Shottie the Rat's
Murine Musings
Early Thirties
Vertebrate Zoologist
Sonoran Desert, Arizona
Contained below are some thoughts on identity and values.
Links
Who I am;
what I stand for
I maintain several identities important to me and and grateful that I have had the luxury to choose them for myself, rather than be assigned them by society. I am a scientist, specifically a zoologist. I am a member of the furry fandom. I am a writer, a mentor, a geek, a thinker, a lifelong student of the world we live in, a goofball.
I value the voice of reason, the voice of peace, sincere gestures of kindness toward others, empowerment of the powerless, passionate exploration of our deepest interests, and willingness to learn and consider multiple perspectives. I acknowledge that I am an imperfect being who struggles but nevertheless strives to embody these virtues.
I enjoy video games that make me think; building small, cute things; thinking about and immersing myself in the natural world; time spent with my cherished human and animal companions; and creative writing that engages with my values.
The value of
the furry fandom
I have considered myself a part of the fandom since the mid 2000s, though I would never have admitted as much to anyone. My involvement in the fandom has waxed and waned over the years since, but it has always remained a consistent facet of my identity.
Most of the duration of my involvement in the fandom has been spent engaging only with a small portion of longtime friends and a passive acknowledgment of its personal importance, but I seek to change that as I find my voice to share my values with others, hopefully making new friends along the way.
As for why I am a part of the fandom: I grew up immersed in the natural world living on a farm in central Washington state. I was surrounded by conifer forests and ranchlands. I grew up catching lizards, taking care of my family's goats and horses, and cuddling my farm cat and dog. Until I moved away.
I ended up living in suburban sprawl for years afterward. At the time, I didn't realize what I had lost, or even that something was missing. As I reached adolescence I was exposed to the furry community and found it to engage with the same part of my brain that I had engaged on that old farm. I wanted more. More interactions with animals, with the natural world, with people who shared these values.
Today, my membership in the fandom is celebration, protest, and acknowledgment. It is a celebration of artistic ability and creativity, of engendering a deeply imaginative space to express our love of animals. It is a protest of the modern dualistic philosophy embodied by society, in which humans are somehow distinct, whether materially or spiritually, from the natural world. It is an acknowledgment of our origins as a species and a desire to rekindle, if only for fleeting moments, the relationship through evolutionary history and ecology among humans, animals, and other forms of life.
Why choose a rat?
I have a deep love for vertebrate life. However, I find rodents truly fascinating and admirable. Among mammals, they are the most species rich group (over 1/3 of all mammal species are rodents) and they are unique in a lot of ways, including but not limited to their big, gnawing incisors.
Among the approximately 3,000 species of rodents, none have been as important in their relationship to humans as have rats of the genus Rattus. My species, Rattus norvegicus, lives alongside humans in just about every place where humans live, as pests, pets, and research animals. They are exceptional in their ability to live alongside us, to the extent that they have followed us all over the world from their original home in Asia.
Rats are intelligent, social creatures, whose history alongside us has made them more like us than many realize. They are often stigmatized and misunderstood, thought of as dirty and even dangerous. Despite this, rats have an individuality to them that rivals the human race. Their status as a creature born of nature, but living in environments that could be construed as disconnected from nature, resonate deeply with me. For all these reasons above, the brown rat is the species by which I choose to represent myself.
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