This is a sketch of a typical vulpithecine public restroom.

  1. The doorway is blocked by a curtain. Yinrih enter by pushing the cloth aside with the muzzle. Most rooms that don’t need strict access control or environmental protection use such curtains.
  2. A washing pool is accessible near the entrance. It’s a shallow basin a few inches deep. The water is vigorously circulated and filtered. Yinrih wash all four paws as well as the tail after using the restroom. There is a coarse bristly floor mat used to scrape dirt from under the claws and from between the paw pads.
  3. The washing pool sits in the “clean” area of the restroom. The “dirty” area where the toilets are is usually set off by a lip in the floor or a change in tile texture. Hygiene dictates that you enter the washing pool directly from the dirty area before setting paw in the clean area again.
  4. The floor is often tiled. How something feels under paw is just as important to a room’s style as how it looks. Tiles often alternate between different textures or even different thermal conductivities to achieve a particular tactile aesthetic.
  5. There are almost always perches in the clean area of the restroom. Yinrih tend to be chatty while doing their business, and in some cultures it’s considered polite to accompany a friend or coworker to the restroom even if you don’t have to go yourself.
  6. The toilets proper are flush with the surrounding floor. The user backs into the stall. There is a ring of rough tile around the rim to help people from stepping in the toilet[1]. Both male and female yinrih eliminate via a cloaca and stand with the rear paws on either side of the bowl with the tail resting across the back. Toilet paper, usually soaked in a mild disinfectant like wet wipes, is available in dispensers above the toilet. The paper is manipulated by the tail.
  7. There are still partitions affording a modicum of privacy. Just because bathrooms are more social than on Earth doesn’t mean people appreciate watching others doing their business, just like many human cultures regard yawning or chewing with the mouth open to be rude or gross. So you can’t drop a deuce in the middle of the street and not expect to get a citation. The partitions are low enough to reveal a yinrih’s head.
  8. The entire stall is flushed after use. The stall floor slopes into the latrine. There is a grate across the entrance that releases a mild mix of water and bleach to both flush the toilet and sanitize the floor.

Needless to say, this is not conducive to human use. If human-specific facilities are not available, the polite thing to do is yield the entire bathroom to a human in need to use privately.


  1. The Commonthroat expression P rlpqN sMp, to step in the toilet means to make a stupid mistake, especially despite being warned beforehand. The more vulgar expression bc g rnqg rp qcf to piss on one’s own [rear] paws carries a similar meaning. ↩︎

  • early_riserOP
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    17 days ago

    Yes on both counts.

    Commonthroat lexicon

    Commonthroat grammar

    Commonthroat isn’t the only yinrih dialect with an army and a navy. There’s also Outlander and Hearthsider, but I haven’t developed them as much.

    Yinrih head in profile wearing HUD specs and an earpiece:

    Yinrih musician wearing a stringed instrument meant to be plucked with the tail.

    Yinrih are arboreal quadrupeds, not cursorial bipeds like humans are. The FrathWiki article linked above links to a fairly comprehensive article on the yinrih as a species.