Oh, man, it's, like, so dumb. So, the whole reason my fursona is a cheetah is because I misinterpreted a question back when I was making the character. A friend was helping me make my fursona, and she asked what my favorite animal was. Now, at the time, I was waaaay into dragons. Probably too much. But I digress. I would have said dragon. But I thought she meant real life animal, so I said cheetah, and we ended up making a cheetah character. It kinda stuck, and so my fursona's a cheetah.

How I handle multiple characters is...well, I try not to have too much. Mainly because I love commissioning art of characters, and I don't want to go bankrupt, so I keep characters to a minimum. I just have my cheetah, my african wild dog (who I won in an auction because I just needed that character), and my skunk (who I got after a character design commission I got at Anthrocon 2013), but I barely get any art of my skunk (though I should, since I love him).

Lately, though, I've been wondering if I need a new fursona. I'm not exactly the same person I was 4 years back when I made my fursona on a whim. But I just don't know how to tell what animal really fits me. So I've kinda been experimenting with transformation themed commissions to kinda feel out different animals. But, I'm pretty sure if I were to have a fursona other than cheetah, it'd either be an African Wild Dog, a bear, a deer, an otter, or a pine marten. Because all those appeal to me or fit me in some way. But it's just hard to say which is best. But I love my cheetah, even though I don't feel as connected to him like I used to. So, real difficult choice you know?

And I'm rambling now, and you probably don't care, so please forgive me.

No Sir! I am interested in your whole reply.
Are you talking about transformation themed commissions between different animals on your current character list?

Also please link to a picture of skunk you because I am interested in that xD.

Well, transformation themed art has been something I was into before the furry fandom, and actually was the thing that led me to the fandom in the first place. Like, just stuff of humans turning into animals and stuff. And, so, rather than making new characters to try to see how I'd like different species, I've just been getting tf art to sort of, like, test drive it, if that makes sense.

And here are some pictures of my skunk!
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11272621/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21194842/

Oh awesome!

Glad you like!

Also, side note, I actually never heard of pine martens before the fandom. But I'm pretty sure yours was the first pine marten character I saw. And now I think they're awesome. So, thanks for that.

Haha. No problem man. If you ever get art of a Pine Marten Char, be sure to share it with the Marten group :3

Oh, there's a marten group?

Both a FA group you can add and a Telegram chatroom.

Oh, radical. I'll be sure to ask about that if I ever do get a marten character.

Hahah well although I've known you a long time as a marten, when we first started IM-ing each other, your (and I believe it was AIM at the time too ahahah so long ago) handle was 'Bad the Crow', so change isn't so unusual :3

So Jinkx evolved a lot. It actually started out as a girl, and as a husky! and was going to be named Skittles but there was some viral internet shenanigans with a fursuiter named Skittles that year or something that I didn't wanna get involved with so I moved away from that idea to Kijinkx, then just Jinkx. The species quickly became a husky-coyote mix, then husky-coyote-jackal, then just jackal. I think I still have the original colored pencil drawing of the husky from like 2010, 2011-ish somewhere. Anyway, the species changed according to kind of... what I felt represented me in personality and physicality, which is why it evolved smaller and skinnier with bigger ears and eyes and more of a propensity to be nervous ahaha. But jackals are also very adaptable, making due and thriving with whatever garbage got thrown at them while still remaining cute af, and I felt connected with that scavenger aspect as well. The genderless aspect came into play pretty seamlessly along the way as Jinkx had almost always been feral up till that point without visible external genitalia anyway.

Buuuut lol you know I didn't stop at just one-- Jinkx felt like a good character and I didn't want to change anything more, but I didn't feel like ze represented me entirely/wholly enough (and also I love a ton of different animals, I can't stop lol), so Falla appeared, who was also female at the time and a fallow deer. However, that character was essentially discontinued since it was just like... a deer recolor of Jinkx and wasn't really that much different in personality either (pretty much she just sucked at her job), so Shinko appeared a little bit later to replace her and represent the more calmer spiritual aspect of my personality. The sika deer is relevant not only because they still retain spots in adulthood like fallow deer do, and shrieks (nice :D ) but also because the subspecies has special extra value for where it lives and the significance it plays in Shinto.

And very recently! Twiglord is evolved out of the mascot/avatar of my main Tumblr blog, which was itself evolved out of the tattoo I got years ago on my back. It started out as a european hare- jackrabbit mix, and evolved into an antelope jackrabbit with vaguely european reminiscent coloration.

