Well, since you asked me, I’d love to hear from you as well- what is the origin point you remember most strongly for one of your kinks? Barring that, what’s a foundational piece of media that put you on the path to furry stuff?
I think there are a couple of kinks that I have which have warranted some introspection like that.
The first being weight, I suppose, though not really gaining. This is one of those very specific things, where I can point to exactly where it came from. Back in late middle school/early high school, I lost a shitload of weight, to the point where my mom and doctor got quite concerned. This was due mostly to a large amount of anxiety making it hard for me to eat all that much. In combination with this, I started dating at that time (well, 'dating', but it was more just an intense platonic thing with a few friends), and both of my first two partners were rather stocky. Given this negative association with just how skinny I was with how much I loved these very soft people in my life, I just kind of formed that association of softness with goodness, and later, softness with attractiveness and an ideal form.
Fast forward, like...23 years, and @hamratza comes along, talking to me of indulgence and hedonism, and thus another layer of appreciation is added. It is a complicated subject with my other partners who struggle with their weight, but I am happy to cheer them on and love them always. It is just not the path for me.
The other of these kinks that comes to mind is that of the intersection of pain and vulnerability (and, to a lesser extent, death). I am less sure of why it is that I have latched onto this. I will spend hours daydreaming or roleplaying situations wherein there is some vulnerability that is exploited. I know what the feeling is, in that it is essentially a hurt-comfort thing, where I or a loved one (it is a very switchy thing) feel a sense of pain or vulnerability, and then are shown love and cherished. The aspect of it surrounding death boils down to essentially knowing that I will be missed and mourned. It is a way of knowing that I am worth something by having that proven to me. Where it comes from, though, is more difficult.
CW for self harm and suicidality beneath the cut.
My best guess is that it has to do with the ways in which I approach mental anguish, which have mostly surrounded externalizing it to physical pain, as well as the yearning for the void that has led to suicidality. This turning of physical torture to something to be cherished is a way of reclaiming that. My scars become a beautiful thing, and when a partner scratches the shit out of me with their claws or bites on my shoulder nearly hard enough to draw blood, it turns something that I was ashamed of into something I can feel a little bit of pride over. That bruise on my shoulder? Those welts on my back? Those are signs that I have been cherished, and hard.