OK, I lied, here's one more post, then I'll leave.
Got this meme from FA. 8 facts, not about myself as per the original meme, but my
fursona. There's a difference! Thanks,
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babsbunny. Doing it 'cause the concept made me giggle, and I'm all wired on the excitement of going on a big trip in the morning. Which, if I want to do it properly, means I should probably sleep now.
8 Facts about Jackel
1. The character is one of my oldest; I've been drawing her since I was about 13. I didn't think of her as my fursona back then, exactly, and she hadn't a name. I called her the teenaged were-leopard, which became less interesting when I was no longer a teenager.
2. Jackel is a mutt. She is 1/2 side striped jackal, 1/4 black backed jackal and 1/4 snow leopard. With a dash of coyote in there somehow, and possibly a little amur leopard too. I have no backstory to how she got there, other than that I have a thing for feline/canine relationships so it makes a kind of karmic sense that I'd come up with some hybrid characters. This has nothing to do with my actual family.
3. She turns lighter colored in the winter and more vividly yellowish with darker spots in the summer. I'm just usually too lazy to draw her that way...or I just draw her in the warmer months a lot.
4. She was named, amusingly enough, by my law school. I'd tried to name her unsuccessfully for years (nothing ever stuck). Due to USF's login conventions, I was given 'Jackel' as my username on the system. A little voice in my head went, "Eureka! You found it! THAT'S your character's name!" Immediately thereafter another voice went, "aw MAN. You can't come up with anything more creative than THAT?" Ah well. Can't please 'em all.
5. There's still more about my name, though. I told my mom casually one day that the character was named Jackel. Boy was she ever startled! So, Jackson is my maternal surname and the one I carry. (2nd most common surname in the US, go me!) Mickel is my paternal. Seems that at one point when they were deciding what to name me, 'Jackel' as a combination surname was seriously discussed. I was startled too, since my mom had never told me that story; when I asked as a kid, she told me that they'd just decided to go with Jackson. I wish they'd gone with Jackel. If it wouldn't be such a PITA factor, I'd consider having it legally changed.
6. She's changed over the years a bit. As a young teen she had a big ruff around her neck, almost a sheltie fluff looking thing. That was long-gone by the time she hit 20...I guess she shed out her puppy/kitten coat.
Her back markings became more pronounced around 2000, after which her spotting began to fade.
7. She came by her first ear notch in 1997. Two more in 2006, the next in 2007. They all represent difficult periods of my life that I feel changed me significantly. Marking Jackel has been a way to acknowledge/examine these and learn to live gracefully with them.
8. Um...more about Jackel. Let's see. Well, she's mostly me; I gave her glasses when I got them, though it often annoys me to draw them just as it annoys me that I have to wear the darn things now. Grr hiss age. Anyhow, she's not always me, or not just me...I use her as a character in various contexts that isn't me, just a character I'm really comfortable with. Besides, she's so much cooler than I am.
, 
and 
continue to be itty bitty dragons. Which hopefully won't 'die' in my absence).