harmony for the audience to watch! I joined the purple team again this year, in keeping with previous years, while the majority of my friends who were in attendance were on the red team! We played a few different relay games: tray balancing, trick-or-treating with plastic balls, charades, and of course, musical chairs. During musical chairs, I was eliminated early because I, very confidently, planted my rear onto a chair that was not, in fact, present. At least I fell on the ground tush-first, but because of my fursuit blind spot, I wasn't expecting to do so, so I was quite surprised! I was OK in the end though, and while our team didn't win this year, we still came third! At the time the games had ended, I had been in fursuit for 3 hours, so I decided to take a break from suiting, and returned to semi-human form to go to another panel. My pal Vought had suggested I attend the panel he helped write for, the VERY popular Change The Game panel! This panel is a furri-fied clone of the Change The Game T.V series, in which the game is different every time. I had never seen Change The Game on T.V before, so I wasn't quite sure what I was going to watch. Turns out, it was a barrel full of chuckles! There were two games during this two-hours long panel, the first involved contestants giving a bunch of answers in the form of one-liners and pick up jokes, and the second game involved contestants needing tickets to answer questions, tickets that they had to earn by doing various challenges from the audience! I even got to participate by throwing a foam football! My throw needed a little work, but it did accidentally make things more hilarious (Sorry Leon!) and I got called out for it on stage. I can absolutely see why this panel is so popular now, despite this only being its second occurrence at Furpoc! It's a nice mix of improv comedy and silly fursuit antics, two things I always get giddy about! If I am able to go to the panel next year, I'd love to do so again!
After several hours of making and having fits of laughter, I had some dinner in the hotel, then returned to my room to get ready to pass out candy for trick or treating! I had tricks and treats this year again, similarly to last year, and regrettably, the treats went significantly faster than last year. I thought I had been prepared, but I wound up being woefully short on candy to give. I almost struggled to get rid of all my candy last year, which is why I thought I was prepared, but instead I got cleaned out within the first 45 minutes. Thankfully, Blush, a good pal of Jedi's, was in the room down the hall, and gave me a large bag of extra Tootsie Rolls they had to pass out. Unfortunately for me, those also all went in about 20 minutes. I was about ready to call it for the night, but I still had more than enough tricks to give out; my never-ending fountain of earplugs! I do hope some folks found that useful, I know my room neighbors also ran into a similar situation with running out of goodies this year! Thanks to my bucket of tricks, I was able to last for the duration of the event. I'll be better prepared with more treats, and tricks, next year too! I didn't have long to tarry at the end of trick or treating though, because immediately afterwards, I had a panel to co-host with my pal Carbon! This panel was all about turning your fursona into a Magic the Gathering Card! For context, Magic the Gathering is a hobby of mine, and one of my favorite things to do with Magic is to make my own, unofficial custom cards! Especially when it comes to making versions of my friends fursonas, and my own! Our panel focused on what makes a Magic card a Magic card, as well as first design tips and a whole section dedicated to designing cards for folks live on the spot! We decided to run a lottery with the audience to choose those who wanted to have their fursonas turned into a Magic card concept! These were all quick and dirty, V0.1 designs, but they were fun to do quickly and by the seat of our pants! Better yet, we packed the room for this panel, with folks even standing to watch! Overall I would say the panel was a GREAT success, and I am very happy to have helped Carbon host something that aligns with both of our interests! After the panel, we chatted for a little bit to give each other feedback about what should be done for the next time we host this, like having some fewer slides and a longer time slot for more audience participation, so we will work on implementing that the next time the con comes around!
After the panel wrapped up, I was still riding high with energy, so I decided to do some late night fursuiting! I also decided to do something a little different from what I normally like to do: I went to a public room party! There was a room party being hosted in the Presidential Suite at the top floor of the hotel for several hours that night, and because it was being held for the con charity, I decided to check it out! The room was absolutely PACKED. It was hard to shuffle around folks, fursuit or not, with how much was there! DJs, beer pong, Nintendo games, and of course, booze! I didn't partake in any food or drink as I was in fursuit, but the vibes, especially at this time of night, were immaculate. Better yet, I ran into a few friends there too!
