"This isn't her first litter, is is?" She asked.
Cory shook his head and the highlights on his black skin danced. "No. It's her third. She was a good mother to her previous cubs. They all survived and are grown now."
"Hmm. So we can rule out inexperience." Ren watched the cat. The Savannah sunrise framed through the open door painted the mother's outline with gold. She tossed her head and Ren caught a glint of fire in her amber eyes. This beauty was why she'd become a wildlife conservationist, but it was bitter-sweet today,
She shook her head, driving out the thought, and reached for her forensic kit. "I'll take some samples."
Cory nodded and let her into the pen. She knelt beside the huddle of bodies and pulled on surgical gloves, swabbed a place on the first cat's shoulder and forced in a pipette. The cats were still in the stiffness of death and getting the samples was a struggle.
She took DNA and blood from all three. Cory walked off to try and comfort the mother while she worked, and she could hear his deep voice at the other end of the house, talking to Amira and trying to soothe her plaintive calls. Over the years Ren had witnessed such scenes many times, but she still found them heartbreakingly poignant.
Panthera : Death Spiral is available in paperback and as an ebook from Amazon.
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