Dannycat is one of Clare Bell's "research assistants" for her Ratha novels, a series about "a clan of sentient prehistoric cats taking the first steps toward civilization" first published back in the early 1980s that's just been reissued by Penguin's Firebird imprint. And actually, she says, "the ideas flow quite nicely... because Ratha and the Named are unique, and their prehistoric California Miocene setting provides all sorts of neat situations and creatures." Bell watches Danny and her other cat, Athena, and draws inspiration their behavior.