25

FREE, AND NOT

Wendy was upset that Kyle hadn’t come straight home. He must have known how scared she was, but as usual he had put his work ahead of her feelings. Or at least that’s how it felt to her. But Danny was there. Once they were out in the field, going from one enclosure to the other to tend the animals, Wendy began to calm down.

The caracal, Kenya, and the serval, Zari, had never been kept in the house and were quite shy, but there was nothing shy about BB. The minute food was put in his enclosure, he pounced on it and started making what Danny called his “buzz saw” growl, as if he were the biggest lion in the world and was ripping into a wildebeest he had just brought down himself.

Lucky, who as a tiny kitten had been even more aggressive than BB, had grown gentler as she got older. She was especially affectionate with Danny, but now that the she was old enough to eat regular food and live outdoors in her own enclosure, Wendy didn’t let Danny play with her. “Bad enough she thinks people are her parents,” Wendy said. “We don’t want her to think you’re her boyfriend, too. When little Lucky is ready, we want her to climb up on the roof of her den and yowl for Buzzsaw Bob to come be her mate.”

“Would you put them together and let them have kittens?” Danny asked excitedly.

“It would be nice if they could live together, but I’ll have the vet give BB a vasectomy first.” At Danny’s puzzled expression, Wendy explained, “That’s like spaying. It prevents a male from making the female pregnant. Only with a vasectomy, he still thinks he can breed a female, and when he tries, the female thinks she has been bred, so they’re both happy.”

“Why wouldn’t you want them to have kittens?” Danny asked, disappointed.

“Bobcats are not an endangered species, so there’s no reason to breed them in captivity. There are plenty in the wild and too many in captivity. Owners usually end up dumping the ones in captivity because most bobcats don’t make good pets. Besides, this is a sanctuary for unwanted animals. Not a breeding facility.”

“Kittens are nice,” Danny said wistfully.

“They are,” Wendy agreed. “But if I was going to breed anything, it would either be some species that was in danger of going extinct in the wild, or a wild-cat look-alike.”

“What’s a wild-cat look-alike?” Danny questioned.

“It’s not a real wild cat. It might have a teeny bit of wild-cat blood, but basically it’s a domestic bred to have the markings of a wild cat. Toygers, for example, are pussycats striped like tigers. Savannas have serval-type markings and big ears. Bengal breeders try for kittens that have spots like a leopard cat. They’re good for folks who want an exotic-looking pet to show off. And way easier to live with than a wild cat.”

Danny looked through the wire fence at BB, with both paws and half his face buried in the hamburger mixture, growling up a storm. “I guess most people would rather have a cat they can feed in the kitchen without having it morph into a tiger.”

“Speaking of wannabe tigers,” Wendy said, as they walked toward the enclosure with the junkyard bobcat. “This one’s about ready to be released.”

“Her ribs aren’t showing anymore,” Danny observed.

Wendy gazed at the bobcat for a moment. “Let’s release her today!”

Danny stared at her in surprise. “Today? What about —?”

“Forget that!” Wendy said fiercely. “I’ll go get the pet carrier, and if we can get her into it, we’ll drive to Ozark National Forest and let her go right now!”

“Why not in the state park where we let the raccoons go?” Danny asked.

“It’s too small,” Wendy explained. “Ozark National Forest is much bigger, and wilder. Bobcats need a lot of wild area to roam. The Ozark will be perfect.”

Wendy put a large portion of meat inside the pet carrier, which had been modified into a trap, and set it inside the enclosure. Then she and Danny backed off some distance, and waited. The junkyard bobcat was still scared of people, but after ten minutes she crept into the pet carrier. Wendy swiftly pulled the cord, and snap! Down went the door and the bobcat was shut up inside.

“She’s terrified being trapped again,” Wendy said. “And that’s good. We want her to remember that easy meat that she didn’t hunt herself can be bait, so she’ll steer clear of traps in the future.”

They waited until she had eaten the meat. Then Danny put the trapped bobcat in the RAV while Wendy went inside to phone Kyle. He was not at the station, so she left a message that she and Danny were going to Ozark National Forest to release the junkyard bobcat. Since Kyle had told her to stay inside, she figured he’d go ballistic when he heard she had gone off on a two-hour drive, but she didn’t care. She was still angry with him for not coming home when she told him about the threatening call.

But her real anger was directed toward whoever placed that phone call, for making her feel like the only safe place was locked inside the house. She was just like the animals in her sanctuary, animals who ought to be free to come and go but couldn’t because some human might hurt them! Their enclosures were as nice as she could make them, and her house was nice, too, but having to stay inside all the time was not the same as moving about freely, and it was not fair.

With Danny next to her and the junkyard bobcat in the back, Wendy zoomed off to Ozark National Forest. Danny was quiet, but Wendy noticed that, just as she kept checking her rear-view mirror, he kept turning around to look behind them. At one point, when both of them spied a car coming up on them fast from behind, Danny said quietly, “You could pull into that gas station up ahead.”

Wendy did. The car zoomed on by.

“I do that sometimes,” Danny said.

Wendy glanced over at him. “What?”

“When I think some boys following me who might want to jump me, I go in a store or the library or somewhere, where there’s other people around.”

Wendy thought about how Danny probably wasn’t accepted by the other boys because they were into hunting and he wasn’t. It would probably be just as hard for a boy who was into classical music or ballet or stargazing. If it wasn’t what the other kids were into, you ended up as a kind of outcast.

“You spend a lot of time by yourself, don’t you?”

“I guess.” He was silent a minute, then added, “So do you.”

It was true. Both of them were loners, mainly because their interest in caring for injured wildlife wasn’t one that many people shared. And what could a lone boy could do to avoid the bullies? He was okay when he was out at Wildtrax, but not when he was wandering around town collecting cans.

“Wouldn’t you be safer if you stayed home more?”

“Wouldn’t you?”

“I guess. The trouble with that …” Her voice trailed off.

“It’d be like living in a cage,” Danny finished.

“Yes.”

Wendy pulled back onto the highway. They rode in silence the rest of the way. They didn’t stop at the edge of the national park, but followed a dirt road through a forest of big old oak trees with some cedars and pines mixed in. When they were some distance from the main highway, Wendy parked, and they walked away from the road, deeper into the forest.

They came to a small stream that flowed around a rocky outcropping. Wendy stopped. “How about here?”

“Maybe she can find a cave up in those rocks,” Danny suggested.

Wendy nodded. “Bobcats like craggy areas up high where they can hide and keep an eye on what’s going on below.”

Danny peeked into the carrier. “She’s so scared.”

“She’s going to stay scared until she gets to know the area and figures out how to protect herself.”

“But nothing will hurt her here, will it? I mean, hunting’s not allowed, right?”

“Hunting’s not allowed, but there are other bobcats. If another one has claimed this territory, it might not like a stranger moving in. On the other hand,” Wendy smiled at Danny, “maybe this territory belongs to a male bobcat, and he’s just waiting for the right girl to come along.”

Wendy barely had the door on the pet carrier open before the bobcat shot out. Moving so fast it was like one long grey blur, it disappeared into the forest. Wendy felt Danny suck in his breath, and then slowly let it out. Neither of them said a word.

Not until they were back in the car and headed home did Danny speak, his voice full of wonder. “Seeing her go free, that was something.”

Wendy nodded. But as she turned out onto the main highway, she had to blink back tears. What made her want to cry was that she didn’t feel like she’d ever have that kind of freedom again herself. In theory, she could go wherever she pleased, but how could anybody feel truly free when they knew they were being hunted by someone who wanted to hurt them?