catgirl-facts

[catgirl-facts]

A funny thing that happened.

Following up from my previous post, I've just remembered the Therianthopic-Furry Crisis of 2009.

Most of you tumblrfolk are probably too young to recall it, but it was quite an event.

As a quick summary: On July of that year, twelve people on elaborate cat-themed fursuits entered an open-doors reunion of the St Charlotte's Catgirl Refuge, which was planning to expand to tend to beastfolk that had lost their homes during the economic crisis. At the start their presence was tolerated but shortly after they started making fools of themselves and claimed to be catgirls themselves, despite all of them being quite obviously male.¹

The furries were asked to leave, they refused, and the police was called. They were not arrested and put in a complain, claiming that they had the right to be there and that they had been discriminated against due to their costumes. The StCCR, however, claimed that the costumes were specieist caricatures of them.

It went to the local news, 4chan got on it to get a laugh, and it became a massive shitshow for months.

Then the trial ended with 10 of the 12 furries getting very minor sentences and the StCCR having to pay them some good money for calling the costumes, well, you know.

The whole incident ended up being a footnote on Catgirl history, but it has played a bit into their culture, today many hold some severe dislike towards furry culture.

¹ Since then, one of the furries has transitioned and four others identify as non-binary.

[catgirl-facts]

Funny thing about this blog.

Being a researcher on a topic like catgirls is already kind of complicated socially in the real world, as most people have a different but almost always wrong idea of what I do, which is something I can live with.

The Tumblr algorithm, however, is convinced that I am a (possibly) transgender furry femboy.

[catgirl-facts]

Common myths about catgirls. - Eyes.

Despite what it's said some times, it is blatantly obvious to anyone that has seen them that the eyes of catgirls are exactly the same as those of us humans.

No, they cannot see in the dark better than you, and repeating it is borderline specieist.

[catgirl-facts]

Catgirl biology - On tails.

As we know, catgirls don't normally have tails, statistically speaking, some 60% lose them during childhood and of the remaining 40%, around 60% more have it removed at some point of their life, be it either for aesthetic reasons, enviromental reasons (such as bullying) or for medical reasons.

Unlike those of actual cats, the tails of catgirls don't actually move voluntarily but instead act entirely either on reflex or subconsciously reflecting the mood of the girl. This should be clear and common knowledgle, they have *no* conscious control over it whatsoever.

And, while they're not really sensitive by themselves, catgirls tend to find their tails being touched a deeply unpleasant sensation. So DO NOT do it.

[catgirl-facts]

Catgirl biology - Puberty.

The puberty of a catgirl is one of the most difficult periods of their entire life for a number of reasons and probably the one where there is, unfortunately, the largest amount of pop knowledge around that is just plain wrong.

Let's start with the basics, puberty for beastfolk is different than for humans, not only it happens sooner (how soon depending on the species, although the difference in relation to humans is not much), but it is also much more severe. For us humans, puberty simply makes us sexually able. For beastfolk it makes them almost full adults.

This may be hard to grasp if you've never seen it, but imagine a 10 year old child looking like an 18 year old after a period of just two years. Yeah, it may be a bit jarring.

However, the biggest problem is their Heat. Now, you may say that that's bullshit because everyone knows that beastfolk don't have estrus, that the idea comes from (formerly) poorly understood statements on the cultural behaviour of a few tribes of wolfkind from what back then was the Kingdom of Prussia, far back in the day, and that the idea has been historically used as means of both large scale discrimination and is still used in micro-specism, but in fact, it's not entirely false.

Yes, they may not have an estrus cycle, that's correct, but catgirls specifically do get in Heat a few times during their lives and that only happens during puberty. Now, many catgirls, nowadays, don't quite report the same amount of sexual needs and hormonal behaviours as it was recorded in the past. Why this is happening is still debated and there isn't a complete scientific consensus.

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For further reading:

Takahashi, H (2006) Brief Care Guide for the Guardians of Beastfolk. Vol 2, Puberty and Early Adolescence.

Orczy, G (2021) Chaste Cats: A decline in reports of estrus among catgirls from 1995 to 2015. European Journal of Therianthropology.

van Hamme, Y. (1998) Claws and being like Bunnies: A history of the perception of the sexuality of beastfolk and their effect on modern perception of them.

