I can see you as a wise Lion, or a Astute cobra!

I think I agree with the wise lion. ^^

A robot.

You have my thoughts on the matter!

I went through a lot of this, trying to settle on something. I recommend starting with a species you like, and that associates in some vague way with you. It's okay if it's a bit of a stretch. It may not stick, but you'll have something for a while, and if you change, you'll probably know why, and can zero in a bit more. It might take a few jumps, but eventually something should feel right. You'll probably know it's /you/ when you start dreaming about it being turned into other things ;>

this sounds like a good process! i would also suggest running down a list of things in your mind, and, well, i guess this post's comments, and saying "is this me? could this be me?" and going with your gut reaction.

also of course it need not be set in stone that this is your one and only identity. i have about… a half-dozen or so… that are some important part of Who I Am.

This I very much concur on.

Hmm... if you were something other than your white dog character?

*thinks long and hard on this*

All the tallies from my head are in with

49% - GOAT
51% - OPOSSUM

*with a varying 1% margin thinking bat for some odd reason

I always kinda figured you were a dog, but that's Swatcher rather than you, and more based on appearances than anything else.

Why don't you just do it like me? Put together your ideal body in your mind, and make a mirror in your mind's eye to see what you look like, and then say, "Oh! It's a ..." and you'll know. I didn't start out as a squirrel, you know? I just went with "Superhuman!!!!!!" because I was a teenager and could still get away with that sort of thing. Later I realized that I had a long fluffy tail and big buck teeth!

Another thing you could do, is be that guy. That generic Joefox Everyfurry who is nobody and everybody and always there, like Office Tim.

I would think you'd be a made up species, but besides that I think you'd be one of those long critters like a ferret or an otter, that curls up into a tire and you drive away in the car.



I guess what I'm saying is, you don't have to just pick something. Let it emerge gradually, and learn from self reflection. Or, I dunno, be a big purple dinosaur.

Aardvark or platypus

Only you can truly decide this...

If someone else were to pick you will quickly find you don't feel like what was picked or identify with it. Then you would be back to square one. For me, picking a phenotype is a spiritual journey, and in the end we pick each other and not one another. Its a totem if you were... But this is not for everyone.

I started as a raccoon, then went rabbit/hare, and then back to a raccoon, finally, I started to go Boar (But this did not feel right). Now I am a VERY happy Rat! It has taken me a long time to come to this, and it may not be the last time I change my phenotype. That is the great thing about furry, you can change your mind down the road if you like. I love Transformation!

However if you want my opinion on your species. I say Skunk! Why? Because in the shamanic world Skunk is the representation of Confidence, Self-Esteem, and Self-Respect (He after all fears no ones wrath, and goes about in his daily life carrying him self well and with dignity). In these ways he is a wise teacher, and a good guide for those in need of these lessons. Not to mention Skunks are handsome, and distinctive!

Good luck on your search *Big Grin*

I really highly concur with all of this! Including the skunk part, I think skunk would really fit your RL personality.

Start with what you feel like trying on impulse, then just keep modifying it until it feels comfortable. :P I started out as a hawk but somehow ended up as a fox with some cats and dogs between the two :V

I can't imagine you being something static. Though shapeshifters and and grab-bag hybrids can sometimes get snobbery their way, I just feel like you'd be something amorphous in nature.

Alien.

Why settle? Switch it up whenever you want! It'd give you an excuse to draw a bunch of TF, anyway.

Well, let me tell you, when I first embraced the whole idea of fursonas and such, I didn't want to just have just one fursona. I didn't want to limit or just settle on just one species. So initially I chose Mister F as my furry name and then the fursonas kinda found me. Then I made sure that every one of my fursonas' last names started with "f", just to make everything nice and tidy. Eryshé is more or less the main fursona, and the one I feel most closest to in personality. But whenever the mood strikes me, I'll change my fursona to suit my mood. Being a polymorph makes things a lot easier to me.

a costume of a dog. please come up with a better name for him/her/etc than "buckmod".
an otter.
a dragon.
a rubber snake.

