The story and characters are just terrific (and adorable!) and the setting is very interesting too.
One is left to wonder where any male beastkin are, eh? Why there's a school for orphans? That implies there are (or were) beastkin families out there somewhere, but these girls don't know about them. Someone mentioned genocide, that could be in the recent past. Did Beastkin live in another nation? In wild places? Were they bred in captivity? It seems all the adult ones are gone.
They are slaves, they do have to work: Mel and the others are trained to be household maids. Tiny, adorable maids!
There are many really evil people in this universe it seems: they roam around kidnapping beastkin, so there must be an active market for stolen ones, used for vile purposes no doubt :<