This Old Fursuit: JD Puppy

Welcome to the third issue of This Old Fursuit! In this recurring series, we will be looking at incredible old fursuits and doing deep dives on them.

This next fursuit is about to hit 20 years old in the fandom and has always been performed with lots of ENERGY! It’s time to talk about JD Puppy!

The creator and performer of this suit is JD Puppy himself! So let’s dive into the story of how JD found furry, got involved, and decided to make a fursuit!

While in middle school and high school, JD Puppy would participate in online forums and fan sites about Mario and Sonic OCs as well as draw many of his own. His first Sonic OC that would stick around was a Tails-inspired OC with three tails named JT — T for Thunderbolt. JD would eventually create a secondary main character, a shell-less koopa character named Chad, who was a cool-guy character that wore swim trunks/boxers. One day while drawing JT, he messed up the face and ears and just went with it. He realized he had drawn a floppy-eared puppy dog and decided to color him brown. And with that, JD Puppy was born! All three characters were used as main OCs, but JD Puppy would eventually become his main character when he wanted the character to be less obviously a Sonic OC while participating in online spaces.

One website JD would frequent in the early 2000s was Team Artail (https://teamartail.com/), a popular Sonic fansite owned by Artie Prower with a focus on fan-made comics and art and forum spaces. While JD Puppy did not know it then, he interacted with furries on there he would later meet when he joined the furry fandom.

In 2004, JD Puppy started as a freshman at NYU in NYC. JD was thrilled at the prospect of joining the mascot team at NYU so he could perform as the NYU Bobcat! As fate would have it, this was how he met Jimmy Wolf, a furry already on the mascot team, and they started to chat. JD had done a lot of research on mascoting from a theatrical perspective since he had a performance background in theater and dance. He was very excited for the opportunity to join the mascot team. Jimmy noticed his enthusiasm and asked, “Are you a fur?” To which JD responded, “What’s a fur?” and his gradual journey into furry began. Jimmy took him to his first furmeet in NY and the two ended up dating and enjoy college and furry together.

JD Puppy saw Jimmy Wolf get a refsheet made and commission a fursuit maker named White Wolf for his character Bobby Bobcat. He loved seeing how happy and excited the process made Jimmy. Wanting to experience the same thing, JD asked Jimmy Wolf how the process worked. Jimmy explained that JD would need artwork or a refsheet of his character that laid out the design. Then he would need to research makers and their commission queues and prices. He would be able to do this by looking at fursuit makers’ personal websites and Livejournal accounts, as well as asking on forums or at furmeets. JD was very excited, but since he wanted it to be perfect, he took a long time looking for the right maker.

2004 soon became 2005. Jimmy Wolf would be debuting his Bobby Bobcat suit at Anthrocon 2005, which would also be JD Puppy’s first furry convention. JD Puppy knew he could go to a convention without a fursuit, but he wanted to be able to fursuit alongside Jimmy and experience that magic. As the months rolled on, he realized it was very unlikely that he would be able to commission anyone in time. But fate had a different plan!

One day during that summer JD woke up unable to close his jaw. When the dentist saw him, they explained that all four of his wisdom teeth were trying to come in at the same time! They were able to schedule an appointment for him, but they told him he’d have to stay home and rest for a week. JD was worried; would his NYC internship be okay with this? But then it dawned on him: he suddenly had a week of free time! While in NYC for work, he went to some fabric and craft stores and bought all the supplies he’d need to make his own fursuit. After buying three different brown furs from the NYC fabric district, he went to Joann Fabrics for a jumpsuit pattern, zipper, and foam to create the head, as well as thin craft foam and mesh for the eyes. JD picked up a copy of Critter Costuming, by Adam Riggs (2004), a book about making mascots and fabricating fursuits. At home, JD’s mom taught him how to use the family sewing machine. He told his parents he was trying to make his own mascot suit and they just went along with it!

JD learned a lot during that week, including how NOT to cut foam and fur. JD used the foam block method explained in the book for shaping the head. In the end, he achieved his goal: he completed a full fursuit of JD Puppy in time for Anthrocon 2005!