Gale_Frostbane and 
Strobes were in attendance, as well as some friends of my pal Shyama from way out of town! I didn't know this at the time, but apparently fullsuiting at a large room party is not something people typically do? My guess is because of the food and drinks being around, but it could also be because of the heat, though truth be told, I didn't feel any heat difference up there than what I do normally! The party was great, and I even popped and locked a little bit with Strobes, and bounced around with Shyama's friends to the DJ before I left shortly before the party wrapped up! I went downstairs into the lobby to suit around longer, and also to get a fursuiter badge (I chose #088!) from Con-Ops in the short window I had to do so before they handed out random numbers the following day! I actually lost track of time at this point and wound up suiting for another 2 hours before getting back up to my room late late that night. I took a little bit of time before bed to wash my underarmor for future use, and finally went to bed with the buzzing of fans in my room drying everything out!Saturday, the 1stThankfully, despite me being out very late Saturday, my day didn't truly start until a little before noon, so I was able to get a good 7 hours of sleep. I had the other half of my breakfast from yesterday down in the lobby, and suited up around 11AM to get ready for the fursuit parade and photo! The parade didn't start until 1PM, so I took the opportunity to do an hour of bucket brigading for the charity, and an hour of catching up with friends I hadn't had the chance to do so with yet! Once the parade lineup was about to begin, I walked over to find that the line was, in fact, quite significant this year (more on this later!) So much so, in fact that the con staff had to direct us through the registration room to keep the line in the lobby down! Despite the line, the parade was able to proceed on time this year, but with a new route for people to view us from! The route was significantly longer this year, so that, instead of everyone walking down the curving flight of stairs in the lobby, we walked outside around the dealer's den up a small gravel path on the hill, before walking down along the sidewalk and on to the lawn! The temperature outside was perfect for the photo, and while the glare from the sun was a bit annoying, it wasn't enough to dampen my spirit! What was damp, however, was the ground... Despite a dry day yesterday and a dry windy morning, the lawn outside had still not dried out from the nor-easter, and my outdoor feetpaws got fairly muddy. I was able to somewhat clean them with the folex I brought later on, but at that point, I decided not to use them for the rest of the con, as the claws especially didn't fare too well, even after a manual clean. Despite this, I still walked around to be chatty with the folks I saw before heading up to the room to swap for my indoor feetpaws, which I appreciate having SO much more after this incident!
I decided to swap the feetpaws rather than swap out of suit because Dax and I decided we wanted to get some photo room photos taken! I agreed because it had been several cons since I last had a photo room session, and we came up with some nice poses to do together! However, when we arrived at the photo room, we were told there would be an hour wait before our turn was up. As such, Dax and I went to the tail-end of the Exotic Snack panel right next door. We didn't have too many snacks as the time was already wearing thin for the panel slot, so afterwards, we both returned to our respective rooms to chill for an hour before returning to the line. I didn't get out of suit in my room in case I had to run down quickly for our number, but an hour came and went, and we both met back up at the photo room only to have to wait for another hour. It was at this point that I remembered I had written about this experience before in another journal and that I wouldn't be doing Photo Room photos again unless I was very lucky, and this was the reason. Once you are in line, you don't know when your number will be up, so you don't want to get out of fursuit, and at the same time, you don't want to start any other activities. Despite all this, we did get some nice photos together like we had wanted to! The photos were taken by Lingling Fennec, and they did a great job! I noticed that my fur was a little bit disheveled in one of the photos, but that was certainly because I had been in suit for 6 straight hours at that point. Unsurprisingly, after the photo, I took Ringgar off and let him rest while I went uptown to grab dinner for Sunday! Dinner for Saturday night was quite the nice event however, as several friends and I met in the hotel restaurant to have a belated birthday dinner in Dax's honor, as his birthday was just a week before Furpoc! The food wasn't anything to write home about, but the company made it all the worthwhile! (Happy birthday again Dax!)
