I recently got asked by someone on twitter "What makes fursuiting worth it to you?" And that really got me thinking. So here's my answer:

It's no secret, I'm absolutely addicted to fursuiting. There isn't a waking moment of my life that I wouldn't want to be in suit.

Fursuiting gives me an amazing and unique opportunity to give back to my local community. Whether it be riding along with animal control to raise money for the local no kill shelter; to just strolling down the street. This costume has given me all the tools I need to really do some good and have a lot of fun along the way. More often then not I find myself walking Commercial Street in Provincetown, dressed as a 6ft tall canine just because I'm bored, but what I find when my paws hit the road is an endless supply of energy and a drive to go make people smile.

Every outing I go on will always yield one special person who has a story. These stories have ranged from just having a bad day, to getting fired from their job, all the way to a parent/sibling recently passing. There's truly something special about turning someone's day around and even if for a brief moment putting a smile back on their face. Someone's day was just greatly improved because I thought it was a fun idea to wear a 25lbs animal costume in the middle of the summer.

Maybe I'm the crazy one, but if this is crazy I sure as hell don't want to be sane! Seeing people's face light up is a drug to me. There's a special and unique "high" you get from making people smile, laugh and hell get down right childish for a few moments. In those moments nothing else mattered to them; that was happiness in its purest form.

So, what makes fursuiting special and worth it to me- The audience. Fursuiting is nothing without an audience, each and every person I meet and encounter every time I put this suit on; they are what makes it special.

A fellow suiter who's a much better linguist then me put it this way:

"It easily overcomes social boundaries.
It does not recognize race, age, gender or economic status.
It draws people together instead of polarizing everybody
into factions of "us" and "them," and it produces
smile after smile after smile.

I have seen it make an autistic child speak for the first time,
a father fall to his knees and cry and
a grandmother dance with joy.

It is free to all, never asks for anything in return and
only exists in the boundary between imagination and reality.
It cannot be quantified or marketed, commercialized or sold.
It is a thing of rare beauty and grace, and when it does exist, time
ceases to have meaning and all that matters is the connection.

I'm just a dumb ol' mutt, and I can't explain what "it" is.

I only know that I've been fortunate enough to be
around when it is present, and for that I am eternally grateful "
-Dogbomb