Isolated Furry Having Trouble Connecting

Papabear,

Hello, I am 32 from Elmira, NY and I have been in the fandom for almost 20 years in one way or another.. recently I attended my first con which was Anthrocon, and since then I have been feeling lonely in the fandom. I think it might have been that I actually got to see how many furs are actually out there. anyways my town is medium in size and I have been trying to find other furs in my area but has come to nothing, I have tried all avenues I could think of putting a post on different local boards, Craigslist and the such. I have met other furs in surrounding areas online but with no way for me to get around there is really no way to actually get together with these furs. Anyways my question is, “Could you suggest any other way I might be able to reach out and find other ways to find furs in my area?”

A NY Fur (age 32)

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Hi, NY,

I get this question quite a lot, actually: how does a furry connect with other furries when they live in an isolated berg with no one else around? I can sympathize a little bit in that there is only one other furry in my neck of the woods—the Coachella Valley—and I have to travel to Riverside or San Diego or Garden Grove to meet with furries. Helps to have a car, of course, and if you have no means of transportation you’re kind of screwed.

If there aren’t any close-by furries and you have no transportation to meet those farther away, and no one is willing to come to you, then the only remaining option (until someone invents a Star Trek transporter) is the virtual world. Have you tried SecondLife? Many furries are on SL and there are entire areas of SL devoted to furries as hang out places. SecondLife is still very popular with furries, although the enthusiasm seems to be dying down a bit, according to articles like this one. There are some other virtual games, such as InWorldz and OnVerse but I don’t really know much about them.

The next question is this: how necessary is it for you to stay in Small Isolated Town? If you have to stay there for financial reasons, then, again, you’re pretty much stuck. However, if moving is a possibility, and if it’s important for you to get social interaction with furries, then how about moving as an option? Sometimes, we get really set in our ways and it doesn’t even occur to us that we can get off our duffs and move to another city.

Good luck!

Papabear