This world of Port Orion is a weird world.

My eldest asked me about this cat person, and I’ll explain it to you like I did to him.
“GET OUT OF MY OFFICE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?! I DON’T HAVE TO WEAR PANTS IF I DON’T WANT, I’M A GROWN MAN!”
Kidding.
So before there was Velour and Tweed, and even before Crux Co. there was a company called NegenCorp, and it was none other than Guallian Barre who, while working for them, developed advanced body repair and augmentation procedures, and with it came the ability to graft in the likeness of animals. People were mesmerized. 
Tattoos? That’s kids stuff. If you really wanted to express yourself, you got a body augmentation.  Then maybe another. And Another.
But there are always consequences. After so many augmentations, the minds started to be affected, work and family life of those who went overboard with these changes, the “Body Augers” or “Augers”, as they were called, and pretty soon, after a scandal, were either dead or on the streets with only a few exceptions.
-t.m.