Chakacat

The Chakacats are a sapient species from the planet Chakara in S.L. Viehl's Stardoc Series.

Biology
The Chakacats are a feline species. They are bipeds, with a thin torso, limbs, and bullet-shaped skull covered with a short, platinum pelt.

History
Despite their obvious sentience, another sapient species, the Chakarans, on their homeplanet insists they are feral in the wild.

However new evidence discovered on the planet Taerca suggests that the Chakacats may have been the dominant species on Chakara. In fact they were a spacefaring culture before some calamity brought them low.

According to the religion of the Taercals a feline being that resembles a Chakacat brought enlightenment from the stars.

Culture
Their species is a controversial subject, and despite their obvious intelligence are treated like pets by the dominate species on their world. While feral in the wild the Chakarans trap them for multiple purposes. Some they kill to harvest their pelts and others they train to speak and are taught various skills. Over the generations these tamed Chakacats were released into the wild to spread their genes to better the quality of pets that would come in later generations.

Several advocates have petitioned for reclassification of the species intelligence to grant them right however all have been ignored by the League of Allied Worlds. The Chakacats consider themselves to be a very congenial species.

The Chakacats new status as beasts may be a result of war and outside conflict consistently decimated the population. Hence it might be what the Chakarans are willing to admit that the Chakacats were a spacefaring civilizaed race.

Source

 * Stardoc (Stardoc #1) by S.L. Viehl