I'm never entirely sure that a person's identity can be mapped to another species. That being the case, I'm saying go with monkey. Someone needs to give monkeys their space in the limelight now TayMonkey never posts to FA any more. That or a bird, because I adore birds basically

Trcikster coyote springs to mind.

Water bear.

I went through a whole mess of them before settling on one, so I'd say give yourself room to experiment. I know some people who really don't have a real species that fits them, either, and who kind of settled on something they invented, so don't limit yourself too much.

Even when the fandom stuff is set aside, I think there's a lot to be said for having some concept of yourself that you can use to create a sort of personal brand online. I've ended up with a whole set of icons and avatars, ranging from overtly "furry" to very abstract. It helps me keep a sense of identity, I think.

Bah, you can be whatever you want to be, just because I identify as Griffinwolf, doesn't mean I'm constrained to that form online, I am such a TF slut (though spiritually I do identify, but that was something I figured out before I decided to immerse myself into the fandom).

What you are is something you ahve to figure out... but in the meantime, feel free to play around as different thing. Heck, your current form of squash and stretch is QUITE ideal for all of the above :) And being a bouncy sily bulbous nosed canine is always good for happygolucky funtime!

An inverted candy bar with the choclate on the inside and the nougat on the outside?

I do feel you need to be something with a twist, or something under-represented in the wider community.

...or something that could be called "sage".

Strangely, I don't think dragon is a good choice. I don't really see you with scales. Probably not wings either. But you must have a tail, possibly with a mind of its own.

Since fox is considered the starting place, I'd work from there. Find what you don't like about a fox and take it away. Add what you want, or feel you have/need. Eventually you'll end up somewhere nice.

As everyone has stated, you can end up with just about anything.
My imagination and drawing ability limits me, but my web-nose can sniff out some pretty good examples of where you can get to - http://windchaser.co.uk/art/halcine.html

why not just not choose a species, if swatcher is a cartoon keep him that way, I mean look at the warner bothers,and random other cartoon chrs that while anthro, really do not bear resemblance to any one single thing, also thought your sona was a rat or mouse,seems like that is how you depicted him for the majority

I don't have an answer for you, but I just wanted to say that your reasons for doing what you did here sound very similar to mine!

I thought you were an anthropomorphic color wheel..!

But uh, you should totally think about Dr. Seuss stuff for a while.
That's the best I can come up with for an answer.

It has been mentioned by a few comments, but this is something that really only you can conclude, but most of all you must do so in your own way. I like to think I have a higher than average idea of who you are than the majority of the FA crowd (no offense to them) but most of my suggestions would be based in a thought process of my own design, and ultimately would not be suitable for you in the same way. That said I see no harm in tossing some educated suggestions your way.

Most of all, I think you need to LET GO of this notion that your projected identity is so very important. I feel that you are spend a lot of time concerned about how people are reading you, and you have told me as such, like how people are always so shocked at how `not super crazy`they all thought you were. Firstly I want to express that no matter if you change your persona or hone it into an exacting representation, you will always have people who don;t get it all right, or not even close at all. Lets face it, we are complex beings who are used to divulging a `quota`of information when we interact with people, even if we do it subconciously.

What I mean is for example...when you meet a person for the first time, in your head whether you are aware of it or not you are creating an image of that persons personalities from start to finish, slowly but surely filling in gaps of information. For example; you meet a person for 5 minutes. In that time whether you meant to or not you can develop everything from a notion of their fashion sense to what sorts of food they like or dislike, even if it NEVER came up in conversation. And everyone does this, and they all do it in a different way. As we continue the interactions, we hone and develop this image into something more accurate or better represented.

MY WHOLE POINT OF THAT IS...online avatars can only provide so much accurate information about a persons personality, and then people will inevitably fill in the blanks with something. Sometimes an aspect (such as you are totally weird and crazy) becomes more commonly concluded because of social norms and how they effect the mass of peoples perceptions.

