How exactly can one describe Camp FERAL?

A bunch of Furries in the woods? A convention in a summer camp? A bunch of nature-boys in ears and tails trying to talk to the fox that comes sniffing around each night?

It's all of that. And none of it.

FERAL! is a brilliant concept. Take a Furry convention and situate it in the midst of unspoiled Canadian wilderness. Instead of a hotel and gawking mundanes, we have a starry sky above and wild animals poking their noses in to our cabins, as though curious about these strange beings who walk like men yet have tails like they do.

I was invited to attend FERAL! as a guest this year, an invitation that I very eagerly accepted. Now, I may be biased. As a small boy I used to vacation with my family in the pine forests of Ontario very close to where FERAL! was held this year. The allure cannot be described to anyone who has never visited the this region. There is something indescribable about it, some sort of very primal allure that never quite leaves one's soul. I was very grateful for the opportunity to return, and at the same time to bring some entertainment to members of the Furry Fandom who had not yet been exposed to my blithering. My Story Hour was held around a campfire under a starry sky, and afterward I retired to a comfortable cabin with indoor plumbing and a wonderfully hot shower. While there I went sailing, canoeing, hiking; I saw foxes and bears and bats; I got to gaze upon some of the most magnificent scenery in North America, and all of this in the company of like-minded folks, some of them old friends, some of them strangers who quickly became new friends.

All in all, I cannot imagine a more relaxing vacation.

My photographic journal begins on a US Airways jet passing over Niagara Falls on the way to Toronto, where I would board a bus to take me and my fellow campers to the unspoiled beauty of Algonquin Provincial Park.