This year's MFF was, crazy (in both good and bad sense) amazing! First off I just want to say how happy I was to attend this year, I got to enjoy the company of my friends and the company of lots of amazing furs! I left early early Thursday morning after I got home from work with my friend  biohusky and we arrived in Rosemont around 2ish that afternoon, later on that evening I waited for my good friend  rascalov to show up at the con hotel. After he made it to the con from his place in Crown Point, IN we both hopped into my vehicle and made a 4 hour trek into the heart of Michigan to pick up my mate  foxlover_h at his house and then do another 4 hours back to Chicago to check into our room at the Hilton before 5 am!

Friday we went over to the con hotel to register that morning and we wandered the con, either hitting up the dealers den or artist alley for a little bit, then wandered the rest of the hotel, taking pics of the fursuiters running about the place. Later on we met up with our friends  hotrodwolf and his mate  morphy_darkstone and hung out for a bit, ate some Chinese take-out and when they mean "large order" they are not fucking around! I ordered a large beef lo mein and got a carry-out container the size of a 12v battery (the batteries that Power Wheels vehicles run on)! And if you order a large soft-drink, expect to get a 2 liter bottle of pop! Lol.

Later after eating; the mate, Rasc and I were invited to an inflatable room party hosted by  Ipequey where there was plenty of booze, and lots of squeakies! Met up with another friend  rikku_lion I also got to meet some other amazing furs such as the sweet dolphin  cyrin (and I still never got a pic of him in his adorable suit) D:, met  thesweetiger, and got to meet a friend of mine from Singapore, I had been talking to online for years on Messenger  smyle. It was great getting to finally meet him in furson after all these years, and get to talk muzzle to muzzle, he even brought me a present; he gave me one of the rare, and hard to obtain Lion King beach balls, Intex put out several years back for only a year. This really tickled me to receive such a rare toy from such a wonderful person, Smyle if you read this, thank you so much for the beach ball, and finally getting to meet you in person, you are a really awesome fur to talk to, and a great friend, sorry I wasn't able to say goodbye to you after the con. I hope your travel back home was safe?

Saturday Inola, Rasc and I hit up Giordano's for lunch as we did last year, again we missed the fursuit parade. Made it back to the con hotel, I decided to get a couple of new badges done, and a new one for my mate, then bought some things from the Den; which included a Galaxy Quest themed shirt, an adorable Rainbow Dash sitting plushie, and my first furry porn novel, signed by two of its authors! Hung out some more with Hotrod and Morphy. Later on in the evening Inola and I stopped by  ElkiUnico's room and got to hang out with him and his mate  ShadowRunner1 for a little while, then later on Inola and I met up with Rasc, and one of the UK furs whom I didn't get properly introduced to, and we had some drinks at the bar and chatted for a bit.

After the bar we met up with yet another good friend  Vixmuyo and talked some more until about ten till one when the fire alarms started to go off and we were asked to evacuate the hotel! Shuffling outside into the cold every furry was greeted by lots and lots of flashing lights of police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, a decontamination unit, and a few FBI squad cars! Why? Because some asshat thought it would be fun to intentionally break open a glass container of chlorine powder in one of the stairwells in the hotel, trying to get tons of people sick, or worse. Reported that 19 people had been rushed to the hospital due to small exposure to the gasses, and from updates sounds like everyone will make a full recovery!

It pisses me off and also saddens me that someone who intentionally tried to pull this kind of bullshit at a furry con, in the hopes to harm us. What really pisses me off about this thing is that not only were furs targeted but there were several families there with children, not to mention several other people staying there with their pets for the annual dog show that was happening that weekend! I truly hope that the police nab this worthless piece of waste of human space, and lock their asses up in prison for the rest of their natural born days to rot! In hindsight there was a little humor to be found in this atrocity, I overheard numerous furs outside the hotel joke that "Furries really do know how to party" and even Rasc had a little humors anecdote saying, "Furries really DO ruin everything!".

Sunday morning slept in a little bit, decided to hit the alley and den one last time before they closed, tried to get a commission in to an artist that I had picked out for a piece I wanted done of Inola and I riding together on the back of a PP husky toy in a pool, missed my chance as he was filled up, he said he would've like to have gotten a couple more commissions in that weekend, but he had started to come down with a bug, and the evac early that morning put the breaks on that deal as well, but I did get his email and FA information so I can get a hold of him in a later date. After that I browsed the Bad Dragon booth for a few minutes, and I kinda bought something from their booth to take home and try out. *blushes deeply and turns away shyly*

Later on; Inola, Rasc, Hotrod, Morphy and I went out to eat at a local pancake house and had quite possibly the best service I have had anywhere in the the three years I have gone to the con, and lots of yummy noms! Later on back at the hotel Hotrod, Rasc and I decided to get a photo shoot in of our Puffy Paw wolves together in the atrium part of the con hotel. It was fun getting to see numerous furs come by to check out and admire the wolfies, several of them actually decided to play around on them and had fun! It was one of those proud moments in my life that I got to share my toy and my love for inflatables with others. I freaking love my wolf!

The rest of Sunday night was pretty quite as we all knew what the following day would bring. I did however get to try out Hotrod's "modded" PP wolf, all I can say is, Murrrrrrr. Hotrod if you are reading this, if I let you borrow my tiger for a bit I would love to borrow that wolf! *sits and wags happily*

Monday morning, dreaded dreaded Monday. Packing up, saying goodbyes with tear-filled hugs as usual. It's always so hard to say goodbye to so many wonderfully, crazy and kind furs, saying goodbye to friends until the next time. I was actually lucky enough to have Inola come home with me for a couple of days after the con, I got to take him out to eat at my favorite Mexican restaurant that is the inspiration for my fursona's name, and I also introduced the fox to his very first Runza sandwich (a Nebraska made sandwich), also it helped relieve some of the depression of PCD having him here for a couple of days, although I cried when I had to drop him off at the train station for his train back to Michigan, I ended up bawling when I got back home, and was hugging and cuddling my PP wolf for comfort.

All in all it was a great con, even despite the incident Sunday morning, but us furs rolled on through the day like nothing had happened, business as usual, because we are furries, and we won't let nothing stop us!

Here's some number totals for the con:
-The convention experienced its highest attendance to date, an estimated 4,600 attendees from around 15 different countries.
-1,132 participants in the Fursuit Parade.
-The MFF charity, Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary, was able to raise $11,000 by charitable donations from the attendees and an additional $20,000 was donated from Midwest Furry Fandom, Inc.

This is why I love being a furry!