For as long as I can remember I've loved puppets. As a young child I couldn't get enough of them, and while other kids wanted to grow up to become police, or doctors, I always wanted to be a puppeteer. My deformative years were spent sneaking downstairs late at night to watch the Muppets and Sesame Street, and to fantasize about The Great Gonzo's chickens (especially that sexy slut Camilla). So it seems inevitable I create a site dedicated to my puppetry fetish! Welcome to Felt & Fur!

Sorry, this isn't true at all. I'm such a liar. I wasn't one of those kids that wanted to be a puppeteer. Those kids were weird. Or at least I assume so. I didn't actually know any, but all the adults I've met who like puppets are weird, so I imagine they were also weird as kids. No, I did not want to be a puppeteer. Puppeteers do not get the chicks (or even chickens). Instead, I wanted to be a writer, fly the space shuttle, and take a bath with Wendy and Lisa. (Not in that order, and not at the same time. That would just be wrong). Wendy, is the water warm enough? Yes, Lisa.

Shall we begin?

Puppetry only became a hobby for me sometime in the last five years; well after I became an adult and understood the proper use of a semicolon. A short five years ago I got the idea of making fun of people who were referring to themselves as "Social Media Gurus" without irony. I spun up socialmediamonkey.com (currently defunct) and bought a monkey puppet (I named him Spank). I lost interest in this idea fairly quickly, since no one besides myself thought it was that funny, but I had an awesome puppet!

I run a website where I write stupid letters to people. Sometimes they are funny, but that's not really the goal. It is what it is. Jackass Letters is just that. Me being a jackass and sending out letters. So again, I decided I needed a puppet. I thought it would be fun to make videos of the the puppet "reading" the letters, and I thought it would be fun to use him on the cover of a book. I never got around to making the videos, but again, I had an awesome puppet! I named this puppet Hoté and eventually he did make it onto a book:

(Hoté is on the back).

Once I got my third puppet, I was what you would call a "puppet collector," since I didn't actually use them. I just had them, and enjoyed owning them. Then I got a fourth, and a fifth, and then I dedicated a room in my house to them, and then I lost count and I had to finally admit I had a problem and was powerless over my puppet addiction. I was faced with a choice: Admit I had a mental illness, or start using them.

I'm still trying to get myself to use them more. I would also like to make my own. So there's the truth of it. That's why this site exists. I plan to share my love of puppets, puppetry, and puppeteers. I have big plans for the site. Videos, tutorials, interviews, book reviews, maybe even a store! Or I could be lying again. You can take your pick of stories, or make up your own.

So if you have ideas of posts you'd like to see, let me know, and I'd be happy to consider them.

• Christopher

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