Forest protection starts with picking up a lynx girl

Chapter 567 The weakest and also the strongest!

In a very inconspicuous patch of grass in the Nanman River basin, a skinny female cat was lying in a simple nest with a pair of dead eyes.

In its arms, the two stiff kittens could no longer make a sound, nor would they ever again use all their strength to suck a drop of milk.

On this hot summer afternoon, life seemed to be at the last second of its end.

A leopard lowered its head and sniffed a scent so faint that it was almost inaudible, and finally found the nest.

In the past, the mother cat would have rushed out to protect her children before the leopard came close, but now, she didn't even want to take a look and just waited quietly for death to come.

The leopard looked down at the cat, and its furry face showed a very human expression: tangled! (ー`ー)
So dirty...how can the leopard bite it?

However, the condition of the female cat also made the leopard, which had a high IQ, realize that it could not delay any longer. If it hesitated for one more second, the female cat might not survive.

After mentally preparing himself and letting out a sigh, the leopard decisively grabbed the female cat by the neck and ran away.

After being picked up, the female cat did not struggle at all, just like a dead cat!
A distance of more than two kilometers is not too far for a leopard.

After only two rests, it finally found Chen Ying with the female cat who was still breathing her last breath.

At this time, Chen Ying had just returned from the village primary school. He held an online video conference with local animal protection experts to discuss whether artificial intervention should be used to assist newly born mother cats in raising their kittens.

The most basic principle of animal protection is not to interfere with the natural reproduction process of wild animals. However, when dealing with extremely rare and precious animals, the principle can be slightly more flexible.

This does not mean that all the animals should be raised in captivity, but rather that artificial assisted breeding should be carried out when necessary and feasible. This process includes wild population recovery, genetic improvement, and targeted feeding to assist mothers in raising their cubs.

This fishing cat mother has given birth to four children, and it is already difficult for her to raise them. If she is asked to help raise a disabled cub, she will be exhausted to death.

Chen Ying discussed this issue carefully with the experts and decided to find an opportunity to try to send the disabled cub to its nest. First of all, they had to ensure that the mother cat would not dislike the child. Secondly, they had to ensure that the child could get milk among the four healthy kittens.

If that doesn't work, you may have to find a way to extract milk artificially.

But cats are not animals like cows and sheep, which are inherently docile. If you haven’t taken enough food, the mother cat will scratch you into a chessboard.

Just as he was about to close the video conference window, the leopard rushed into his room carrying the female cat in its mouth.

"What are you holding in your mouth? Go out and eat, not in the room..."

Chen Ying lowered his head and started chattering before he could see clearly. The other experts in the video who were still online were watching him communicating with Leopard with a smile.

"Where did you bring it from?"

"Hello, Doctor Chen, what happened?"

Chen Ying's sudden change of expression and urgent movements made the experts on the other end of the network cable ask questions curiously.

"This leopard brought back a female fishing cat. I need to take a look to find out the details. I'll contact you later."

Chen Ying didn't care about anything else and could tell at a glance that something was wrong with the cat.

He grabbed the gloves that were always on the table, picked up the female cat and took a look. The obvious features on her abdomen showed that it was a mother cat who had just given birth.

But in this state...did something happen to its child?

He rushed to the temporary treatment room holding the mother cat in his hands, and on the way he asked the leopard where he found the mother cat.

"It's the mother of that useless cub. It had two cubs, both of which died. It probably won't survive either."

The leopard kept licking its lips, feeling a little uncomfortable.

"Stop licking it. I'll wipe your mouth and clean it up later."

Wild animals are not so delicate, but judging from the condition of this mother cat and her kittens, it is uncertain whether they have any disease. It would be bad if the leopard were infected.

After some examination, it was determined that the mother cat was infected with feline infectious peritonitis.

Feline infectious peritonitis, also known as feline coronavirus, was detected in Southeast Asian leopard cats in a previous survey with a positive rate of FCoV antibodies as high as 28%, which shows that this disease is not uncommon in wild cats. A few years ago, an outbreak occurred in a tiger park in northern China, with a mortality rate of %.

