It all makes sense now -- you must have gotten the very rare 2006 Package 9, with the animation option.
There's a little patch of fur at the bottom of the middle of the rear bumper---almost as if an animal's tail had been removed. Could it be.....? Did you ever see how Jeff Goldblum was "fused" with a fly (in "The Fly")? Could my Prius have been fused with...(it would explain so much else)...with...
My Prius yelled at me for the first time yesterday - got the red Triangle of Doom for opening my door with the car in drive =P