How to Justify the Enfield's Long Claws

Here is Carolina Lang's interpretation of one of Britain's heraldic beasts, the enfield:

For anyone not familiar with the creature, here's A Book of Creatures' basic description of it:

It has the head of a fox, the chest of a greyhound, the talons of an eagle, the body of a lion, and the hindlegs and tail of a wolf.

So in the long and short of it, a very interesting species of canid--wait, hold up. EAGLE talons? Clearly, some foreign author doesn't know how else to describe this newly discovered creature's footwork.

So disregarding the "mad scientist stitching bird feet onto a dog's body" handwavium, how and why would the enfield, if it were a real wild animal, have long, sharp claws, something that other canids don't have?

posted about 5 years ago

JohnWDailey‭

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