After dinner, the night was still young, and I wore Ringgar's fullsuit one more time for the night to attend one of my all-time favorite panels from several New England furry conventions: Furry Improv hosted by
heathclaws! I've mentioned this before, but I've fallen in love with doing improv at furry cons for two primary reasons: It gives you an avenue to be goofy, off-the-cuff and make others laugh, and it allows you to do so while being a silly animal person! I attended this event along with my pal Tripp, who actually recently started a job as a middle school theater teacher for improv! We played lots of games, went completely off the rails several times, and I'm fairly certain our laughter could be heard down the hallway! If you haven't been to an improv panel at a furry con yet, especially here in New England, I'd highly encourage you to do so, if not to participate, then to watch a late night comedy show featuring absolutely everyone! Shortly after the panel, I returned to my room to get out of suit after being a dog for another 3 hours, but I decided to stay up longer as I wanted to so some Karaoke! While waiting for my song, Daylight Savings Time ended, and the cheers could be heard through the hotel for an extra hour of party and rave time! (Thanks to the con staff for sticking the extra hour out for all of us!) At some point I realized that my song wasn't going to be played for another couple of hours, so I decided to instead bring my beyblade arena down to the lobby and spin metal tops with random passer-bys and friends! I enjoy sharing one of my little hobbies with others, and it wound up being a big hit, even that late at night! Though later on I found out that a number of my friends went to Karaoke and were able to sing even after I left the Midnight Lounge believing my time would come way too late. Had I known, I would have stayed! I've been trying to do Karaoke at any con since Furpoc last year, but I always arrive too late. I will sing again, I swear it! However, I did want to be in bed not too incredibly late, as I had something quite important to do the following day! Sunday, the 2ndSunday was the most important day of the con for this wolf! My day started early with breakfast and preparation. Just like at AFC just a little over a month ago, I was given the opportunity to host my Furry Con Smashbooking Panel! I had made a couple of changes to my presentation style and was a little bit more comfortable with what I was presenting since AFC, so I was eager to take my lessons learned and make this the best panel it could be! I was also able to bring my smashbook and a shadowbox with me this time as a live example, as I didn't need to pack them on a plane! I'll be honest, due to the fact that my panel was in nearly the same time slot as the AFC panel was, and the fact that people were up even later due to Daylight Savings time the previous night, I didn't expect many more attendees than I had at AFC. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the ~20 people who attended the panel for the whole duration! I also got some positive feedback from the attendees, both at the time of the panel and later in the day! If you are reading this and you were at my panel, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude for taking the time out of your day to attend while I yapped about stickers, tape squares and paper for half an hour! If you did not attend, I apologize, it WILL happen again . My afternoon plans for Sunday were slated to be chock-full of things to do, so I decided to have the dinner I got yesterday fairly early and made my first (and only) trip around the dealer's den, so that I could attend this year's Fursuit Dance Competition in time! One of the major highlights of any furry con, this competition felt especially different for me. Several of the friends I've made and people I've come to know and cherish were competing this year, including Tommy, Typo, Shinu, Heathclaw, Sprynx, and for the first time, Proxy (Mey!) This was also the debut for Proxy, not only as a dancer, but as a fursuit! Cooler yet, Proxy was connected to the hotel wifi, and the lights on their eyes flickered in and our with the beat of their routine, which was something completely unique for a dancer to do! All of the skills shown during this comp, and all of the love shared, made this year's competition one I will always remember more than fondly. Also silently, because I got a little carried away from cheering for everyone and lost a bit of my voice later on on Monday :P.
Once the dance competition had concluded, I decided to suit up one more time for the con and do my last round of bucket brigading before closing ceremonies. However when I arrived at the charity room, the live auction was about to begin in the main events room, so Taylor the Wolf and I decided to team up and do bucket brigading together during the auction! I had actually never been to the live auction at any fur con, so I was surprised to see how simple it actually was to understand! For some reason, I always had this perception that the bidding process was much more complex than just shouting a number, but that was in fact, all there was to it (for the most part!) Better yet, both Taylor and I wound up with a healthy number of bills for Q+! We stayed for the entire live auction, and because closing ceremonies happened immediately afterwards, we decided to stay in the room and continue collecting! While we ran around to keep raising the charity number, Mr. DeWolfe shared some important numbers about this years convention: 950 Fursuiters (in the parade alone), $18,000 raised for charity (bucket brigade additional amounts not known as of writing), and 3,150 attendees for the year, another 300 up from last year! I think the most remarkable number this year is the fact that almost 