,.-~*’¨¯¨’*·~-.¸-(_ The Great _)-,.-~*’¨¯¨’*·~-.¸
,.-~*’¨¯¨’*·~-.¸-(_ Cat War _)-,.-~*’¨¯¨’*·~-.¸
,.-~*’¨¯¨’*·~-.¸-(_ Chapter 3 _)-,.-~*’¨¯¨’*·~-.¸

“Mom. Do you think the cubs will be by the river today? Mom. Did you see the WK Flutter Bugs by the sun rock? Mom. Have you seen, Fluffy, my WK Stuffy Pig? Mom! Mom! Mom!…”

Taking a deep breath and collecting her thoughts before replying to her little pup’s incessant questioning, Felan, Bodolf’s life mate, answered her young one. “I love how inquisitive you are, Canagan. Many of the questions you ask can be answered by just observing and KEEPING QUIET!” With patience at it’s limit, the new mother pawed at a WK Hour Glass of Moxie to tip it over and immediately lapped it up giving her that extra jolt of energy to wake up in the morning.

The sound of dense forest undergrowth being pushed aside could be heard adjacent to the wolves den. When Felan looked up to inspect the noise, she saw Bodolf standing in the clearing. “Those cats were at it again last night,” he huffed with his nose to the ground checking scents. “I just overheard the new Lynx neighbors talking about it. The story seems to be all over the forest by now. I’m going to go check to see what happened.”

With a nod of approval, Felan knocked over another WK Hour Glass of Moxie, drinking it before it soaked into the ground. Enjoying the effects, as energy spread throughout her body, she bellowed her morning howl and gave a good stretch to start the day. Suddenly, a flash of caution crossed her mind. There was silence. There was never silence. What’s with the silence?

Looking across to where Bodolf had cleared the forest undergrowth, she saw just enough of Canagan’s tail, disappearing through the bushes, to realize that the pup ran off to follow Bodolf again. Knowing how bad last night’s storm was, she didn’t want her pup doing anything to ruin that perfectly clean fur, so she reluctantly gave chase. “Good grief! That pup’s gonna drive me to drinking!”, she thought to herself.

Felan picked up Bodolf and Canagan’s scent and followed it to the clearing next to the pond by the stream. The faint scent of jaguar and leopard could be detected by the banks of the water when she arrived. She followed their markings to the other side of the pond where she stopped for a moment to survey her surroundings. Something didn’t seem right. Twitching her ears in every direction, she discovered a fresh set of cat scents and followed them.

Tracking the new scents, she looked up. A few yards in front of her, Felan saw a large mother jaguar crouching in the weeds with her young cub beside her. Close by, a large WK Fallen Log caught her attention, so she stood on top of it to get a better view of her surroundings. Instantly, something else caught her eye. Off in the distance, she watched weeds slowly being pushed aside, adjacent to where the crouched jaguars were huddled. Her eyes widened when she saw the tell-tale markings of Canagan’s tail sticking up in the weeds, barely visible in the dense growth. To add even more confusion, peering further towards the trees in the distance, she witnessed two dark masses quickly converging close to three sleeping Leopards followed by a resonating thud.

The forest became abruptly silent once Felan heard the thud. The noise roused the sleeping leopards and caused the crouching jaguars to pop their heads up. Immediately, turning her attention to where Canagan’s tail was, the worried mother saw just enough of his tail to watch it lower in the weeds.

Felan rolled her eyes and whispered, under her breath, an exasperated sigh, “Good grief! Two of the WK Hour Glass of Moxie bottles wasn’t enough for this!”
<Stay Tuned>