Jacobs, M. (2023) Do Middle and Highschools need segregation of species? On the perception of the adolescent catgirl.

Takahashi, H. (2018) Common myths on the behaviour of young beastfolk. Kemonomimi SCIENCE Magazine.

[catgirl-facts]

Catgirls and cats.

A very little thing, but I have seen it being regarded as an urban legend recently.

Catgirls and cats do NOT like each other.

The reason of why is still very much unclear within the scientific community, however more than 70% of adult catgirls report a heavy dislike of cats and other felines, that they are also unable to explain. More than 80% of underage catgirls report anger, urges of violence and other unpleasant feelings upon encountering cats live or through photographs.

The same happens to both dogirls and cowgirls.

This does not apply to stylized images of cats, which have the same effect they have on humans and have, in fact, become a large part of catgirl culture.

[catgirl-facts]

Catgirl biology - Childhood.

General childhood is not too disimilar from that of human children excluding the fact that for most beastfolk is a lot shorter. In the case of catgirls, among all beastfolk, they have the longest childhood, not entering puberty until the age of ten, as previously discussed.

The main difference with humans is that we take care of our own children or of those that have been trusted to us. For most beastfolk (excluding wolfkinds) this is not the case. Care for a beastfolk child by their parents, or at least by the mother ends entirely upon getting out of the first stage in their development and they're able to walk and talk fully on their own.

Normally, upon reaching this age, young catgirls are given to families that are able to adopt them and take care of them until they reach adulthood. It may sound kind of inhumane to us, but it's deeply ingrained upon their culture, and it has been found that it deeply helps to socialize them and also for them to reach cognitive adulthood significantly faster.

Of course, since a couple of decades ago, as human-beastfolk couples flourish, it's becoming increasingly more frequent to see catgirls being cared for by their human fathers.

It should be noted that upon reaching around the age of 6 or 8, many catgirls (around 60%) lose their tail. This is a normal part of their development, often dependant on if the father is human or not, but not necessarily. However, it can be a deeply traumatizing experience, if a non-painful one, and it's recommended for parents and guardians to both sign the catgirl to therapy and to have her see a doctor that can close the wound as quickly as possible.

This last piece of advice is important, do NOT simply leave it untreated, as it can get easily infected. In the past it counted as chief cause for 80% of childhood deaths among catgirls.

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For extra reading:

Takahashi, H (2004) Brief Care Guide for the Guardians of Beastfolk. Vol 1, Childhood and physical development.

Weiss, J T (2018) Handprints and Pawprints - An pedagogical guide on the care and early education of catgirls.

Stapleton, K. Jackson, N. et al (2020) Responses and trauma to the loss of tail in beasfolk, a metastudy. BPI Foundation Journal of Therianthropology.

[catgirl-facts]

Catgirl Biology - Kittens.

As we've previously seen with the stages of their lives, catgirls mainly show two anomalies when compared to humans, or sometimes, to other beastfolk, which are their Kitten stage and their puberty

Catgirl kittens, much like the spawns (yes, that is the correct term, even if it sounds bad.) of other beastfolk are a bit different from human babies.

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Let's begin with the physical aspects.

Kittens are born with fur. As in, hair on their skin, not just their scalps. It's not like that of the kittens of actual cats, but its still a thin layer of hair covering their skin. They will lose all of it in the first few months and only have hair on the top of their heads, their tails (if they have one) and maybe the normal amount of body hair for a human woman to have.

Should the fur not fall off in the first few months, it's heavily recommended to shave them. The hair should fall off in the first year of their lives, if it doesn't it may be a sign that the child has some kind of negative genetic anomaly.

Kittens are also often (around 40% of the time) born with a pseudo-muzzle, mostly composed of fat that slowly vanishes during the kitten state until their faces look fully human. It is currently unknown why this happens.

Similarly, they are often born with concentrations of fat in their hands and feet that make them look like paws. Like the muzzle, they too end up looking like the hands and feet of a human being after some time, but there are recorded cases of it not happening and the catgirl having to go through surgery to get normal hands.

While all of this is easily manageable, the mental aspects are a bit harder to grasp to families that have a catgirl kitten in their homes. When we humans are born, well, you know how little babies do, but normally by the year/year and a half we are already walking around and making at least attempts at real communication. This is not the case for catgirls, they stay as if newly born until almost the age of two, and after that they are barely mobile and can only crawl around. Of course, when proper childhood arrives, things get better, but that's information for another time.

