Moochava Cardiopulmonary System

The Moochava cardiopulmonary system developed to maintain homeostasis on the freezing surface of the Moochava homeworld, Wuffinoc. The system itself, called the Borfmunn System, is common to all myoops, or land-dwelling, bipedal, furred, sighted omnivores, which are some of Wuffinoc's most complex lifeforms, of which Moochava are one example.

The system takes in air through the nostrils and passes it, through the motive energy of the Moochava tumunda, or lung-heart-stomach unit, over food in one of the three Moochava stomachs. The first, "base stomach" produces chemical energy that is converted into fat, while the "middle stomach," when aerated, produces a sort of frothy blood called myoopin, and the "rarified stomach" produces air-filled vacuoles called yumps that, when ignited, provide the Moochava with immediate motive energy. A mixture of myoopin and yumps forms Moochava blood.

The entire Borfmunn System is regulated by the Horbi Complex, a dense cluster of nerve cells running from the side of the brain, down the fibrous Moochava spine-trunk, to the centrally-located tumunda. It regulates the feeding-back of yumps into the tumunda: too many and the nasal passages can melt; too few and the tumunda can freeze. Both results are fatal.

Around a Moochava's 20th Wuffinoc year (in the 50s or 60s by Tellus standards), the Horbi Complex stops regulating the first stomach, which halts the development of fatty tissue. In the freezing environment of Wuffinoc, this usually meant a quick death after the Moochava had passed out of sporing age. Now it is mostly an inconvenience, overcome by medicine, glyph-work, and the perpetual consumption of food, often in the form of chewed aromatic "nalami sticks," which marks a Moochava's behavior in later life.