A furry is anyone who likes animals, that either stand upright or act in some way like hoomans. That's it.
I'd imagine most people in the world are a 'furry', because who doesn't love Lion King or things like that?
About the whole negative thing, just go on youtube and search 'furry charity' or just 'fursuiting'. It'll brighten up your day, I'm sure! They're all super cute. And just check out artwork. There's tons of gorgeous artwork out there!
There's negatives in every fandom. People are jerks, (though I've seen way more bashing from people OUTSIDE of the fandom being jerks to the people within it), act like everyone should treat them differently, adult content etc. Honestly the fur fandom has a much tighter lid on that, especially at cons, compared to anime and comic conventions I've been to (I was considering washing my 14 year old eyes out with soap it was so bad) but the fur con I went to, it was so much more friendly and I didn't have a red face walking through the dealers room.
If you want to have a label for what you enjoy, feel free to
And there's thousands of super cute and happy things out there revolving around the furry community. Just gotta get out of that side of the internet and see it with a new search text.