A 45-year-old Fort Collins mother is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old boy who also was part of a group that enjoys dressing up as animals.

Richael L. Michels faces sexual assault on a child charges, according to the arrest affidavit the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper posted on its website. Her husband notified the Colorado Department of Human Services in May that his wife might be having an improper online relationship with a teen-aged boy, the affidavit says.

He also told investigators she had “recently become involved with a group known as ‘Furries,’ who dress up like animals and have social gatherings online and in person.”

Members of the group gave statements to police after the woman’s affectionate, sometimes intimate behavior with the teenager at Furries gatherings, called “furmeets.”

According to the arrest affadavit, Michels is friends with the boy’s mother. The boy told investigators Michels “even made a comment about the irony of (his) mom trusting her as a mentor … and the whole time she was having sex with him.”

The boy told police that he and Michels had sex several times, according to the affidavit.