Yes, every background is the work of fine photoshop on (mostly) my own photos from my own adventures across Canada.
I've been told this a lot about the story, and I'm doing my best to improve the later parts and give the story a bit more of a hook.
And yes, the cat ears serve no purpose other than the make the characters cuter. Though some of their personality traits are based off of their real life counterparts, such as the arctic fox loving journeys, etc https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/arctic-fox-norway-canada-1.5197697
