Today in Things That Could Only Happen In 2016: The Vancouver Furry Convention has come into contact with a whole bunch of Syrian refugees - with super results. The refugee children, unacquainted with some of the further reaches of internet oddities, were delighted to meet a whole bunch of life-sized stuffed animals.
Is this real life? Looks like it.
In case you're not aware, Furries are a fandom that have gained traction in recent years who like to attribute human characteristics to animals. Many Furries have 'fursonas' which are their own anthropomorphic animal avatars - complete with giant costumes. Sure, sometimes there can be a sexual element to being a Furry for certain members of the fandom but overall, they seem like a pretty cool bunch.
Anyways - as luck (?) would have it, last week at the fifth annual VancouFUR Convention in (yep, you guessed it) Vancouver, the Furry fandom came head to head with a bunch of newly arrived Syrian refugees that were being housed at the hotel.
Prior to the event, VancouFUR warned attendees to be respectful to other guests; 'Please be aware that our hotel has been chosen as one of the temporary housing locations for the Syrian refugees coming to Canada.' They said. 'A major concern that VancouFur has is ensuring that each and every one of the refugees (and attendees) feels welcome and safe and the fact that this is likely to be a major culture shock to them.'
The also asked for Arabic speakers from the Furry community to help translations and reminded the Furries that they might not be open to interaction.
Judging from the pictures from the event, they needn't have worried.
Big up the Furries.
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Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.