“Hard to say. Depends how long he’s been without the mother.” The ranger lifted the cub gently into a carrier, its small body limp but breathing steady. “We’ll get him to the rehab center. They’ll know what to do.”
Catherine watched them drive away, dust billowing behind the truck until it swallowed the road. Only when the sound faded did she realize how quiet her house had become. The rest of the afternoon passed in fits of distraction. She cleaned the kitchen twice, made tea she forgot to drink, sat by the window with her notebook open but wrote nothing.