My thought was that dad's side of the family use feet for gripping onto things, and he picked up the habit of going barefoot from them even if he doesn't have the whole toe length. Also, thicker calluses than humans, so some level of protection.
Your submission is posted to our site but it hasn't yet been added to an Art RPG queue for point counting, approval, and/or reward redemption. Submit it to the queue to get your rewards.