Genetic engineering's an advanced tool by the 26th century. Bears are a classic and charismatic animal, beloved in literature and history; they're also an inconvenient animal to have around, by and large.
Suddenly we're on Jiangyin and she's got a driving need to commune with the beast?
Which is why, round about the time they were terraforming the first planets of what's now the Rim, a few scientist set about breeding smaller and more docile forms of certain large animals from the frozen genetic samples the spaceships carried from the vaults of Earth-That-Was. Modern bears are small enough to be house-pets, and can be tamed to eat from a dish, and to come when called to be petted.
They weren't cows inside.
River drops out of her chair in an abrupt ungraceful tangle, abandoning soy and stock options on the table to curl into herself and turn her face against the fur of the miniature polar bear.
They were waiting to be, but they forgot.
He's a god, really. He looked like a man a minute ago. And even in River's world, no polar bear is tame enough for a complete stranger to cuddle.
Now they see the sky
It doesn't matter.
and they remember what they are.
She's not crying. She's only wrapping her arms around herself, and breathing, and remembering what, for an evening, she forgot.