Cleaning up after their rather passionate orgy wasn't too heard and while drying off was a bit harder with all the fur that was also there to clean off, Lunette was fairly pleased with the process of getting clean. Shi also found herself fairly pleased with how friendly the other four herm wolves were with hir. They had lots of questions and shi did her best to answer them, though most of Lunette's answers were based on reports that had been out there for years on Animalia. Much of this came from Animalia Ambassadoria and the various reports that Horizon published to help build up support for the community. It wasn't much, but it appeared that the four hermaphrodite wolves accepted it. That alone, Lunette took as a plus and that let her tail wag as they made their way along with Judy and one of the other Horizon scientists in the lead.
Much of this related to the need for both vaccinations to make sure the Animalia Virus, and particularly the hermaphroditic strain didn't spread, but there was also some need to make sure that things were fine with them mentally. Lunette was fine with that, as shi'd seen plenty of things that indicated that Animalians didn't necessarily lose many of their instinctive behaviors. Predatory Animalians still had the base urge to stalk, pounce, and chase while many of the defensive behaviors from herbivorous Animalians was also there. That would then mean there would be questions on how the Hermaphroditic strain would effect certain animals. Some animals had highly gender driven societies that were fairly different. In lions, the males defended the pride's territory but were rarely involved in hunting while the lionesses did the bulk of the hunting. Hyenas lived in a matriarchal society while many others lived in a more patriarchal society.
Now it was the time to test the new Herm Wolves. They followed Lunette along as she followed Judy and the scientist. They eventually came to a door that had a few chairs in the hallway outside the door. Judy and the scientist both turned to explain things when they noted the four uplifted wolves looking to Lunette and then to the chairs. It wasn't quite submission in the sense of how mundane wolf packs operated, but from what Judy could see, it appeared that the uplifted Herm Wolves did look to Lunette as something of a leadership figure. Some of that made sense, given that wolves were highly social by nature and the wolves in the Animalia Police Department had essentially tied in their pack hierarchy as the means to keep law and order in Animalia.
And given that normal wolf packs were essentially the alpha male and female and their children, that then lead to some different areas of courtship. Some of those wolves courting Lyre Humans that might have had interest, as was the case with one marrying Simon's mother. Others took interest in uplifted dogs as they found out that the scientific community was starting to consider dogs and wolves to be the same species with the former's different appearance having more to do with selective breeding and not actually being a separate species, or in Simon's case, Malice took an interest in him. Most of the rest had ultimately paired off with some of the other small pack members that had wandered down into the Lyre area before the Animalia outbreak. All generally seemed to keep many of their base societal structures in tact while using them to then fit in with Animalia. In some ways it became something like a club or click of friends, and this was something that even applied for all the Animalians that had come from highly social animals. So Lunette and these four would likely be no different, though Judy didn't expect the four uplifted Herm Wolves to pay that much respect to Lunette right off the bat.
"Can we all go in together?" Lunette asked, getting the sense that the others didn't want to go in one at a time.
"Can we have some fun?" one to Lunette's left asked.
"Will there be food?" asked one to Lunette's right.
"We don't have food right now..." Judy said slowly, "Much of this is to evaluate on how you're coping with things after being uplifted... and in Lunette's case, converted."
"That's your name?" said a third herm wolf as shi looked to Lunette.
"Yeah," Lunette nodded with happily perked ears and hir tail wagging.
"That's a great name," said the fourth herm wolf, "we should take names too."
"And the choices are wide open," Lunette told them, "male names, female names... both would apply for you."
"Awesome!" the first declared, "I think I'll be... Night Runner. It sounds cool."
"I'll be..." the second mused and thought for a moment before finishing, "Chelsea. The ranch owner always seemed smitten with the name."
"I'll be Dusky," said the third, "waiting in the shadows for fun to appear."
"I'll be... Paula," the fourth commented, "a friend to all."
Judy watched as the four took their names and showered Lunette with some attention, and Lunette returned it with a few nuzzles to hir new friends. As they calmed down, they returned their attention to Judy and the other Horizon scientist. Eventually Judy shrugged and gave the answer to the original question.
"You're quite free to come together," Judy answered, "we're mostly going to ask a few questions on what you can remember and understand. See if the hermaphrodite strain of the Animalia Virus has had any ill effects that would be noticed."
