From publisher blurb: Catriculan hounds are lanky, wily dogs five feet at the shoulder and nearly ten feet from snout to tail. Though they bear superficial resemblance to normal hounds, they are of a foul disposition and temperament. If kept well fed and treated fairly, though, they’ll almost never turn on their owners. Almost. t is not known what the moniker “Catriculan” is in reference to - perhaps some long-forgotten city where the creatures were bred, or a wizard who created them from whole cloth. Some scholars theorize that they are domesticated dire wolves, much as a normal dog is a domesticated wolf… though that does not explain their foul demeanor.