Hello!
I like this story already. I wanted to say that he was some kind of feline because of the "black claws" comment. But, then I remembered reading that he worked in an exotic animal clinic/hospital and felt comfortable letting snakes and lizards crawl on him. That and the comment about his skin pigment has me leaning towards some sort of lizard. Plus, he mentioned that you had to be holding whatever animal you became so I'm thinking he is a lizard hybrid. Question, you do know how to change the ratings? I acccidentally hit 2 stars when I was trying to follow this story and now GA won't let me change it.