I didn’t really keep good notes, so certain parts of this are from memory.
I believe I finalized my fursona sometime in 2023 July or August. This came with the change of Telegram userid and the addition of a new phone number shortly thereafter. (Yes, my fursona has his own phone number.) I decided on the basic species (lynx) and some of the general idea behind how my fursona is supposed to look. However, I have not yet been able to hire an artist to do a reference sheet and a badge. Those are coming in the next few weeks to few months.
I started going out to many of the local furry meets here in/around Houston. I will describe some of them without revealing too many details. Most of them are monthly meets. The few that aren’t are seasonal/one-off type events, though we do have a few meets that are quarterly or semi-annually.
The first meet is at a local counter-service pizza place which offers pizza by the slice among other Italian specialties. This particular meet was the very first one that I attended. I have made it here more months than not. One notable month I missed was due to a “mundane life” conflicting event. There are other restaurant meets as well, most taking place on Friday or Saturday evenings. At least one occurs on Sunday morning/early afternoon. A couple of them occur during the week. Most of the restaurant meets are non-fursuiting events. There are a few places that do let us wear fursuits (most just suit up for the group photo).
We also have park meets, mostly of the potluck type where (almost) everyone brings a food, drink, or supply item. The potlucks at the park, so far, occur on Sundays (two different parks in different areas of town). There are also fursuit park walks on Saturday evenings, though these tend to be more of a seasonal event during the fall, winter, and spring as it often becomes just too hot to do these here during the summer months. There are also arcade/barcade meets, bowling/lasertag meets, a go-karting meet, and movie meets, many (but not all) of which repeat monthly. We’ve had other meets in the past which are no longer being held. This usually happens because the host is either no longer part of our group or has relocated out of the area.
I realize the furry community is not like this in every city, but to me this is what makes being a furry so much fun. Despite past challenges, I have found at least the local furry community here to be the most warmly welcoming group I have ever been a part of and my biggest regret has been not taking the plunge to be a part of it sooner than I did.