Phazkylo

I want to adopt a cute pet in your world. What is it and how do I look after one?
A common domestic animal in Lath Phenee Kozh is called a Phazkylo, generally, they can grow from the length of the tip of your middle finger to your wrist, all the way up to the size of your entire arm, but they are usually pretty lithe, and very very tall, up to 5 (kyn) Thynyz*.
They are extremely easy to take care of; because of their loyalty to their tamer (they are common enough that any attempt to breed and commercialize them has been unsuccessful, taming them is easy and much more cost-efficient on average), they do not run away very often, and when they do, it's because their tamer isn't very good. Because of this fact, letting them outside of a confined space is generally ok. They know where to find food (if their tamer does not provide them with any, they are very good hunters, and know how to find food), and them defecating in public areas is not a very big problem, it happens rarely (for many different reasons across the 3 continents they are on), and when it does happen, it's easy to clean up.
For the most part, as long as you give them attention on a regular-enough basis and pay attention to their needs (they communicate wonderfully, they do not have a way to speak, but with their noises, it's easy to read their emotions, and they're clever), they will stay with you and be a fantastic companion. They aren't very strong, or useful for many tasks that animals are usually used for, so they are just companion animals. In a few Nyth cultures, they have a sort of holiday/rite of passage ceremony where on 3 chosen nights in the middle of the warmer seasons, the youth with 1 chosen person (this can be a mentor, a crush, a rival) outside of their village or tribe to tame an animal and bond. Different people go out for different reasons, and with different supplies. It's mostly just supposed to be a holiday meant to bring people together (or further apart, some mischievous people and goblins like to fool people during these nights) and its symbolized by them catching and taming a creature -- together! They say that if you can't tame anything (even a Phazkylo, they're almost always tamed by most participants) then the two who went together were going to have a falling out. And the inverse for those who are able to tame a more skittish creature together. Small bit of Nyth culture.
*Unyz is the standard unit of measurement. People measure plenty of other ways, usually on average, using items as references, but when an accurate measurement is needed and/or the participants are international, they use Unyz. Unyz is about equivalent to 3 cm (see pre-Kozh era ruler), 10 Unyz makes up 1 Thynyz, 100 Unyz makes up 1 Thanyz, 1000 Unyz makes up 1 Kanyz, etc. Basic units of measurement for liquid and weight follow the same number rule, but the suffix is '-oz' for weight (1 Unoz = about 4 grams) and '-az' for liquid volume (1 Unaz = about 6 mL). Solid volume is not generally measured, because weight is generally how people measure smaller items (or they compare them to other small things), and space/size is measured via Unoz, the standard measurements.

Basic Information

Anatomy

They are much like tall, thin dogs, although their muzzle is very catlike. They have short, cotton ball tails, and their fur color and thickness depends on where they live, but they have grey coats with different shades of orange and reds as highlights and spots in warmer/non-snowy places. Their fur is not very soft, but it also stays clean most of the time (Phazkylo clean themselves). Their legs are where most of their height comes from, about 70-80% of their height is from just their legs, and regardless of their length, they are rarely shorter than 2 (than) Thynys, and their legs are not very wide, but they are very strong. They use their legs as weapons more often then they use their claws or teeth (they aren't very sharp, and their legs are strong enough to be used as basically clubs to bludgeon their prey/whoever they need to attack). The strength comes from their bones, which are very hard and dense, but because they are so thin, they are usually used after death to reinforce things like handles of all sorts (for weapons, carts, etc.), but they are very useful when ground up and mixed with certain adhesives to glue things together much more effectively than most adhesives of similar accessibilty.

Genetics and Reproduction

They reproduce sexually, essentially like dogs. A pregnant Phazkylo is only pregnant for about 8-10 weeks, and when they give birth, they give birth to 3 pups, and take care of them for 3 weeks, while they grow their fur, and whiskers, and muscles. After 3 weeks, they all rejoin the nearest pack, if they're in the wild.
All Phazkylo are intersex; any can give birth, or fertilize an egg, and generally, the fertilizer doesn't stay because it can take up to 10 days for a pregnancy to form, so instead of having a traditional mother and father, like many animals, Phazkylo have a birthgiver, and any Phazkylo that the birthgiver can find to help take care of the offspring and the birthgiver for the first week of the Offspring's life, but after that first week, the birthgiver and helper switch roles, where the second Phazkylo stays with the babies to protect them while the birthgiver finds food and things to take care of the small family. When they reassimilate into a pack, they children are raised by the whole pack, and the original birthgiver, while still a part of their life, is not their exclusive primary caretaker. Packs can have many growing Phazkylo at any given time, and the creatures in a pack float in and out as they make babies and get tamed and switch packs over time.
Another thing, though, about 20% of pregnancies get aborted by the birthgiver, because sometimes they can't find another Phazkylo to help them, and if they can't find a helper, they can't take care of the babies and they'd all die anyway, which is a very big thing keeping the Phazkylo populus in check.