This is a big long spiel, its really late and I have had a lot of caffeine and sedatives (bad combo). Don`t be afraid of getting the right persona right away. Try to allow it to be organic, and understand that it is ok to change your avatar or fursona, or aspects of it to fit you as you as a person change and grow. That said here are some suggestions for places to start...

Skunk - You seem to naturally like these critters. They make for really neat cartoon characters and to me anyhow, they seem to be a good fit based on how you draw.

Dog - Flexible and sorta non-descript, which leads me to my last suggestion...

Nondescript Thing - Sorta like, how Pete and Goofy are hard to pinpoint what exactly they are. I mean we know what they are, but its so vague and distant from your idea of what that is, that it becomes this non-species. Its something I kinda like about Swatcher. He is such a nothing species, and it works so very well for him, I think something similar would be appropriate.

THINGS I DON`T THINK WOULD WORK ARE...

Lion - Now these are just personal opinions, and if you disagree that is totally fine. This is just me voicing a thought. I know this has been recommended a few times, and I sorta understand why, but it just doesn`t do it for me. I can`t make that connection in my head. Maybe cause the notion of what a lion is doesn`t add up to what my mental picture of you is. I dunno, just doesn`t gel for me.

Wolf - No this is not me saying not to be a wolf cause I am a wolf. I know you have a certain character/s that are wolves, and from a personal standpoint I imagine it might be awkward to take that on. I see this journal as an attempt to generate a new representation, and I worry that wolf would come with a bit of your own preconceptions based on other characters of your. But once again this just me voicing my mind on the matter, you do what you need to.

Hope this helps.

All that nonsense I wrote about Swatcher not really representing my full personality makes it sound like I'm suddenly totally down on the dude. I'm not going to quit being Swatcher! I should probably have mentioned that! I don't think he would let me even if I wanted to. He's fantastic, I love being him and he brings me so much happiness, I wouldn't change that! It's just that sometimes I want, you know, to be directly involved in Situations, but I don't want to depict myself as a human. Along with this line of thinking, I realize I've never thought once about what sort of creature I'd be if I suddenly switched dimensions into furryland. I could easily be anything, because it only matters insofar as I might have to commit to it for a while and I'm super flakey! All these suggestions have a bit of appeal... knowing a bit about what other people think helps to narrow down the field of choices quite significantly.

It's not that serious an issue. I haven't outgrown Swatcher (he's one-size-fits-all, naturally) but now that I'm less neurotic I can probably throw a more self-insertiony character into the mix.

I was going to say "badger" (whoops, I just did) as a serious counterpoint to the cartoon dog. But the "super [flaky]" comment sent me in a different direction, looking for a species that demands respect but gets none. That would be the turkey, Ben Franklin's candidate for the national bird.

I'm also thinking you want brief suggestions, so you can reject poor ones more instantly, not that you're the type to phrase it that way. Is that more or less correct?

A cartoon, but as a species instead of a style. Maybe something like the Animainiacs ie. the Warner Brothers not the girl. Although, Swatcher core as female would be something i could not put my head around.

You can be whatever you want to be!

And what you want to be is a kangaroo.

From reading your journals I get the impression that you're an owl.

A goat.

But that's probably because I wished I had my own goat fursona.

The phenotype is similar to some of your illustrations of Swatcher. They're mischevous, cute, and kind of dangerous (in that you must mind them or get butted/your stuff nibbled). You could wear a cute bell around your neck! :)

A kangaroo would also be good for you, I was primarily a 'roo for around a decade and it worked out quite well. :) And 'roos are mischevous, cute, and kid of dangerous (in that they can disembowel you)!

Something trickstery comes to mind, but I think that's mostly relating back to your Swatcher-self. Maybe that's works for this, too, maybe not... The other thing that comes to mind is some sort of polymorph, but that may get into the difficult situation again of not having something clearly defined as a default form.

Everybody loves foxes. (Ok they're a bit overdone, too.)