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
The planet Chakara has been home to many technological advanced civilizations. Centuries ago the Chakacats were the dominant species on the planet Chakara. They were an advanced culture at one point achieving spaceflight and visited other worlds.

However some calamity may have emerged that destroyed their civilization erasing it from history. In that time the Chakacats regressed as animals on Chakara whilst another species known as the Chakarans rose to fill the niche.

Having lost their place as the dominant species the Chakacats were hunted and trapped by their evolutionary neighbors. Now classified as animals they are exploited as pets.

Many advocates in the League find this classification to be controversial however such arguments have fallen deaf to the ears in the legal circles.

Evidence discovered on the planet Taerca may finally prove to the League that the Chakacats are indeed a sapient species. According to the religion of the Taercals a feline being known as Sadda, that resembles a Chakacat, brought enlightenment from the stars.

Culture
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 that consistently decimated the population. Hence it might be that the Chakarans are unwilling to admit that the Chakacats were a spacefaring civilized race before their civilization arose.

Source

 * Stardoc (Stardoc #1) by S.L. Viehl