Keeping more than one sona is actually more convenient (imo anyway) than just one, because it can flow more easily with your moods (and even the friends you're talking to sometimes), rather than having to try to make your one sona 'out of character' when you feel different or go through something different for a while. I find that I'll go on a kick with one of them for a while, then come back to another, and etc. I don't really feel like I'm abandoning any of them, because I do always come back.

ANYWAY THERE WAS A 200 PAGE FURRY AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY ME YOU'RE WELCOME
lololol XD

Nice fun interesting stuff in there.

Yeah I was a crow briefly in like...super early 2006. Recalling back, I think the reason was that I was starting to meet and befriend cool furries online, but up to that point I had only been exposed to the online "furries are freaks" kind of content, so I think I was somehow of the belief that making a bird-character was kind of a cheat where I could be an animal (and I quickly realized that I had always wanted to be an animal) but didn't want to be associated with the main "Furry" crowd. And I had always loved birds so it seemed like a good fit. But I quickly realized that while I loved birds, I couldn't associate myself as one very easily. Then more recently the Grey Jay character Dvikk was kind of a hearkening back to that, but once again I never really attached to the character at all.

But yes, I am excited to have different animal's represent different aspects of me, or different stages of my maturing. *shrug*. I'll see how this goes, but will have to be exploring it through artistic representations.

Oh man dude, seriously though I was exposed to the same content/attitude for like a large portion of my life lol, because when I was a kid I would actually draw anthros a LOT up until I got access to the internet
Then I completely stopped and only drew ferals because somehow that wasn't furry anD IM NOT A FURRY GUYS ITS NOT LIKE THAT
I was in denial about it for a really long time XD Until I was like 22 or 23 or something, then I caved and made a fursona and found out that actually the furry community is one of the nicest and most welcoming I'd ever been in, and I was just like
oh
That shit before was stupid, why didn't I do this earlier

I think for a lot of us, our fursonas reflect our evolving self-identity. So many of us come into this in our teens or early adulthood, where the nature of who we are (and think we are) is still uncertain and evolving. I'd always loved anthro art, but didn't get involved in the whole furry thing until my early adulthood. I was definitely still figuring myself out at the time.

First I was a jackal, then a fox, jackal again for a minute, and then I finally settled on the coyote. I've always identified with canids, but not the pack-oriented ones, so wolves and dogs were out. I actually did a lot of reading on canid behavior/mythology at one point to try to figure out what best fit me. I circled in on the coyote eventually, though as I write this, I'm having a really hard time explaining why - it just feels right. Inquisitive, clever, and creative; somewhat aloof and arrogant; a little avaricious; excitable and playful; an ironic and sardonic sense of humor; and fiercely loyal to those I care about.

I've not since thought about changing my fursona - the coyote is what I feel to fundamentally be me, though it took a few years of self-exploration to get there. I have thought about making an alternate pronghorn fursona though, off an on, over the past couple of years. I think he would be more of a detached character though, and not a reflection of my personality or some particularity therein. I guess I'm pretty content with the coyote thing, and even if I develop other characters to play around with, I'll be sticking to my coyote self pretty exclusively.

in all honestly, i'd have to say that I have two fursonas. a fursuit fursona (boder), and a personal fursona (Reid husky).

I developed Bodker, because honestly it was a great idea for a fursuit. coatimundis and pine martens are just very rare, and underappreciated animals. the suit has gone over quite well with people. had I gone with my husky fursona for a suit, I don't think It would have gone over as well because theres so many. but I am not opposed to getting a husky suit one day.

my real fursona, is this:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19600577/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4075191/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20796471/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19287891/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20659736/

a husky that's modeled after my real life self. and all the clothing I wear, I own IRL. (Except for the swim shorts). but the goth pants, trench coat, purple undies, and gothic formal outfit you see, I own. and now the one question everyone always asks me: "why is your fursona a husky and not a pine marten?"

the best answer I can honestly give you is that I created this fursona back in 2007 and after so much time developing into it, and so much money invested into commissions, I feel I've reached the point of no return. I think if it was a generic husky with little to no good artwork, then it would be easy for me to swap it for a marty. I do admit that pine marten is my species of preference. and if I had to start over, that would definitely be my fursona.