eric76 wrote:
Furries are people who would like to live life as something similar to a cartoon animal. I understand that they often dress as their choice of animal in private, with other furries, and at furry conventions.
It sounds like you're confusing "furries" with "otherkin", somewhat. Some furries do dress up as their favorite characters, but most don't identify as or want to "be" another non-human animal. Furries are simply fans of anthropomorphic animals.
People who identify as or want to be non-human animals, on the other hand are known as "otherkin". Now there are some people who are both furry and otherkin, but the two aren't mutually inclusive, or exclusive for that matter.
I'm a bit of a furry fan, but I'm not hardcore about it. I also have some otherkin-ish tendencies in that I identify with housecats a lot, though I don't truly believe I am one.