Drawing this genus of jaguar-sized carnivorous rodents, Sarcosciurus, descended from ground squirrels. I thought it would be cute to have it sitting up and using its forelimbs to manipulate chunks of meat and severed limbs like a typical squirrel, but then I'm not sure if that behavior would carry over.
Squirrels do that shit because they typically eat small portable meals, while a predator like this would most likely kill and eat things as big or bigger than themselves, not something they can just hold in their hands. That stuff would be better pinned to the ground. Also I wonder if the larger more muscular size would make it inflexible.
I mainly want to have it eat something while sitting up like a squirrel to further distinguish it behaviorally and physically from a large cat, which it is evidently based on partially through convergence, but again idk if it makes sense for it to be doing that. Lmk what you guys think. Also, please talk me out of giving it a giant claw on its semi-opposable thumb and ripping off the marsupial lion.