Some of my earliest favorite furry porn featured Dragoneer's sona. Which is maybe a weird thing to say, but I think being a furry is weird and uncomfortable. Dragoneer embraced that and created a space conducive of that for so, so many people like me. For that, I thank him.

I won't pretend I knew him. I won't pretend he was perfect, either. The best parallel I can draw to him is with a figure like Vince McMahon, someone driven and passionate who did great things for his cause, despite his failings. Even if my relationship to him was impersonal, we both share a love of all things furry, and I can't help but feel indebted for his contributions to a community that enables me to be entirely who I am.

The furry fandom by and large doesn't deal with losses like this. Its userbase is collectively too young for death to be frequent. For something like this to happen to someone so prominent is a moment of collective disillusionment, where we're forced to look beyond the bright fur and confront the deeply uncomfortable reality we've been escaping from. And that sucks.

We all process grief differently. If you want a place to talk about this, you can do it here if it helps you. I wish you well regardless. Thank you for being here with me, in this difficult time and all the times before it.