So as some of you may have noticed, Monty didn't show up with me at the most recent DE Furbowl, Fox Farm, and A-Town South meets. He's seen a lot of tough use and had his head stuffed into airplanes' overhead bins a few too many times, so his head had to get sent back to his maker,  lurch, for some repairs a few weeks ago. He came back today, safe, sound and fully repaired, and I think it's a good time to give a little shout out to Lurch, because he's been a very good friend of mine over the years. And since he wouldn't let me pay for the repairs or even the return shipping, this is my only way to get back at him. :p

To start this story, we've got to travel back to 2007, when I attended RainFurrest 0, my first Furry convention. A few months before the con, I posted in its thread on Furtopia, to try and get to know a few people before attending a con in a town I had never been in, and for a fandom I had only recently joined. I was living in Saudi Arabia at the time, so it must have seemed very strange that I'd registered for a first-year convention that would only have 370 attendees that year (the actual reason was pure, happy coincidence: I was already visiting Seattle with my mom and sister to attend PAX, which just happened to be the same weekend. RF was my first con for purely that reason), so Lurch sent me a message on the forums to say hi. Sadly, our paths weren't able to cross that year, but we kept in touch and roomed together (along with the equally-awesome  lykanthrope and  talix) when I came back to RF the next year. I had such an awesome time rooming with those three that I repeated the experience when I did RF again in 2010 and FC in 2011.

RF2010 was a particularly special con for me, since it directly led to me having Monty. The con was an extended vacation, since Lurch and Lykanthrope were kind enough to invite me to spend a few days at their place (the Bellfurs' house) after the con, hanging out and exploring a bit of the surrounding area (SO. MUCH. GREEN.). The night after the convention, a few of the housemates ordered a pizza, and shortly before the delivery guy was due to arrive, someone asked,

"Hey, why don't we answer the door and pay for the pizza in fursuit?"

Within five minutes, we've got four fluffy critters huddled around the door, planning out a little skit for taking and paying for the pizza, and I'm one of those critters. Lurch had completed his black fox character Malaki not too long before, and it just so happened that I fit in it, so there I was. I had been chomping at the bit for years to give fursuiting a try, but living in Saudi Arabia meant I had no local furry friends to help me make a duct tape dummy and commission a suit for myself (and I wasn't so keen on dropping $2000 on something when I had no idea how long it would hold my interest). I don't think I had Malaki on for much more than an hour, but that was enough to get me hooked, and I knew this was something I wanted to do lots more of. The next morning, Lurch and I discussed me buying the suit off of him, which I did a few months later, right before FC2011. At the con, Malaki was rechristened as Monty, and he became the sign-wielding fox we all know and love today. :p

Monty and I have gone on to meet other people and attend various other cons, but these were the seminal moments of my Furry life, and I owe them all to Lurch, the best "wolf with a bit of fox mixed in" friend a fox with wolf inside could have.

Thank you so god-damned much. <3