The fox awoke, remained still, and observed the external environment cautiously.
Such a calm wild animal was a first encounter for both Little Sen and Dr. Gao.
They dared not approach the fox and could only cut the chicken meat into suitably sized chunks, using long tongs to place them into the food bowl inside the cage.
Fortunately, the water dispenser was the type designed for dogs, so the water cup could be changed from the outside.
After replenishing the food, Little Sen dared not linger in the observation room for long; he and Dr. Gao stayed in the hallway outside, eating breakfast and keeping an eye on the fox's movements.
Leo nibbled on the tender bamboo for a few bites but soon grew dissatisfied and started bleating, wanting to play.
Big and Small Baby were out with their parents, learning to hunt; the Large Spirit Cat family was, as usual, nowhere to be seen during daytime or night.
Only Little Monkey, very well-behaved, took its banana and tender corn sticks to Grandpa Monkey; the young and old squatting on the stone platform to eat, a scene of peaceful harmony.
Leo felt abandoned, banging on the iron bars and bleating at Little Monkey for a good while, until Little Monkey looked up at Old Monkey, lifted the Guoguo beside it skillfully passing through the grass and climbing up the railing.
"Squeak, eat Guoguo, sweet."
Leo took it without hesitation, bit into it with one bite, then handed the other half back to Little Monkey.
It sat down next to the railing, quietly eating fruit, eyes unblinkingly watching Old Monkey.
Old Monkey finished his breakfast and came out slowly, climbed up to the first branch of the nearest tree, sat with his back against the trunk, squatted, and began to doze off.
Monkeys, when they're old, are like old people, all they do is eat and sleep, too lazy to move.
After breakfast, Dr. Gao took two hammocks out of his backpack.
One big, one small, tied respectively to a tree and the support pillar of the small building.
The small one was for Little Monkey; Old Monkey could barely lie on it, but not Leo, he was too heavy.
Seeing Leo's interest in the hammocks, Little Sen went to get the two baskets that Uncle Yi and Uncle Zhao had made for Leo, tied them up with hemp rope, and then hung them on the iron frame erected next to the Animal Shed.
That was Leo's exclusive toy.
He was quite possessive, not allowing Big and Small Baby a touch.
If others stroked it once, he would get angry, chasing Big and Small Baby to playfully pounce.
Chen Ying came down to eat breakfast and changed the fox's medicine, all without a single word exchanged.
He didn't know what to say, just treat it first, and talk later.
"Brother Ying, Leo's paws have almost recovered their gripping strength, how about letting him relax a bit and have some activity first?"
"Okay, starting today, switch to applying medicine and putting into the cage at night, in about half a month it should be completely healed."
"You keep a close eye on him, and when applying the medicine at night, use the method I taught you to massage his paws and arms more, to relax the muscles."
After wiping Leo's mouth with a towel and checking that there were no stuck spines or anything, Little Sen opened the hand cage, allowing Leo to roam freely in the woodland.
The first thing Leo did upon hitting the ground was to climb a tree.
He picked a tree next to Grandpa Monkey, climbed higher, stretched out on a branch with his hind legs dangling down, and watched Grandpa Monkey with a contented smile.
Old Monkey glanced at him and kept silent, probably muttering in his mind "some landlord's silly son."
Once Little Monkey finished eating and was wiped clean by Chen, it climbed up the tree trunk, sat next to Old Monkey, and started grooming him.
After a while, Jinya came down slowly, leaned against Chen, and laid down, utterly limp.
"Hey, the fox you rescued is awake, aren't you going to check?"
Jinya looked back for a moment, then continued to lie there.
"You little girl," Chen said as he took out a special metal-toothed comb to brush Jinya's fur, "you brought that fox back and even fell out with Little Jin. Now you ignore it, what's going on, are you intentionally making Little Jin angry?"
"Not at all." Jinya lost interest even in her favorite grooming activity and sighed, "Why hasn't Little Jin come back yet."
"You've angered it; why don't you go find it and apologize?"
"I didn't do anything wrong." Jinya fiddled with Chen Ying's hand, "I just like the color of the fox's fur, I didn't say I liked the fox itself."
Well, I didn't expect the lynx to be like a duck, stubborn to the core even when down and out.
"I've got an idea for you. Later, catch a pretty bird and give it to Little Jin as an apology, how about that? If you keep being stubborn, just wait and see. When Little Jin comes back with a wife and children, it'll be too late for regrets."
Golden cats generally go into heat in the winter and give birth in the spring.
With the high elevation and low temperatures here, it's hard to tell when a golden cat might find a suitable mate.
To be honest, Jinya and Little Jin are not even the same species, and it wouldn't be good for them to be together. Yet their affection for each other is so genuine it's hard to bear breaking them up.
Forget it, let nature take its course.
After Chen Ying went off to busy himself with his own affairs, Jinya lay on the platform for a while before silently leaping down to the forest floor and disappearing without a trace.
Inside the house, the Red Fox lay in its cage, only standing up to move around after Jinya had left.
Pain and numbness in its hind legs, along with the IV needle in its front paw, made the fox irritable, wanting to bite through the drip tube.
"If you dare bite down, I'll put a muzzle on you."
Chen Ying, carrying the external medicine, walked in and knocked on the door of the animal shed.
The IV machine indicated that there was still an hour left to drip. Chen Ying signaled the Red Fox to turn around and expose its hind legs so he could change its dressing.
The Red Fox looked at him in surprise.
"Why can you understand what I'm saying?"
"If you can understand what I'm saying, why can't I understand you?"
Uh, that seems to make sense? But something seems off.
After pondering cautiously for a short while, Chen Ying patiently stood at the entrance of the animal shed waiting. Eventually, the Red Fox hesitantly exposed its injured leg.
"Your hind leg wound looks scary, but it's actually not too bad. Did Jinya tell me you were bitten by a pack of jackals?"
The fox instinctively tried to lick the IV site, but after extending its tongue for a while, it found nowhere to bite.
"I'm going to clean your wound and change your dressing now, try to bear with it."
"Whimper~" The Red Fox flinched in pain and opened its mouth to bite.
But before it could bite down, it remembered that this human was helping it.
It had seen when it was very young, its own kind getting injured, and humans helped in the same way.
But that place looked rundown, not nearly as comfortable as this one.
They didn't shave the fox's fur, just trimmed the hair near the wound to avoid it getting embedded in the wound.
The powder for stopping bleeding, disinfecting, and promoting healing was a bit tingling at first, but after a few seconds, a cool sensation spread out.
The fox whined a couple of times, its spirit relaxed, and it felt like sleeping.
"Take a nap; I've added some sedatives to your medicine. Eating and sleeping will help you recover faster."
The sense of security felt from Chen Ying allowed the Red Fox to relax and, after adjusting its sleeping position, it quickly closed its eyes and fell asleep.
After disposing of the medical waste and before he had time to sit down for a break, Sister Dai's call came through.
"Little Chen, did you rescue a Red Fox over there?"
"How did you know? It was brought back by Jinya and Little Jin in the middle of the night."
"Last night, a village by the Cuomu River was attacked by jackals which snatched a few chickens and a young lamb. The police found out through surveillance that this pack encountered Little Jin, Jinya, and a Red Fox on their way out."
Sister Dai said it seemed like the Red Fox deliberately antagonized the jackals, trying to snatch the chicken away from them, resulting in a fight with three jackals ganging up on it.