
Leadership - I was thinking something along the lines of two or three of the thieves (probably the oldest ones) made most of the decisions. I can foresee some fighting among the ranks when some of the other's don't agree, but that could end up being fun. The leaders could have just made themselves leaders, maybe by starting the group in the first place (netting the other children in) or just by being the oldest. Think that could work?
How they met - If we go with the above idea, they could possibly be orphans that were brought together by the one or two leaders? Either way, I think upon creation everyone should only have ties to zero or one of the other members, and build upon those relationships during RP. I think that'll make it easier to write our histories. (We'd need a lot more planning otherwise, as we'd have to write up our histories together)
Finally, unless I missed something else, I want to end this post with a question to Alenias. How fast do Blue Jays age? If Alenias is going to be your PC, then you need to remember that Kelvics in human form are as old as their animal form would be (i.e. a 1 year old Kelvic dog is about 7). I think the PCs need to all 'stay cute' for this to work, so unless I really don't know crap about how fast Blue Jays age, I don't know how a Kelvic PC would work. :/