I've FINALLY gotten a furry avatar I'm somewhat happy with. I even have an assortment of penises to match it!
At an area called Moonlight, I was able to get a fully-customizable wolf avatar for free. I've been customizing it to an extreme extent. I've completely fucked it up a few times in the name of practice. I think the final touches will require paying to upload a texture. I might be able to do it without a texture, but I think the upload cost is about a penny. No problem.
I've successfully given the wolf a raccoon tail, by changing the colors on each section of tail. The snout still needs some work, as well as that texture I was talking about for the all-important mask. The snout can be wrong, but there HAS to be a mask.
I'll definitely upload pictures once it's finished.

Some things I'm not sure about yet: when editing the mask, I want to REMOVE some of the prims. I can't find that option. The undo function sucks, which is why I've had to start over several times. I eventually started saving each stopping point as a new avatar so I have unlimited undos.

Still looking for various furry hangouts, especially ones where I can go pantsless with anatomical correctness.