Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a contemptible fellow, a cur.

1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 23 Nov. 7/1: Pat Killen, like all ‘ki-yis’, is a braggart.
1907		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 xi: Yore th’ snortingest ki-yi that ever stuck its tail atween its laigs, yu are.
1942		W. Pegler George Spelvin Chats 132: So you are yellow. A ki-hi, hey? And a bum, too.

2. a noisy dog.

1890		Sporting Times 22 Feb. 1/3: The Old Dog bore this for Some Time, when, Wearying of the Entertainment, he Suddenly Exposed his Left Eye to View, and falling Athwart the Unsalted Ki-yi, bit a Triangular piece out of his ear.
1904		Buffalo Express 20 June 4: A butcher in Brussels made sausage of the carcass of a zoo elephant which had been killed. Doubtless the Brussels kiyis yelped for joy [DA].
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 76: Them sickenin’, sap-headed stiffs, with the grit of rabbits and the silk of mangy ky-yi’s.