About
I became actively involved with the furry community in 2012, though I had been following it for quite a few years prior. A new friend and my partner finally convinced me to give in and make a fursona, and thus Shetani was created!
Shetani is a no-nonsense, nerdy, yet passionate cheetah with a flair for the gothic. She enjoys tea, video games, cats, and her hobbies.
Learn more about Shetani on the Fursona page.
When it came time to create myself a fursona, there was little question as to which species I'd use to represent myself in our community. The cheetah has been my favorite animal since my youth. I was always fascinated by how unconventional cheetahs are compared to the other big cats. I decided on the king cheetah variant to introduce some individuality to Shetani's design without using unnatural colors or markings.
In an inversion of the typical story you hear from furries, I initially didn't feel connected to cheetahs on more than a superficial level. As I matured and progressed through life, I found myself more strongly relating to many of the cheetah's defining aspects, most notably how they endure a great deal of hardship and injustice yet continue to persevere.
Shetani in one of her favorite pastimes. Art by Galvanity
Even before becoming a furry, I had a passion for cosplaying and attending fan conventions. It took less than a year for me to decide I wanted to try fursuiting, too.
My fursuit was custom-made by MagpieBones in 2014. It is a use-your-own-eyes (UYOE) style fursuit that, as the name suggests, utilizes the wearer's actual eyes instead of fake eyes or mesh view ports. This gives me unparalleled field of vision and ventilation while allowing me to wear my prescription eyeglasses.
Me applying makeup around my eyes in preparation for a fursuit outing.
While many UYOE fursuiters exist, a special feature of my personal fursuit is that it also uses my own hair.
Visit the Gallery page to browse through a few of my more memorable fursuit looks.
To learn more about how my fursuit works and why I chose this style, check out this video.
I share a fursuit picture every week on my Mastodon and Instagram accounts as part of the #FursuitFriday community hashtag trend.
A couple of the many hairstyles I have sported thanks to my specialized fursuit
My YouTube channel features lots of videos, including convention highlights, fursuit unboxings, and interviews. Launched in 2018, my ongoing series Cheetah Chat with Shetani covers underrepresented topics of interest pertaining to the furry community.
After the pandemic hit in 2020, I started hosting lecture panels at online conventions to share my knowledge and experience with furries at large. These are recorded and archived on my YouTube channel for all to access.
Most recently, I've begun streaming video games in fursuit, to bring us a little closer together in these isolated times.
When there isn't a deadly illness sweeping the globe, I try to attend one furry convention every year, and as many other cons as time and budget allows. Photos from my con trips can be found on my Weasyl. If you see me at a con, don’t be afraid to say hi - I need to make more furry friends! Please please please tag or send me any photos of me that you take, so I can remember the memories we shared!
I'm slowly and painstakingly moving my convention reports over onto this homepage. You can find them on the Writing page, along with a few personal essays and other word-smithery.
I am a staff member at Furry Weekly, an online magazine for - you guessed it - the furry community. My current roles include Convention Calendar segment writer, archivist, and social media ad producer.
ID card by KimsRetroShirt.
I am most active on the Fediverse, Twitter, and Instagram, and use Weasyl for art, personal suit photos, and general community networking.
See my Links page for more!