Breakfast went smoothly, though Clemens found himself running a bit behind schedule and made his way into work. He made his way into his office after arriving at the zoo and double checking his schedule for the day. Thankfully there was nothing outside of the normal routine. There were a couple of reports on concerns from other zoos concerning animals in their collections. It might mean that he'd need to send one of his vets there with whatever problem they had. He spent the next few hours going through what was the standard part of his day in terms of keeping things in order in the reptile house, and with no big classes coming in today, when he returned to his office, he decided he'd take some time to check his email before getting into anything else.
It'd allow him to send any updates he felt would be needed, which could potentially include George and Molly, with regard to the Animatrix Serum's issues with infectiousness. Mostly because of what he had been told that would indicate that George was among the first to be transformed because of its infectious side-effects. He was certain they'd have some interest in following it. Sure enough as he opened his email he found one from George and Molly, with a couple of attachments. He assumed those were baby pictures. He clicked on the email to see what was up.
It read: "Hello, Clemens. I hope this finds you and Jenny well and that any wedding planning isn't too stressful. George and I have been watching several news updates Animal People and their new families. Machli and Michael seemed to enjoy the one about the fox family. It would certainly seem like the world is changing far faster than it ever did before. It's almost nature and man merging... though I guess for us that's fairly obvious."
Clemens got a little chuckle out of that and glanced at one scale covered arm. While the underside of his arm didn't have the belly scales that went down his jaw, neck, belly, and tail, it did have the same camouflage markings that went down his sides, back, and tail. Something no human had.
"Obvious indeed," Clemens thought to himself and read on. His changed tongue didn't affect his thoughts in any way.
"Their recent episode got me wondering on some things. Some of it may be person and none of my business, I won't ask..."
She had to be referring to Jenny's decision on whether or not to become an Animal Person herself.
"...but the other related to what the Johansons said about the mentality of their children. That their kids had a mentality that was closer to a child's than an infants. Do you think they'd still mature mentally at the same rate as humans, as physical maturation will likely be? Or would it hold steady for a while to let their bodies catch up? How will that affect them in school if they do mature mentally before they mature physically? Would they still be able to play? Would they want to play?"
Clemens noted that as pure curiosity and measuring what most people knew about reptiles and how their young were raised against how they were raised. It was something that he had noted being especially prevalent among Animal People. Mostly because so many of those that did become Animal People became a mammal. George and Molly were Bengal Tigers. Leon Washburn was an African Lion. Clemens had also met a small handful of Animal People in his own town in Florida that had become Animal People, and they were all either some breed of Domestic Dog or Cat. And there, with all of them, thoughts regarding play and mental development wouldn't be too different from humans, as humans were mammals as well and things such as play went across the spectrum of mammalian species. It was only the specific games that changed.
He kept reading, before deciding to answer.
"Machli and Michael are doing well. We've been getting them used to our neighbors up the hill, the Choir family... David and Tabby. You saw Tabby at the debate you came up to see... and with my cousins. They've done well with people... well with human people... but I hope some of this training will allow me to resume my work when my maternity leave ends and hopefully get them used to more things than just their mom and dad. That way when you and Jenny come up again, they won't be afraid of you. And they are doing well...
Also, I have some pictures to share. I hope you find them cute... -- Molly Wayne."
Clemens then scrolled down to see a series of photos with each one labeled. They read in order, Daddy's Girl, With Cousins, At School. The last one made Clemens blink in surprise, but figured that if they were kept warm and shaded from the sun, moving them wouldn't be too much trouble. The first came from inside George and Molly's cabin and apparently caught George Wayne on a day off. He was resting on his back on a couch in their living room. Resting on his chest was Machli. Clemens couldn't tell if the female cub was asleep, as both her and her brother weren't likely to open their eyes until they were closer to three months old, according to what he had been told, but something in the picture did indicate some contentment.
The picture also showed the full size and scale of how big George Wayne was. Clemens, himself as a little taller than he was as a human and had gained a little weight, thanks to his tail, but George Wayne dwarfed him easily. It showed great size and strength that big cats needed to bring down prey. And there on the picture was little Machli, cuddled underneath her father's hands with only her head and shoulders really visible. She was tiny in comparison to both her father and mother... though in time that would change.
The next picture featured a pair of young women, though likely slightly older than Molly, holding both Machli and Michael. Clemens assumed these two were Molly's cousins. The last picture featured Joseph seated at his desk nervously holding Michael in one arm and Machli in the other. Both cubs looked like they were "gumming" his shirt in the picture. Clemens wondered if this was done during a lunch break or during one of the Summer Sun classes. All in all, the pictures were fairly cute, and he hoped that things for George and Molly went well with their cubs.
Clemens then began to craft a careful reply. He typed, "It is good to hear from you, Molly, and I am glad to see that you and your family are doing well. And, yes, the pictures are very cute. To answer your question... I'd figure that the Johanson's children's mental maturity, and thus the mental maturity of any Animal Person that has become a reptile or amphibian... will likely mature at the same rate that a human's mentality. The main difference being that they start out more mature than human children, which would likely tie in with the fact that reptiles, in contrast to mammals, must be mentally ready to live on their own before they are physically ready to reproduce. The Johanson's children probably will never engage in the sort of play that you engaged in as a child, nor the games and exploration that Joseph and I engaged in when we were growing up.
This doesn't mean that "play" will be gone from their lives. After all, they cannot just go and live in the trees and eat squirrels for the rest of their lives. They will have to live with a society that is highly social and until recently has been 100% mammalian. They'll thus need to learn social interaction as well as mores and norms. They can probably form good friendships, and might be willing to join in group activities, though the mentality and maturity level may be above the level of human children in their age bracket which could give them some difficulty... but it wouldn't be anything that would hurt them or that time and patience wouldn't fix."
Clemens looked over his reply, added a line or two to clarify things and put in the update on the new update that was coming up regarding the research into cure for the Animatrix Serum's potential infectious side-effects.