"Some things were weird," Dusky answered, "but... not necessarily bad, I suppose."
"And we found an Alpha," Night Runner answered placing one had Lunette's shoulder, "shi can help us with things."
"We might wish to see on how shi adapts to hir new condition as well, as shi was a human female," the other Horizon scientist commented.
"And a cute one," Chelsea answered as Judy opened the door and ushered the five herm wolves in.
They were lead into a small conference. It had a long table that ran through its middle with some plastic chairs along the edges. Judy and the other Horizon scientist took one side while Lunette took the other and the other four herm wolves looking to each other and then split off into two pairs of two. Dusky and Paula sat down to Lunette's right while Night Runner and Chelsea sat down to Lunette's left. They started with a few series of questions on how the four uplifted wolves ended up on some rancher's property in Wyoming. Some of the stories varied a little with specific details, but all of them did generally fall into a similar pattern. The mother, father, or relative moving them as pups was killed, either by a gunshot or the adult being hit by a vehicle and the pups then being moved to the ranch. Though there was also the mention there had also been deer in area as well, which raised the possibility that the deaths of the adult wolves was accidental.
"I can't believe you were all orphaned alone!" Lunette spoke with some surprise.
"Probably not orphaned," the other Horizon scientist commented, "though... with the cases involving gunfire, the pack likely did scatter and taking what pups they could with them. In that the rancher's willingness to rescue these four would show some measure of atonement."
"Or at least attempted," Judy added.
"And ultimately were weren't alone," Dusky answered, "we had each other... even if we weren't siblings. And while the food he gave us was crunchy... it wasn't too bad."
"And we did grow fairly strong," Night Runner commented, "though we were kept in a fenced in area and didn't get to chase much."
"Yeah... we chased a goat once," Chelsea commented, "the rancher didn't like that..."
"Not to mention that it got away," Paula added, referring to the goat.
Judy jotted down a few notes. Some of the details the four gave were a bit hazy and she wasn't sure as to whether or not it would be enough to raise additional charges with the man who'd kept them, but it did provide enough information that she could judge that the four, even before being uplifted, exhibited various dog and wolf behaviors as they grew up. In this, a zoo or Animalia were the best options, as while the four weren't necessarily "people aggressive," the lack of growing up in a normal pack structure and frequent contact with the rancher had greatly reduced their fear of man, and that if released, they would likely end up staying close to people looking for handouts and could try to attack man if food wasn't offered. She'd also noted that the rancher had also made attempts to block them forming a normal pack structure, which in pure theory would have left them seeing the rancher as the "alpha," but would also leave them dependent on him. That made Animalia the best option, and Judy could even accept the treatment they gave to Lunette. She wrote down that treatment represented many of the decisions that every uplifted Animalian often made as they got used to things.
"Will there be other things you need to know?" Lunette asked to Judy.
"Well, part of your acclimation may include some physical tests, to see how you compare with the uplifted and converted wolves that are already part of Animalia..." the Horizon scientist began...
"But they'd only have one gender?" Dusky asked.
"Yes," the Horizon scientist nodded, "for the comparison. Though... with the IAC going on, that may take some coordination getting in and out, mostly due to increased traffic."
"We can do it!" Lunette said confidently, earning some cheers from the other four.
"We would like to ask a few questions how you stand... gender wise, if you don't mind," Judy commented.
"We don't mind," Night Runner answered, "though... about the only thing that is gendered for wolves is siring and carrying pups..."
"Of course... now, you can do both," Lunette commented, "be both the mom and the dad... at the same time."
"The rancher didn't allow that," Dusky commented, "He made us stay in little boxes this past January."
Many of the other questions followed along the same line. They essentially found the hermaphroditic rules didn't seem to present any sort of "surprise" that would be confusing with regard to their gender identity. There might have been some measure of confusion at gaining the hermaphroditic traits at first, but Night Runner, Paula, Dusky, and Chelsea did adapt to it well enough and seemed rather interested in Lunette most of all. From a scientific point of view, both Judy and her partner with Horizon noted that they did seem mentally healthy and stable, which would allow them to move on to some of the physical evaluations.