General discussion about Usagi Yojimbo, the comics, the stories, the characters, collectibles, TV appearances, Stan Sakai, Space Usagi, Nilson & Hermy, and all other related topics.
1) To replace all of the mammalian wildlife and pets in Usagi's world because it is an anthropomorphic world. The only exception to this was Noriyuki's dog Koro... but we haven't seen him in awhile. Notice how there are no bird or horse people in Usagi's world either. These are because these appear as animals. There have been some reptilian characters though. Usagi had a pet tokage once -- Spot -- who went on to become Zato Ino's pet.
2) Stan likes drawing dinosaurs -- see Space Usagi for some wild varieties of tokage.
The tokage are one of my favourite things in Usagi Yojimbo cartoons. I love the little background humour they bring to the strip and I am in constant awe of Stan's ability to make them express so many different emotions, whilst only saying, "Eep!".
Also, of course, one of the most moving sequences involved the death of one special tokage.