Rakuen Growlithe

Rakuen Growlithe is a South African furry artist and writer. His fursona is a growlithe.

Biography
Outside of the furry fandom, Rakuen is a scientist with a PhD in molecular biology and a member of Mensa. He has a strong interest in animal rights and has been an ethical vegetarian since 2011 after reading Matthew Scully's book, Dominion.

Fandom involvement
Rakuen has been involved in many creative projects with over 200 submissions on SoFurry, including stories, artwork and audio. In addition, he has made several video submissions on YouTube which cover talks, music videos and gaming.

He has been involved in a lot of non-fiction writing for the furry community as well, particularly on Flayrah. He has 83 stories submitted to Flayrah, making him the 14th biggest contributor to the site. He has also had one story posted on the Love ◦ Sex ◦ Fur blog of [adjective][species] and has done several reviews for Furry Book Review. Rakuen has twice been a guest on the South Afrifur Pawdcast.

Rakuen has had involvement with a number of furry websites. In 2007, Rakuen Growlithe and Keita Haruka established Furry SA in partnership with Dracius and Spike. While Furry SA was a bit of a disaster, it later merged with Anoyomouse's ZAFur blog and become the ZAFur Forum with Rakuen as global moderator. In June 2012, he become head moderator and, in February 2013, he was promoted to administrator. In 2009, Rakuen founded The Petshop, a furry BDSM forum, which shut down three years later.

Rakuen has been a longtime member of SoFurry and became a SoFurry Ambassador in May 2012. He has previously donated to both SoFurry and Inkbunny.

Conventions
Rakuen has attended several conventions in South Africa and Europe.


 * Eurofurence:
 * 21 – Presented the panel "Understanding Furry: Defining a Fandom." Published a convention report.
 * 22 – Presented the panel "ZA Furries: A Story of the Furry Fandom in South Africa." Published a convention report.
 * 23 – Sponsor.
 * 24 – Sponsor. Published a convention report.
 * 25 – Sponsor. Contributed a story to the charity magazine Playfox/Playvixen. Published a convention report.


 * Lakeside Furs: 9, 10, 11, 12


 * South Afrifur meet: 2008, 2010