🐚Harbor🐚

🦦 All aboard my raft 🦦

My name is Harbor (they/it) + sea otter viv terms

I’m 24 years old

I am a physical sea otter/mer, the inner making of my body and DNA is not human

This blog is mostly focused on being non-human! I would love to meet other adult non humans! Hoping to some day have a pod of my own

- if you’re under 18 you can interact with my blog but I try to mostly interact with other adults

- you can DM me for any reason I’m very friendly

-boarders by @angeliicide

Swim free, swim forever

It started with just my arms but has recently become my whole body. I feel like I have the anatomy of a sea otter, like my arms feel like they are small and furry, and I have paws. My legs feel short and like there are flippers

I feel like a sea otter standing on its hind legs. But I know I don’t look any different than before. I know nothings changed but I half expect people to react.

About a year ago I went to a genetics lab to maybe find answers on some physical health problems I had

Though the tests didn’t result in some grand discovery that I’ve been an otter this whole time, it did result in what some might call “strange coincidences”

• a gene mutation that alters the structure of my face, eyes far apart, ears small, jaw less defined

• underdeveloped arms, leading them to be much shorter than normal, affects the structure of hands

• feet deformity that makes them flat and very wide, causing me pain when I walk and requires prescribed orthotics

• none of these mutations are present in the rest of my family

When I was very young I was diagnosed with ADHD and later in life with Autism. I don’t think that made me non human I think being non human made me neurodivergent

How come so many behaviors I had and still have just so happen to be common traits seen in sea otters.

How is it that I’ve always enjoyed seafood but never red meat

How is it that despite being scared of so many things that I refused to climb trees out of fear I would fall that I was totally fine going swimming again after nearly drowning because I like the water

Why did I develop a irrational fear of orcas despite thinking they only eat fish and also I live in the Midwest, I wasn’t afraid of a shark in the pool I was afraid of a orca in the pool (when I was younger, I love all you orcas out there 🩵)

So many animal traits I had that never went away, and traits I developed before even knowing anything about sea otters

Can it all be just a bunch of weird coincidences that my brain is trying to explain? To those that are skeptics they might say yes

To me, I know what I am. I am a sea otter, my body knows it’s supposed to be a sea otter, my mind is that of a sea otter

Wearing them can be uncomfortable and makes vision harder but maybe I want to see my actual self in the mirror once in a while

Maybe I wouldn’t mind my picture being taking if I could wear a mask in it. My parents always say they wish they had more photos of me, but what they don’t understand is that no photo is really me.

Smallest sea mammal, with fur to stay warm instead of blubber

the largest mustelid, and the only fully aquatic

I look for a place to belong, but I fear I’ll always be just a little too off

I swim in the sea but my body can not keep up with the speed of the whales and dolphins

I have fur but my flippers make it hard to walk and I can’t go far from shore

From a distance you could mistake me for a seal, but then the tail is too long, the eyes too small

Not quite predator, not quite prey

Would a pack look past my flippers, would a pod not mind my paws

So I’ve been looking at other options

Maybe finding a way to attach fake whiskers to a false nose ring for easy removal, though I’m not sure how yet

If anyone has other ideas or suggestions I’m all ears!

When I lived with my parents I would sometimes take photos of my gear (masks, tails and such) in our back yard, one day (I was around 22 at the time) I heard someone calling to me. It was my back door neighbor, a 9 year old little girl. She was waving a cat mask in excitement at me

Her mom was watching her practice quads when they noticed me doing the same thing. I sat and talked to this kid and her mom for a while that day. She told me how she had never met another therian before. She told me that the older kids would laugh at her when she wore her tail

When she would wait for the bus in the morning kids would bark and make fun of her. But she did it anyway.

While this kid mainly talked about doing the big quad jumps and making masks, and was surprised to find out I didn’t even use TikTok, I think just seeing me made an impact. Maybe she is a therian, maybe she’s a 9 year old kid who saw a fun little trend, maybe she’s a furry. At that time, it was real for her. And that is what mattered.

What mattered is that her mom cared about her. What mattered is that she saw an adult being open about their life. Who dressed the way she liked to dress. Who was proud to be themselves. She wasn’t alone. There is a future for someone like us

This one is for @wild-freak the mountain lion!