It's one year to the day when a very big box arrived at my house and I got to try on the Paskhowl thylacine fursuit for the first time.

It's been a wild year: just how I like it. Pask has travelled as far north as the beaches of the Gold Coast for FurDU and as far south as Launceston for the AFL football game and FURLAFL. I attended my first con at MiDFur in January, showed the suit to my old friends at my drunken housewarming, got drenched at mini golf for Coutzy's birthday and revelled in camera attention on tinychats and at Jadcon: Cancun in particular. I've ice skated, bowled, danced, impersonated sports stars and boy bands, won a team fursuit game, ghosted people, made children cry, high fived strangers and (hopefully) brightened the days of hundreds with enthusiasm, wackiness and tight, friendly hugs.

The furry thing itself has been a fun and edifying complement to my regular life, creating new friendships and activities, expanding my horizons and discovering more about myself and the world that we live in. The fursuit has been a big part of that in finding common ground quickly at MiDFur when I didn't know anyone there, but also allowing me to ham it up, show a bit more of myself and become comfortable with being in the spotlight.

The suit itself is a majestic piece of work by Jill0r from jillcostumes.com. For it to survive all of the antics of the past year, and two visits to the washing machine for the head, is testament to her abilities. The words I emailed to her on November 15, 2011 ring as true today as they did then:

"The suit arrived today and it is absolutely magnificent! The fit is excellent, it's nice and snug with no loose parts and very consistent across my frame. The vision through the mask is vastly superior to my other (budget) mask, both through the mesh and peripherally. The hand and feet connections are seamless; I don't think I even needed to tuck the hands and feet under the bodysuit, it just blends in so nicely.

I am incredibly impressed at the quality of the suit. You have done an amazing job working to measurements instead of a duct tape dummy. Your passion for this project and extra research into thylacines really shows in the finished product. The slicker brush was a wonderful surprise too, cheers for that!

I cannot speak highly enough of you and your work, and I cannot thank you enough. Everything is marvellous and I am absolutely delighted! Thank you ever so much!!"

It may sound a touch lame, but I can't deny the impact of furry and fursuiting in helping me live up to my sorta New Year's Resolution: "Do more, see more, be more."

Here's to another year of shenanigans and frivolity!