So Anthrocon 2005 wasn’t just JD’s first fur con; it was his and Jimmy’s first fur con with their fursuits. The two would fursuit together for hours at a time. JD recalls being in fursuit anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a time because he was so happy wearing it and performing.

JD enjoyed how happy other convention attendees were when he really gave his all in a performance, and he loved bouncing off of Jimmy’s energy so they could both entertain. He recalls interacting with other fursuters and having a lot of fun figuring out different ways to interact with different character types. JD also really enjoyed the fursuit-specific events at the convention, his favorite being a dog agility course that the charity had helped set up. The charity that year was the Greater Philadelphia Search & Rescue, so they had set up a course that their search-and-rescue dogs would train with. They did demonstrations with their dogs and then allowed fursuiters to take a stab at it. JD was inspired by how well the trained dogs did and how much fun they seemed to have, and he had a blast getting to do it himself!

Aside from attending convention events and fursuiting around the convention, JD fondly remembers the big furpile in the lobby. In fact, when JD and I were at Furrydelphia 2023 (which is held at the old Anthrocon hotel), he showed me exactly where in the lobby that furpile took place. Furries never change!

JD would spend the rest of 2005 and 2006 attending furmeets and furry conventions with his JD Puppy V1 suit and having a great time. He was in love with this creative outlet, and in late 2006 he decided he’d like to make some more fursuits with what he had learned. He wanted to make not only a JD Puppy V2 but also a totally different character for himself — a cat — and a fursuit of Jimmy Wolf’s main fursona, Jimmy. The Jimmy Wolf suit would be JD’s first time doing abs on a fursuit, as well as more intricate hair.

Let’s do a quick tangent to talk about the other characters JD made into fursuits for himself. Starting with Further Confusion 2007, JD would debut fursuits for FC 2007, FC 2008, and FC 2009. For FC 2007 he had Tux the Cat to play along with the 007 theme. For FC 2008 he made Fooey the Foo Dog to go along with the Asian-inspired theme. For FC 2009 he made a Bolt suit to celebrate the release of Disney’s Bolt just before the convention. These suits gave JD time to practice fursuit building as well as to play different characters.

Going back to Further Confusion 2007, JD would also debut JD V2 at this convention as well. When constructing version 2, JD made the head is a bit slimmer and taller to make it a bit more compact. The second JD also had a slimmer body suit in an attempt to make it a better dancing suit. But making it tighter actually worked against that goal, so he had to let it out a bit more. JD brought both versions of JD (as well as Tux) to FC 2007.

JD had initially made the second JD because he sweat so much, and two versions would allow him to wear one while the other dried. As convenient as this was, he got more joy out of confusing people by putting Jimmy in one of them while he wore the other and going out together. Jimmy and JD had similar fursuit performance tactics as well as bodies. The idea of doppleganger suits in the fandom at the time was very rare, so it got a big reaction from people.

JD would go on to spend 2007 and 2008 causing mischief as both of his JD fursuits, Tux, and Fooey. He made sure that he got both version of JD out plenty to mess with people and have extra fun. He also started focusing more on his passion for dance. He danced in fursuit more often, especially when Fursuit Dance Competitions began in 2008 (thanks in part to JD’s efforts!). The first Fursuit Dance Competition took place at FWA 2008, followed a few months later by Anthrocon 2008 where JD competed. Prior to that, he danced in the variety shows at conventions, including at FC 2008. This video is the very first furry video I saw, and fast-tracked me on the path of finding and joining furry fandom.

In 2009, JD made his new local friend, Coopertom, a dog fursuit named Shedz for him to debut at a local BBQ meet and the next Anthrocon. That year he also began working on a JD Puppy V3, but he didn’t debut it at a con until 2010. The focus of JD version 3 was utility. The third bodysuit used newer materials in the hopes that it would breathe better and would ideally replace the original bodysuit. He also used more contrast in the browns. As JD was building version 3, he also came to the realization that this meant that three JDs could be out at once causing chaos.

