The floofs is strong with this one. :3

a veritable ball of brown and cream fur.

Lupine Noblewomen must be doing a looot of shaving to keep their fur trimmed short during winter season. xD

Oh definitely, thoug closer to the coast it's not as cold (they also have maids to deal with it as well.)

I figured as much. Nobles usually have maids or manservants to help them with such things.

And about 16 years later I'm still waiting for artists to use details like this more often. *sigh*

How so?

How often do you see winter fur used in art or writing? Added the tail and ears to convey body language? I remember a short comic in Furrlough were a sophisticated canin lady is accosted by biker party crashers. When her female friend scares them away she is left standing literally with her tail between her legs. Together with her eyes, ears and stance it conveyed her fear. I know I've seen different fur lengths used, but aside from your picture I don't recall them exactly, which tells me how rarely it's being used and how little impact it had.

I'm from a time were furries put a little more work into the background of their characters and into world building. Which is why I got interested in the fandom in the first place.

Check out the blown coat when suprised!

I did a long time ago

Oh, I hear you. I grew up with dogs and they are as expressive as people if you know them. I think too many folks aren't paying attention. Wolves are even more so, Wolves have no subtlety in their expressions and moods, their body language is so clear, I wanted to carry that through and treat the humanoid body with mostly human body language, but crown it with canine or Lupine expressions. There is a lot of material there. Most people though treat their anthros like Cartoon characters, because if they don't have a pet, their interaction with animals are through cartoons and there is more than a century of media language on expression for them to use for their stuff, it's not necessarily wrong, but the approach is different, It makes the characters just humans in suits, rather than unique creatures. The days of "anthro exploration, I think ended, when stories went from outward, exploring space and time, to inward, exploring gay acceptance and slice of life stories.

Exactly. I enjoy Ken Cougar's pictures of an exited feline character which had a twitching tail tip.
And yes, after not being able to attend a major convention I noticed that nearly all furry books were slice of life stories. No adventure or exploring different cultures, i.e. "anthro exploration". Hmmh... I have to remember your term.

Hm...actually what drew you to the fandom is exactly what drew me to it as well. Slice of life stories are good and all, but sometimes a good adventure story or a story exploring another culture is what I'm after. I've always been interested in different cultures especially when I checked a book about Ancient Egypt from my elementary school library when I was a child. So I know what you mean.

In case you are interested, two of the stories that drew me in are still online for free:
Khiray of the River: http://www.furry.de/khiray/intro.htm
Light on Shattered Water: http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~howellg/st.....s/stories.html
While I learned a lot about stories since then and recognize some faults, I think they are both still great stories.

So fluffy!!! I want to help brush her in the wintertime!

..and get static shocks?

Ploofy Asheru is ploofy!

Yes... yes, she is.