#FurryWriters - question for you. How do you deal with wildlife in your stories? I've personally found it weird to have sapient and non-sapient animals. My current story is set in the woods and I'm not sure what to do about, like wildlife sightings, birdsong and the like. Am I thinking too hard?

I tend to use ‘ferals’ for wildlife, but my main setting doesn’t have anthro birds so I don’t need to differentiate those.

They're around. I often have the anthro protags refer to them as "cousins" of varying sorts (little cousins, quadrupedal cousins, etc.). It's not the same exactly, but in my brain it's similar to humans seeing other apes or monkeys---just a different branch on the evolutionary tree.

Perhaps...its a mystery to THEIR universe as well? I mean, like a religious discussion - why do some have sentience and others do not? Maybe its debated back and forth but not particularly known?