Maybe set aside what you want to be (a furry) to maintain what you had (friends).
I mainly suggest it because no one teaches young people they are responsible for their happiness. Maybe you're feeling depressed because of your choices (pretending to be a wolf)?
My opinion is absolutely an unpopular one, but you have to think of your friends feelings, not just your own.
I have hobbies that I don't try to impose on my friends, and if I did, they wouldn't want to be my friends anymore because they're not interested in all of the same things I am.
I don't know about you, but if I was in your shoes, I would be laughing after-the-fact about those other three. They just needed some kind of an excuse, and it was a silly one. I would be like: lol, okay, moving on.
Thanks for the update, and best of luck going forward!
But I agree with the [dead] commenter who said, "They weren't true friends if they reacted like this."
Edit:
If someone learns something new about you, it is not unreasonable for them to update their opinion.
But whether their reaction tells you something about you or something about them is a separate question. Their reaction says everything about them. Their reaction tells you whether their opinion is still worth caring about.
Hang in there.
I meant my edit as a revision of this. It is a nice vibe, but kind of problematic if it tries to make the previous years of friendship invalid. That would suck to have past years of friendship invalidated because of something in the future.
And I guess someone "vouched" for that comment (which made it visible for new accounts), because I do not see any "dead" comments.
You just need to find other people who are your kind of weird.
* There is no such thing as normal.
Is there a reason you needed to tell others of your sexual preference? Is it intertwined with being a furry?
People can get uncomfortable and not know how to handle unexpected news. Perhaps next time when feeling like sharing something out of the ordinary with someone, maybe treat it nonchalantly, like - you: I'll be there after I drop my suit off at the cleaners (maybe they might ask what the suit is for, then say meeting up with some people, or cosplay and explain you know how people wear costumes to conventions like characters from movies or characters that they invent on their own, I invented a character that I feel describes me, (then see if they ask about it, or wait for a different opportunity))
Edit: I assumed a suit, but I suppose one can just have drawings of their fursona? I imagine fursuits are expensive and perhaps not everyone has one. Or maybe some people just have partial pieces like a tail, mask, or ear headband? I'm not that familiar with the fury culture.
Notice that they didn't answer that, so you can safely assume the answer is yes and it's 100% understandable why their friends no longer want to associate with them.
FYI, they did say in another comment that they do not use it as a sexual fetish for what it's worth.
Now that you've shed that baggage, go find some real friends.
I am not saying this is the same situation at all, but it would not make someone "not your friend to begin with" if you were good friends for a while but then they started serial killing. Even if being a furry is no big deal at all, people do stupid things—that doesn't erase what came before.
I certainly don't think you should leave your friends over them being a furry, but friends are complicated. You can have a meaningful friendship with someone who turns out to have serious flaws. I wouldn't want to invalidate a past friendship.
Just an example, I don't have all the details or know you or anything. Edit it or write your own, or take a completely different approach. I'm not an expert at these kinds of things.
Just gotta be weirder from the get go my dude.
Idk how it is for most people, but I make friends with people whom I share activities with (school, work, church, clubs, etc). Find an activity that you enjoy and then see who you enjoy doing that activity with, then suggest maybe hanging out, outside of that activity.
Except the large portion of it that uses it as sexual fetish.