WEBVTT

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You know I get these experiences

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that other people would pay
a lot of money for like...

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I was standing there having a
conversation with a kangaroo

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about who was the better Dr. Who.

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You know I was thinking like,

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usually you have to take a lot of drugs

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to have that conversation,

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you know, but I was getting it for free.

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I\'ve always believed that

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I\'ve been a rat.

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And I like to say that

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I was born a rat and I will die a rat.

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I didn\'t choose the rat,

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who would want to be a rat? It\'s
not a very glamorous species,

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I believe the rat chose me.

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I remember as a kid seeing

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the Philly Fanatic and just loving it

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And I loved baseball I followed
it very closely and watched

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the game and everything but
whenever I saw the Fanatic

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I was watching the Fanatic more
than I was watching the game.

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The act of putting on a mask
is a very profound thing.

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For example someone might be very shy

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when they are not in the suit,

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they put the suit on suddenly
they are the life of the party.

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It\'s funny that putting on a
mask allows you to be yourself.

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But, it\'s hard to be

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bouncy and happy

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and interact with strangers in this world

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if you are a normal human being because

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people don\'t do that.

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I mean, that\'s crazy.

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But if you are in a mascot costume

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you can do it!

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One of my furry friends
calls me a metafurry,

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which I think is a pretty good description.

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I am a fan of the fandom.

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The furry fandom is a sub culture

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that is centered around
anthropomorphic animals.

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The fursuiters are sort of the
ones that go the whole hog.

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They actually get full body suits made.

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These suits are incredible
I mean when you see them.

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Either you spend thousands of dollars

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getting a custom made suit for you

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or you take the time and energy to

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learn how to make a suit yourself.

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I know furries who are mechanics.
I know furries

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who are in the military.

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I know furries who are unemployed

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and living in their parent\'s basement.

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It is the whole realm of humanity.

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There\'s a geek chart.

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Furries are at the very
bottom of that chart

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and I\'ve shown this to
all of my furry friends

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and they all totally own it.

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They are like, \"Yup that\'s right.

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We are there at the bottom of that chart.\"

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And they are fine with that.

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And that\'s kind of one of the
things that I admire about it.

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The whole fandom is that,
you know, they\'re,

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They are doing this thing that

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everybody thinks is the
dorkiest thing in the world

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and they don\'t care.

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They are just doing it anyway
cause they love to do it.

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And I really admire that.

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Rattus has lots of friends.

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He knows lots of people

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or lots of people know him.

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Whereas I\'m not so well
known in my human form.

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Being furry is an important
part of my personal identity.

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I think rats get a lot of negative press

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in western society.

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I want to try to present
my own counter to that.

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Rattus is almost a very political creation,

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he\'s about trying to say
to the general community

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that hey, rats are OK,

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you don\'t have to despise them.

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Early on, wearing Rattus, I
was actually disappointed at

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how many people thought I was a mouse

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rather than a rat, which is,

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to me, as a rat,

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is a little insulting.

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It\'s as if Rattus hasn\'t brought
out his rat-ness appropriately.

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Previously I\'ve always felt
as if I was, ironically,

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wearing a mask.

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Only showing a carefully
censored version of myself.

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So that I could fit in. But,

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in the furry community I
feel as if this is me.

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I can be who I am.

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And I can express what
I feel on the inside.

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They understand what I mean
when I say that I am a rat.

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I was the shy one.

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I was never one who would ever

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perform in any capacity

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I always had stage fright.

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It was scary to me!

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I didn\'t have that in me, I thought.

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It was just an amazing

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experience to find out that I\'m
really not alone in this world.

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There\'s something really special

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about making a stranger smile.

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I have to admit from my own
little selfish perspective,

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it\'s very powerful to me
because inside that head

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I am smiling ear to ear,

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it just brings me great joy.

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Rats are evil, they make
you fall in love with them

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and then break your heart by dying.

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I had two pet rats,

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sadly both of them have passed away,

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And it was the most painful
thing I\'ve ever gone through,

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holding his little body in my hands,

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and he was convulsing, he had a stroke.

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And I knew I was going to
have to take him to the vet

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to have him put down, and

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it was the most awful
experience of my life.

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I took the responsibility
of ending his life.

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I\'ve buried him in the front garden where

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I can still be close to
him in that respect.

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I envied my pet rats.

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They didn\'t have to think
about being a rat,

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they just were, and that
was their whole life.

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They were ratty.

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They didn\'t have to be channeling it or

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thinking about what it means to be a rat.

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I feel as if I\'m a rat
trapped in a human\'s body.

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I\'m then constrained by what it means

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to be human, and so, I

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have to start afresh to express my ratness.

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For some people, you can
definitely see where the fursona

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that they create is like the missing part

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of their personality.

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It\'s an extreme form of
trying to find yourself.

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And for some of these
people finding who they are

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means becoming not a human.

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It\'s funny, cause if you are

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being this really

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joyful character, you become
that joyful character.

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Once I had a taste

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of that I wanted more of it.

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I can\'t wait to see where it takes me next.

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There will come a time that I
will have to retire Rattus.

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He\'s going to become threadbare.

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I find that notion personally

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very painful, because

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when that day comes I\'m going to
be giving up part of who I am.

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Being in the room with
a guy in a bunny suit

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or a fox suit or whatever,

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is always weird,

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no matter how many times you do it.

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I am a huge Star Wars nerd.

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Although I haven\'t actually
been to a Star Wars convention

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I do own some Jedi robes.

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I know what it is to love something

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that most people think is silly.

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And so I think I that\'s part of why

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I get along pretty well
with the furries because

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I speak geek.