RainRat

RainRat, or just Rat, also known as bogglerat on LiveJournal, Rat Rieko on Second Life (born November 20, 1978), is a male furry fan who lives in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. He has a slight preference for RainRat rather than Rain Rat.

Personal information and history
He has been to Conifur, Howloween, Further Confusion, Anthrocon 2004, 2007 (as SuperSponsor), and 2009, Califur 2 and 3, RainFurrest 2007, 2008, and 2009, Midwest FurFest 2007, All Fur Fun 2009, and VancouFur. He has been on staff for Howloween and VancouFur. His first performance in a convention masquerade was a skit with five other fursuiters at Anthrocon 2007 about an armistice between rats and ferrets in an alternate World War II. His second performance was at RainFurrest 2007 where he sang Yakko's World live, while pointing to the countries at the same time, while wearing an open-face Yakko costume. His third was a Pirates vs Ninjas skit at Further Confusion 2008 with several other fursuiters.

RainRat found the furry community late-October 2002. He didn't have a fur name at first, but soon went by rat (lowercase, because it was more a description than an actual name). When he got LiveJournal, he chose the name bogglerat because even though he doesn't consider his skill at Boggle to be all that exceptional, some furries nicknamed him that after watching him play. It's not his typical name in spoken conversation though. On his way back from Further Confusion 2004, he was pondering a new name, because "rat" wasn't very distinctive at a big con like that. He was considering SnowRat, but the weather being how it is where he lives in Burnaby, it was raining, not snowing, so RainRat struck him as a much more appropriate name.

The interest in rats comes from the fact that he had pet rats even before he found the furry community, and he found them to be very social and interesting animals. In total, he has had eight pet rats (not all at the same time though).

On December 8, 2006, RainRat received his Canadian ham radio license, after tutoring from Trapa. His interest in the radio exam is more a matter of the intellectual challenge than a need to do anything with the radios.

Two LiveJournal communities, and  have also been started and maintained by him. He hosted the Vancouver Furry Game Night at his home from 2005-2016. In 2016, he would still organize Game Nights, but use The Tail Base (another furry household) as the location. His place has also been the location for the vfur furmeet a few times. In March 2009 he was made one of the moderators of vfur. He started the BC Furry Community Board in March 2009, with help from Frysco and Rino. He started the BC Furries General Telegram group in 2015. On March 11, 2017, he has voted to the board of British Columbia Anthropomorphic Events Association (the parent organization of Vancoufur) as Community Liaison.

RainRat often contributes to WikiFur and was promoted to administrator October 25, 2005. RainRat has released thousands of his images under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 or other free licenses. He also ran a bounty to encourage other artists to do the same. He also has contributed over 100 dollars Canadian to help the EFF, because of their defence of fair use and free expression online. RainRat and Marfles made a RainFurrest 2009 Music Video to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Jonathan Coulton song Re Your Brains.

One pastime that RainRat really enjoys is Pokemon Puzzle League. Despite the name, it is a puzzle game that really has nothing to do with Pokemon. Other games have caught his interest over the years, like Nethack or Star Control II. Around 2012 he got into Magic the Gathering.

RainRat used to be on Second Life under the name Rat Rieko, where his preferred avatar was a Ninja Weasel Studios brown rat.

Costuming
RainRat's first furry wear acquired was a set of rat ears and rat tail made by Jimfoxyboy; then he learned how to make the rest of the rat fursuit from Trapa. He has made several fleece character hats for himself and friends (as gifts). RainRat also made part of Qumick's fursuit.

RainRat has eight fursuits.

Markus, a red fox, was built by Whiteyfawks of Arend Studios.

The head was won in an auction on FurBid on March 24, 2004, and RainRat commissioned WhiteyFawks to make the rest of the body after winning the head. Rattie is a brown and white rat.

RainRat built the body, paws, and first version head and second version tail with some help from Trapa. Jimfoxyboy built the first tail. The first version suit was finished just in time for Anthrocon 2004. The second version head was built by Whiteyfawks.

One thing he does for the character is dress the rat as a pirate; then he is a "pi-rat". Bongo, a black and white wolf, made by Enigma Fox, won on FurBid, and was acquired around April 2006. Arno is a wolf. In September/October 2006, he bought a wolf fursuit from Seven. To avoid confusion, he renamed the fursuit to Arno.

There are two heads that go with the fursuit, a toony style one by LatinVixen, and a realistic style one by WhiteyFawks. Banto is a wombat. His name is a slight modification of the rearrangement of the letters in "wombat".

He is a partial fursuit, made by Fallimar and won in FurBid in August 2006.

Heliodor is a flying squirrel/raccoon/meerkat hybrid. Commissioned from SPark, he was finished October 2007. Heliodor was designed by Davecko specifically for the purpose of making a fursuit. The name Heliodor is taken after a gemstone. RainRat kept his ownership of Heliodor under wraps at first, because he was interested in seeing how people reacted to the character without knowing it was him.

Purpleski is a purple husky. Originally commissioned from Arend Studios for DieselDog, RainRat bought him September 2008. He renamed him to Purpleski to avoid confusion with the person DieselDog.

Bandit is a raccoon/meerkat based off the same art as Heliodor. The suit was commissioned from Kodi and received June 2009.

Jacky is a rabbit commissioned from Kodi and received August 2010. Becquerel is based on a fan interpretation of a character from the webcomic Homestuck. He was commissioned from FauxPawRoo and received January 2014. A kigurumi version of the fursuit was commissioned in 2016 from Apoxon.