Growth Rate & Stages

From birth to 3 weeks, they cannot see or feel very much, nor do they have fur, so they have to be hidden in dens covered in warming material (leaves, straw, grass, genera fibers), and the pregnant Phazkylo watches over them while a secondary parent gets food and watches out for anything outside the den. After a week, the birthgiver recovers and switches places with the secondary phazkylo. The offspring can now see and feel, but their fur is thin, and their muscles are not yet developed, so they start practicing to walk now, having the secondary Phazkylo push them up and help them build their leg muscles, and teach them basic communicaton for their spieces (they do not have a 'language,' but their noises are not instinctual, their noises with their emotions are taught).
For the next two weeks, they develop, and after 3 weeks of being alive, they finally have enough muscle to function mostly, and are able to reassimilate in packs. Their growth varies from here, but usually it takes another 2-4 weeks before they can finish growing to about 3-4 Thynyz (90-120 cm) tall and 8-12 Unyz (24-36 cm) long, and they live for up to 40 years after that, and their degradation is very fast. Usually, after so long of using their (very strong) muscles, it wears on them, and eventually, their bones become much weaker, and their muscles break their leg bones, effectively killing them there. Because of their anatomy, they cannot heal without external help (help from more advanced creatures), and if they are in a pack, the pack will try and make their last week very good (the old, broken Phazkylo almost becomes a ruler for a few days), before eventually killing their elder and burying them. They can sometimes mourn for 3 days, longer if the Phazkylo was older or in the pack for a long time.

Ecology and Habitats

Generally, Phazkylo live in forests, but they can thrive anywhere that isnt a desert (their fur is too warm and because theyre so small it doesn't take long for them to overheat). As long as there are plenty of small creatures, places to easily hide or dig dens, and plenty of other Phazkylo, they can thrive. That's why they're so widespread; they're super adaptable.

Dietary Needs and Habits

They don't store their food, but they are amazing at finding it. They eat just about everything you can find, from fruits in trees, to vegetables underground, to rodents up to half their (body) size, to soft bark. They have amazing sense of touch and smell, they can feel different textures through dirt, which helps them find holes (their whiskers are especially good at it), and they are very good at pinpointing smells of food. This can be detrimental to nearby wildlife, if an especially large pack comes through a certain area that doesn't particularly have enough food for them, they can sometimes completely kill an area of forest, but usually, if there isn't enough food (they are mostly small creatures that don't need much usually), the place was already being ravaged by something else, and it can also reduce the size of packs, which means that wherever the survivors travel next, they most likely won't kill, and they are usually able to leave the areas they pass with enough time to recover.

Biological Cycle

Because they're always moving, they never hibernate, but generally, if they're in a warmer climate for about 2 weeks, their coat will shed and recolour to match, and the same goes for snowy places. They don't dig dens in the ground in the cold, however, they instead find rotten or hollow trees, or about any structure soft enough for them to infiltrate, and make their dens there, so it's less likely for them to be iced over while they rest.

Behaviour

They are very much like dogs (maybe a bit closer to foxes), except they are much more emotional and complex than many other species. They are able to almost have conversations with each other and more advanced species because of their ability to communicate an emotion and correlate it with something. They roam in packs, which helps keep them from predators, but their eating habits are indiscriminate, which can sometimes lead to endangered or uncommon species being nearly wiped out if a reservation isn't protected correctly from Phazkylo.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

They have whiskers that can be up to 12 Unyz long (which is actually about half the size of Naskyloz, which use their whiskers to help climb mountains and find crevices where they can hide or find food), which capture vibrations through the air very well as well as whiskers on their CHIN that are faced downwards so they can feel anything they can't see, whether it be trees that are a little too close as they're running, or a hole on the ground hiding some tasty rodents, or the breath of a predator stalking them.

Origin/Ancestry

Origin: They evolved from a species of mountain dog from the continent of Zathou called Nazkylo. Those animals were about the same, but as the people in Zathou traveled with them as companions to the other continents, they evolved into the Phaskylo we luv

Conservation Status

They are a very common species, and because the majority are domestic, they are not endangered OR overpopulated.