Awww those are such adorable creatures.

Wow, you never see skiltaire anymore

Secret things work to change dis!

Aww, so cute! Love it. =^.^= Year I was born, too. XD

wow. one of the furry progenitors are you then... hehehe. and here i thought only the modern internet bred such madness! hah.

Too bad I am not a kid of eighties, age of the true hi-fi and the begining of this furry stuff around me :C

I totally love Skiltaire, ever since I read about them not long ago.

How is something this completely adorable not more popular in the fandom?? :) I should spread the word!

There was a minor skiltaire "craze", centered around our apartment (and later, our house) "The Prancing Skiltaire" in the 1980's I was driwing all of my friends as skiltaire, and making my "All Mark" custom greeting cards. The popularity spread through the C/FO (early Japanese animation fandom) to NY and Chicago and Texas, where the clubs were most active, and at SF conventions, where I'd use skiltaire on posters and flyers. Around the time of the regular Furry parties at SF and comic cons, a group of people who did not like me and my partner, Rodney, started using skiltaire as a way to "troll" us. You can still find some very old art pieces and nasty comments containing skiltaire around the Internet. During that time, some of my friends were much more upset about the whole thing then I was, but I drew them less and the initial interest sort of faded. Over the years, people have discovered skiltaire and some have promoted them. I was mainly on the side-lines, surprised and proud, answering questions and giving permission to those who were nice enough to ask to use skiltaire in their own projects, like mucks. Now, it seems that the skiltaire have become one of the Furry community "original species", like Chakats and foxtaurs. Maybe not as well known, but cool all the same.

One thing that came out of the original skiltaire popularity was the "chirp!" greeting used by Furry fans. Many animals use the " juvenile contact call", a way that young animals keep together for safety, as a way of attracting the attention of others, even after they are adults. The "Chirp" is based on the sound that otters (and other animals, like Cheetah) make. It predated a lot of other furry greetings, except for the ubiquitous feline "meow".

Reading this is quite interesting! It's hard for me to imagine the furry fandom before the internet came along. I'm guessing back then cons and meetups were much more critical in communication, as well as fanzines.

I discovered Furry in late 1994; by then we already had usenet, MUCKs, etc... so I never really participated in a fandom without that stuff. You should do a writeup on what the early furry fandom was like. I'm betting a lot of us (relative!) newbies will find it interesting, and those around your age will find it nostalgic. :)