At this time, JD and Jimmy had become very close friends with Nbowa and Tzup. Tzup and JD loved the suit swap opportunity and would often fully swap suits and perform each other’s characters, seeing if they could trick people. Tzup was an important mentor figure and taught JD a lot about strong friendships and sharing passions. With his latest suit complete, JD could now put Jimmy and Tzup in the V1 and V2 suits, and they could really have fun with people. Nbowa was often the one being harassed by the triple JDs. BBF captured the antics of two JDs and Tzup well in this video:

The triple JDs would cause trouble around the convention and participate together in con events like the Fursuit Games. JD really enjoyed how fun it was to often go out with others because they could always entertain each other with their antics, even if nobody else was around.

JD continued attending conventions, bringing two or three JDs with him any time he could. By 2013, the suits were 8, 6, and 4 years old. JD had made all the suits so he could repair them easily, since he wore them so heavily and for such great lengths of time. Also, he was now more focused on the dance events at furry conventions and wanted to consider that in a V4.

So in 2013, JD got to work on a new suit. JD had enough fur for a partial, but since it required all the previous JDs’ furs, they didn’t quite match. The head is all V1 furs, the light browns in the arms and legs are V3 furs, and the dark browns in the arms and legs are V2 furs. The head was also be a balaclava base with a ⅛” foam backing and vents near the ears. As this suit was a partial, JD sewed the arms on to an Underarmor shirt so that they would always stay in place when worn under a shirt. The fursuit legs were attached to thin basketball shorts that could also we worn under shorts/pants. The handpaws and footpaws were also built with dancing in mind. And so, with V4, JD finally had the opportunity to explore making outfits. The main outfit for this version of JD was a ballroom vest and cargo shorts, the perfect way to marry formal and informal, ballroom and street, etc. This version of JD allowed him to grow through his character and express himself further.

This partial, V4, was JD’s main fursuit from 2013 to late 2022. It was also the last fursuit JD would make (for now at least!).

In 2010, JD purchased a partial that would become the iconic Buddy — but that wonderful doggy is a story for another day!

JD really wanted to go back to something he had dreamed of when he joined the furry fandom: commissioning a JD fursuit. But just like in 2004, he wanted it to be perfect, so he waited to find the perfect maker. While JD was at AnthroExpo, he saw a dog fursuit he absolutely adored and learned it was made by OffTheChains Productions. OffTheChains raffles their fursuit slots. JD applied and actually won a slot. OffTheChains and JD worked closely together and collaborated on every point. JD was particularly impressed that OffTheChains was open to redlines on WIPs and suggestions so that he could get the perfect new JD. The suit still reads the original JD vibe very well.

JD chose to go with a partial again for two reasons. He enjoyed the utility of a tightly- and easily-packed fursuit, especially given that he was doing more conventions as part of the Furry Logic escape room. He also loved how partials allowed for a great chance to wear different outfits and to play with con themes. Outfits and the suit’s removable-eyelid expressions allowed him to do amazing personality transformations with just one suit: see, for instance, Jock JD versus Nerd JD.

Anthrocon 2025 will mark 20 years of the original JD fursuit. It’s been incredible to see the fursuit change over time, and the performer remains dedicated to entertaining us through costume performance. So cheers to you, JD, to 20 years of making us laugh when you scratch your ear with your hind paw, confuse us with multiple JDs invading conspace at the same time, exhausting us with your endless energy, captivating us with your dance, and so much more. And here’s to 20 more!

– – –

Special Thanks:

JD Puppy https://bsky.app/profile/jdpuppy.fastestfurs.com

Wikifur https://en.wikifur.com/wiki/WikiFur_Furry_Central

The Fursuit Archive https://archive.fursuit.me/

FurTrack https://www.furtrack.com/

Photo Credits – Dragonscales, Wikipedia, FoxTodd, Firehopper, JD, Thumper, Tim, WildBillTx, Monite, Zalno, Just A Wink Photography and Dantee

Video Credits – KTGOW and BigBlueFox