1/3rd of all attendees had a fursuit or partial! I don't know if there is any other furry con out there with a ratio of suiting attendees and non-suiting attendees as high as this one! The more the furrier, as they say! Better yet, the theme for next year's Furpoc was announced: Rock and Roll Nightmare!! Looks like I'll need to get my screamo skills into shape! I left closing ceremonies with a charge of energy at the exciting announcements, and Taylor and I turned our buckets in together! Despite the con coming to a close, there were still several major events occurring in the evening! First off was something that was undoubtedly the highlight of the con for most: A stand-up comedy show with Gianmarco Soresi, of Game Changer fame! Unfortunately, by the time I came out of Con Ops to turn in the charity bucket, the line for the show was wrapped around the entire lobby and I was not able to see the show. Most of my friends did though, and they told me the he handled a crowd full of rowdy furries well! To this day, I'm still not sure how he came to a furry con, but lo and behold, there he was! I'd like to know how this came to be someday soon! I got out of fursuit after saying goodbye to a handful of folks who were heading out that night, and went to go play Jackbox games for awhile before giving some feedback at the dedicated feedback panel! I walked around more, this time in partial, to say my goodbyes to more folks, before finally attending the last (official) event of the con: The Dead Dog Dance! This is something I like to attend more than the other dances, because of the smaller crowds, and at this point in a con, I'm still (probably) not ready to put the fun of the convention down! However this time, I was asked to do something a little different: bring my beyblades to the dance! I met up with my pal Typo, and we went to town doing beyblade battles, right there in the middle of the Dead Dog, even on the dance floor! In essence, we made a bey cypher! As silly as it sounds, it was the perfect vibe to end the con with: a little bit of whimsy that we all carry with us, and let loose at furry cons just like Furpoc! Once the Dead Dog dances were over, I went back up to my room to start pre-packing for the trip tomorrow, only to find that, apparently, Animal Art Crimes had set up an exhibit, right there in the parking garage, just like last year! It was 2AM at this point, and this little slice of the garage was still a well-attended party, with people watching movies and playing games from projectors, while also doing art together! I hung around for awhile to marvel at the setup, before finally returning to bed for my last night in the Midnight Dimension.
Return of the DawnI'll always remember my 5-year anniversary of Furpocalypse as a very special one. Not only because it is my home state con, and one near and dear to me, as well as it being my first time hosting a panel at this con, fulfilling a bucket list item of mine (which I plan on doing more of here in the future!) When I take a step back and look at this year's Furpoc, a number of things float across my mind. I now know a fairly large number of the folks who attend this con, whether they be friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, and beyond, and there are even more folks who now know me. It's quite surreal looking back at my first furry con, Furpocalypse 2019, and how out of place I felt there compared to now! I am truly blessed to know so many of the wonderful people who attend this con, and I am grateful for them, as these people are the ones who truly make the con what it is, and why I hold it so close in my heart. Despite this, I continue to meet new people here, and every time I come to this convention, I feel like I meet someone new and interesting that I didn't know before, or at the very least, people I vibe with!
On top of all of that, this year, I can't help but see myself in a number of the new attendees. I met several people who said that this was their first furry convention as well; people I met in the hall, people at my panels, and people I met in con events. Many of them seemed overwhelmed, but couldn't help but keep smiling through it all, and I can't help but remember that I felt the same way back in 2019. That PCD hit me like a truck, and I couldn't help but cry. Not from sadness, but from joy. It is a complex blend of emotions, but I'd like to think that the cherry on top is knowing that I've found my happy place. If you are reading this, and you are still feeling the melancholy after the con like I am as I write this, my message to you is: It's OK to feel that way. I hope you've found Furpoc to be your happy place! Be elated that it happened, and keep your chin up high; Furpocalypse will be back before you know it. So will I.
Thank you to all of the con staff, volunteers, and attendees who make this con a highlight of my year, every single year! Thanks to you, this convention will forever be one that I hold near and dear! I hope I was able bring a little circular happiness, laughter, and fluff to your time at the convention as well! Finally, thank you for reading!In the meantime...Now that the year is coming to a close, I am planning out the conventions I would like to attend in 2026! Next year, I will be returning to a number of conventions I've been to before because I have had such fun at all of them! This is a WIP as of the time of writing, but here is what I have...
- Anthro New England 2026 - January - It's a Western!
- Furcationland 2026 - April - Harbor Howl
- Undecided - Summer con (Anywhere between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Not Anthrocon this year as I have been there twice in a row now)
- Furpocalypse 2026 - Halloween - Rock and Roll Nightmare
- Undecided - Midwest Fur Fest 2026??
Hope to see you there, friends!