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For extended reading about catgirl kittens:

Nett, D (2005) Babies and Kittens, it's almost the same, really.

de la Rosa, X (2011) Physical changes in the early development of beastfolk spawn (p. 23-25) European Journal of Therianthropology.

August, A & Nett, D (1999) Detecting early signs of genetic defects on catgirls. (p. 7-12) Journal of Beastfolk Studies, Misk U Press.

Takahashi, H (2009) It's a kitten, not a baby. What now?

[catgirl-facts]

Catgirl Biology - Their Life Cycle.

Let's get this out of the way fast, yes, the life cycles of beastfolk are shorter than those of us humans, generally if you've been born around the same time as a catgirl, she *will* die before you do. The sooner we accept that, the better.

So, you may have seen in some pamphlets or heard from people who have catgirls and so on, that the way they age is a lot different from that of humans. It's not, it certainly can look different to those who don't know better, but we have the same stages.

By age, they are:

Kitten. Their equivalent of being a baby, more on that later. (From birth to around 3 years old.)

Childhood. (From 3 to 10.)

Puberty. (From 10 to 12)

Adolescence. (From 13 to roughly 17-20)

Adulthood. (From 17-20 to 50-60)

Old age. (From 50-60 to their deaths.)

Now, when we look at it like that, it looks a lot like that of us humans, doesn't it?

Of course, there are some anomalies, like "kitten" instead of "baby" or the fact that for humans, puberty counts as adolescence, but in general, it is very similar.

[catgirl-facts]

So, you have acquired a catgirl.

Acquired is a bit of a bad word, but as you know, it's not even remotely like adopting a pet, or a child.

Well, in some ways it is a lot like adopting a child, except that she isn't human and thus the way of raising her is a bit different on how you would raise a daughter of your own.

Anyway, here are some refreshers on a few things that you should probably know already:

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Until she reaches adulthood and decides to obtain independence, she's legally dependant on you. If she doesn't decide to be independent, she will still be legally dependant on you unless a judge rules otherwise. For more information on that, contact a lawyer.

While the life-cycle of catgirls is a bit different to those of humans, reaching to both their teenage years and physical and mental adulthood earlier than us, their legal age of maturity is 18-20 (depending on your location and tests of cognitive development.)

Catgirls have two IDs in their lives: One is the Birth ID, which is a six-digit number plus a letter and a personal one which is an seven-digit number plus the same letter. The latter is obtained upon reaching adulthood but you should keep both of them in mind.

Legal maturity and adulthood are different things, your catgirl may be considered an adult and thus able to be legally independent from you, but if she hasn't reached legal maturity, in most places, things like driving or having a personal bank account will be unavaliable to them.

You may refer to her affectionately as their parent, but keep in mind that your legal status in relation with her is not the same.

Bringing a catgirl to a hospital for humans is fine enough for most cases, but you should opt instead for an specialist in beastfolk. And don't even dare to bring her to a veterinary, not only you will be redirected to the nearest hospital, but in some places is considered a crime to do so.

Don't have your catgirl call you mommy or daddy, it's weird, creepy and I can guarantee you that's she's going to end up hating you for it.

[catgirl-facts]

Welcome

Welcome to Catgirl Facts, person on the Internet who just happens to have stumbled upon this nascent project!

Catgirl Facts in an online encyclopedia about these fascinating creatures, their place in the world, their biology and how to take proper care of them, for both people new to it or that have been doing so for quite a long time but would really like to know even more, from the perspective of a seasoned professional.

Catgirl facts is run by P. Rodríguez, PHD.

Senior researcher at the Los Altos Beastfolk Institute, board member of the Foundation for Human and Beastfolk Friendship and ex-Professor of Therianthropology at the University of Cruzyerma.

Given that this is Tumblr, of course, Dr. Rodríguez identifies as He/Him but also accepts They/Them as pronouns.

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Catgirl facts is a project of speculative worldbuilding based around the idea of anime catgirls (and other x-girls) existing in a real world. Nearly everyone and every place named in this blog are entirely fictional and any resemblance to anyone or any real location is entirely coincidental.