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Ancestor: Wild Forest Cat

Size: Longest species is 65cm from nose to back of hindquarters (110cm including tail). Most species are typically smaller, and most are closer to the smallest species in length which is 45cm (70 including the tail).

Dietary Needs: Diet consists mainly of small vertebrates, which includes mice, baby rabbits, birds, lizards and fish. They don't have a close affinity to the water but they are also unafraid of it. To fish, they watch from the water's edge for fish to swim close enough, keeping still with their paw primed to swipe so the fish doesn't notice. At an ideal moment they swipe the fish in a batting motion, hooking it's skin and flinging it hopefully out of the water, or snagging it in a hold. Although not vertebrates, crayfish and if by the coast, prawns are included in the cat's diet.

They chew grass to induce vomiting if something toxic has ben consumed, but they don't derive energy or nutrients from the grass.

They also chew young buds of catnip descendants, which is not intended to induce vomiting and is a dietary supplement. The smaller and fresher the buds, the easier to digest.

Some descendants of elder produce berries that these cats eat and like, but are inedible to other cat species. They gain sugar and vitamins from the berries to boost their energy during more productive seasons. Since the cats don't chew much and thus don't masticate the seeds, they act as better transmitters of the seeds than the mice or rabbits.

Life Cycle: Each cat holds it's own territory, and while this is true for males and females, males roam more looking for females to mate with. Females advertise their reproductive receptiveness with loud, trilling calls, similar to yowling of their ancestral domestic cats when in heat. Males are also looking to eliminate future rivals, so females with kittens do the exact opposite when they sense a male is near - no calls and move to a safer place. She has a sound specially reserved for her kittens, a high pitched, soft "beep", almost inaudible to human ears but clearly heard by the tiny kittens within closer range. It effectively means "shut up, come here", and causes the kittens to assemble under their mother and stop making noises.

The kittens are born in a den usually in some thickly tangled shrubs but sometimes a repurposed rabbit burrow. They are raised on milk for the fist few months of life and spend a week blind and helpless. Their mother usually stays with them during this time, leaving only for quick patrols of the area to check it's safe. Once they're walking within two weeks they still live in the nest, but venture out with their mother more and more frequently. By a month they only use the nest for sleeping, and travel the territory with their mother at all other times, learning from her how to hunt and feed. By six months their mother's bond with them dissolves and she starts to scatter them, treating them not quite as rivals but certainly no longer welcome to stay. Siblings sometimes stick together for a while after, sometimes not.

The climate they live in is mild. Droughts are not as common as in the Northern savannahs and temperatures don't climb as high. Winter temperatures while cooler are not as cold as in the temperate islands further South, and snow is not a yearly guaranteed thing. Although there is an ideal season for raising kittens (Spring/summer) they can actually be raised through all seasons.

Other: Bristle cats have a thick coat with many layers, the most obvious outermost layer being the long, wiry guard hairs. Beneath the guard hairs are different levels of insulative hair. Long flowing hairs have a drip-tip to keep rain flowing off the cat and from soaking in. Beneath that are a few kinds of soft, woolly, cotton-like insulation hairs. This cat wool sheds in huge clumps in spring. Mother cats will use some of this wool to line their nests. However there is always excess, and it has become a prized resource for other nesting animals in spring such as birds, mice and rabbits. The summer coat makes the cat look considerably slimmer, but the long wiry guard hairs remain present. These hairs provide a protective function as well as display. Much like Pallis, these cats use long hairs to make themselves look big. However the fur they use to do so is not a cape or mane, but the entire coat. The coat has a banded clumped appearance when raised reminiscent of their ancestral domestic cats when they are raising their fur in a threat display.

Much like their ancestors if they fall out of a tree or off a cliff they can right themselves and land on their feet while absorbing the shock of the fall. It does not guarantee that there will be no injury but it does make such falls survivable. Bristle cats spread themselves out flatter because in their forested environment they need to guide the direction of their fall. There are a lot of branches acting as obstacles on the way down that might cause harm. It also slows their downward speed so if they do hit something, it's not as hard as with their ancestor's body.

The primordial pouch plays an important role in the bristle cats being able to flatten themselves more effectively and to very crudely and poorly glide. Fat is displaced to the edges of the skin and when the legs splay, they stretch the skin at the knees and elbows. This is slightly different from the gliding cats, as they have a double primordial pouch. Bristle cats have a single primordial pouch that gets flattened by air resistance and skin stretching.

Some living in habitats with few trees, who have a more grounded lifestyle, never developed this trait. It's not found in all bristle cats.