It has claws and teeth (as well as wings), and can fight reasonably well, but does so only when it feels theatened.  It will not attack on command, but it has occationally fought by my side, or at least warned me when it saw a danger I didn't (by digging it's claws harder into my sholder).

Jherigs (like many of the animals on my home world) are psionic, but not powerfully so.  It can read thoughts/emotions from the minds around it, and if it understands them, can act on them.  It can often sense an attacker (and sometimes will warn me).  It can also read  "suggestions/requests" directly from my mind.  It knows the  "suggestions/requests" for "watch my back", "scout out ahead",  "give me some privacy", "get me that (little thing I'm looking at)", "lookout/hide/fly".  Of course, I'm not psyonic, so I have no idea what things it says back, except from the look in his eyes.
 
 

[MJW: It's almost certainly Lickta (1307 Foreven; 0507 Minim]

My homeworld is wet, lightly populated, and relativly early and exotic in it's evolution.  The politics are balkanized into contenents, and though there have been wars in the past, the population is so thin that contact between contenents is rare.

My homeworld is off the "space-lanes", is not strategically placed, and is generally unknown, so traders, generals, fortune seekers, and vacationers tend to ignore us.

Their are two "races" of humans on my world: the Highborne and the Lowborne.  There has been almost no interbreeding between these peoples since they met almost 4000 years ago.

The stereotypical Highborne is tall, thin, with pointed features, and black hair, highly educated, and frail.  The stereotypical Lowborne is the opposite, though, as in most cases, the stereotype isn't reality, and the two peoples have much more in common than they are willing to admit.  I am of the Lowborne.  The Highborne came to our world, and conquered it 4000 years ago.  The two peoples now live amongst each other in peace.

The Lowborne came to this world way too long ago to remember, and most Lowborne believe we've always been here.  By the time the Highborne arrived we had lost most of our technology, no one knows why, but some among the Highborne are begining to suspect.

Our world is a mix of high tech, and low tech.  High rises, and huge spires, and little cottages, and country churches.  The Lowborne do the low tech jobs: mostly farming, hunting, and low tech crafts and shopkeepers.  We live on farms, or in the wilds, or in small villages, of in the shops surrounding the highrises of the Highborne.

The Highborne handle the high tech stuff, though in fact they tend to avoid the appearance of "technology".  They read real books, walk (or sometimes ride horses), ....

The big secret is that my homeworld is highly psionic.  Many of the animals have psionic powers, and even some of the plants. All Highborne are slighly psionic, and tend to use psionics to communicate with their machines, their pets, and each other over long distances.  Actual "psionic powers" are still rare among the Highborne, but they do exist, and don't have be hidden on our world.

Among the Lowborne the "psionic powers" are more concentrated.  A few "witch doctors" have amazing powers, but no one thinks of  these as psionic.  Instead these "witch doctors" believe they invoke the spirits around them, and their powers tend to manifest themselves in ways that bear out this belife.  Most Lowborne don't seem to have psionic powers, but whether that is actual lack of ability, or just a fear of being called a "witch", or worst being called a "Highborne", is unknown.  It is illegal for a Lowborne to use "psionic powers" like the Highborne, but no self respecting Lowborne would do so anyway - which explains the whole "witch doctor" thing.  Those among the Highborne who think about these things think that something in the atmosphere, or food, or water, acts as a mild psionic drug.  After thousands of years it's become part of our genes.

[One theory is that the Psionic Institute is a very secret,  very powerful, group, either on, or perhaps within the governments on my Homeworld.  MJW has a theory of his own.]