Dr. Bradford A. Whittaker was a native of the planet Urako and a renowned xenoanthropologist who lived in the 16th Century PD. His treecat name was "Garbage Collector". His wife was a politician who in 1521 PD was appointed to a cabinet position on Urako. At the same time, Whittaker went on an expedition to the planet Sphinx in the Star Kingdom of Manticore, where a new sentient species, the treecats, had recently been discovered. He also took his teenage son, Anders, with him.