A couple from Calgary who identify as “furries” travelled to Sweden for a furry convention, after which one unexpectedly died and the other is crowdfund-campaigning for the funeral and flight home. According to WebMD, furries are people who have a “personal and/or sexual interest in anthropomorphic animals or animals with human qualities,” many of which “create their own animal character, known as a fursona, which functions as their avatar within furry communities.”.Ocean Tigrox and Cami Adams attended Nordic Fuzz Con, in Malmö, Sweden from February 21-25. Adams was a collaborator on FurScience, a manual which Tigrox referred to as “the new bible.”.During their trip Adams developed a “painful infection” and sought surgery. Despite the surgery being “successful,” doctors found Adams' “cognitive state was not right.” Soon after Adam’s brain swelled and on March 5 she died. .“Cami (AKA the smart dhole Kiri or the cute fuzzy yeen Tydal) and I travelled to Sweden to attend Nordic Fuzz Con,” wrote Tigrox on the GoFundMe page..“Unfortunately, during the trip she ended up with a painful infection,” continued Tigrox. “The day before we were to fly home, the pain was so much that we took her to the hospital where they determined she needed to have surgery. The surgery was successful, but upon awakening her from the anesthetic, they found her cognitive state was not right and she wasn't responding to questions correctly.”“They sedated her and continued to investigate, finding swelling in her brain,” wrote Tigrox . “Meanwhile, her brain continued to swell and her condition worsened. On March 5th, they determined she was past the point of recovery and she passed away.”.Adams was a political science grad student “studying the effects of social media on far-right activism” as well as an “activist for human rights for people of colour, people of all sexualities and people of all genders.”“In the furry fandom, some knew her as Kirisis Alpinus, the fiery dhole who inspired people to be themselves and encouraging them to create and grow,” Tigrox wrote. “Others knew her as Tydal Yeen.”.Tigrox said after three weeks in Sweden, hospital, accommodations, and finally funeral bills have racked up, and the flight home still needs to be paid for. .Should donations exceed the $75,000 goal, Tigrox will “look into a scholarship” or “make a donation to a dhole sanctuary” in Cami’s name “as it was something she always wanted to support.”A “dhole” is a wild canine native to Asia. According to the National Zoo, the “dhole is secretive and lives in highly social, close-knit packs of three to 20 individuals with rigid dominance hierarchies (similar to African wild dogs).”The crowdfunding campaign has so far raised $18,020.
