Dire-cats were carnivorous feline creatures that lived on the planet Corellia. They had spines coming out of their backs and shoulder blades, and would attack animals that had the scent of blood. Their keen sense of smell was also able to pick up traces of contaminants, such as synthetic poison, and as such avoid tainted meat. During 42 BBY, a pack of dire-cats attacked, killed, and ate the Mandalorian warrior Tor Vizsla after his stomach had been cut open with a switch-blade, heavily exposing the scent of his blood to the nearby cats. Dire-cats could also be found on the planet of Talus, existing as a subspecies known as the ferine razorfang.
Dire-cats were feline mammals who lived on the Core World of Corellia. Carnivores, dire-cats had an acute sense of smell that allowed them to pick up and track the scent of blood. However, if the blood was contaminated or unclean, such as poisoned blood, dire-cats could detect this and avoid tainted meat. A full-grown dire-cat was fairly large, muscular creature, capable of downing a grown Human male of nearly two meters with little difficulty.
Dire-cats were covered in golden, bristly fur, had red eyes, and the skin of their noses were colored black. Dire-cats walked on four legs, each leg ending in a large padded paw. Front paws each had five digits, each tipped in a sharp gray claw. Their hind legs ended in paws with only three digits, however. Another notable aspect of dire-cats was that the backs of their shoulders were covered in sharp pointed spines that stuck out from beneath their fur. Adults had larger, more prominent spines than the juveniles. Although the task was difficult, dire-cats could be tamed.
Dire-cats were primarily found on Corellia, a planet located in the Corellian system, and had been in recorded history as early as the year 3643 BBY. During an event known as the Cold War, which spanned from 3653 BBY to 3642 BBY, a Twi'lek slave named Vette made a claim to a jailer named Knash that she could imitate the sound that a dire-cat could make. Much later, during 42 BBY, a family of the cats, a dominant adult and three cubs, followed behind the Mandalorians Tor Vizsla and his rival Jango Fett as they dueled each other across the terrain of Corellia after a narrow escape from a detonating ship. After falling into a river and washing up on a lake bed, Vizsla injected Fett with poison. Before Vizsla could deal the killing blow, Fett slashed Vizsla's stomach open with a switch-blade, causing the warrior to bleed profusely. The blood that had been spilled was just enough to attract the family of dire-cats, who attacked, killed, and ate Vizsla. After the cats had eaten their fill, two of the cubs inspected Fett's unconscious form, but sniffing out his poisoned blood, they backed away and left Fett to rest in the grass. The dire-cats were gone by the time Fett regained consciousness.
During the Galactic Civil War many years later, spacers who often visited Corellia would sometimes come into contact with dire-cats and occasionally hunt them. Spacers also encountered ferine razorfangs when visiting Talus.
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