The disease is spread among wild cats, most likely by stray cats. Given the location of this sick fishing cat, it is not too far from human settlements, so it is possible that it was infected with the virus.

After confirming the cat's condition, it is not too difficult to treat it, after all, there are standardized treatments for FIP. The difficulty now is not knowing whether there are other people infected with the virus, and how to control the spread of FIP.

After a phone call was made, the local epidemic prevention department and the Animal Protection Department of the Forestry and Grassland Bureau began to take action. Chen Ying also returned to the office and re-initiated a video conference invitation. The two nearest veterinary experts immediately agreed to come and assist, and would also bring medicines and urgently needed medical equipment.

"Meihua, please help keep an eye on the cat. I'll go take care of the bodies of the two kittens."

He needed to bring the kitten's body back for examination to determine whether it was carrying the virus and to perform necessary biochemical disposal on the body.

Another question is, if the disabled kitten was born by this mother cat, then whether it is carrying any hidden viruses, and whether its sudden digestive problems are caused by the virus.

When Chen Ying thought of this, she felt a chill on her back. Fortunately, she did not rashly let it come into contact with the female cat that had just given birth, otherwise... there would be five lives in the litter!

It can be said that this litter of cats had a brush with death.

After making all the follow-up arrangements in an orderly manner, Chen Ying leaned back in his chair and relaxed.

The next task will be very difficult. It may be hard for the team he leads to complete the investigation task alone. At this time, the manpower problem must be solved.

Fortunately, with the assistance of the Dao family and his own status and position, after consultation with two universities in the province, he reorganized two teams to assist in the dragnet investigation.

Chen Ying's leadership was not needed for the investigation. The personnel were dispersed and reorganized, leaving only the necessary observation personnel in each camp, and the others were scattered into the protected area. After five days of antiviral treatment and immune regulation, the mother cat's vital signs were stable, but the whole cat was still lifeless, as if only a shell survived, and the soul had gone to the cat planet with the child.

In order to stimulate the mother cat's vitality and to test whether she could accept the disabled kitten again, Chen Ying and the two veterinarians who came to support her considered it over and over again and decided to take a risk and bring the kitten to the mother cat to see if she could respond.

We have imagined many scenarios, including "ignore me", "don't come here to scam me", "you actually picked up something I don't want", etc.

But when the kittens were placed in the protective box and brought to their mother, both cats, one big and one small, seemed to be frozen.

The kitten's eyes were slightly open, and it was not sure whether it could see its mother, nor whether it could feel the breath of its mother through the protective shield. But at this moment, the disabled kitten seemed to be frozen in place, standing motionless in the direction of its mother.

In the isolation cage, the mother cat who was undergoing consolidation treatment also opened her eyes and looked at the kittens in the small box without blinking.

They didn't move, and even Chen Ying didn't know what to do, so she just stood there and observed the behavior of the mother and son.

Perhaps the kitten felt uncomfortable because it stayed in the same position for too long, so it started meowing loudly.

Normally at this time, it should have a meal of milk powder and then sleep soundly in Yunyun's arms.

But now, it sensed that there was another very strange female animal next to it, and there was no familiar aura around it to protect itself, so the kitten was a little scared.

Chen Ying had never thought that he would get positive feedback from the first contact. His main purpose was to stimulate the mother cat's desire to survive. Now it seems that it has worked.

After Chen Ying sent the kittens away, the mother cat still stared at the direction of the gate without blinking, her little face full of solemnity and confusion, as if wondering why it, as the weakest individual, could survive, while the other two babies went to Cat Planet first.

Chen Ying was also very curious about this, but now was not the right time to pursue it. Perhaps another explanation would be more reliable, that is, the disabled kitten exchanged its healthy limbs for a strong genetic physique.

They conducted another examination on the kitten these days and confirmed that the kitten was definitely not carrying the virus, and the gastrointestinal disease was simply a digestive problem caused by human milk powder feeding, and had nothing to do with any virus.

The weakest is also the strongest!

Anyway, the appearance of the kittens finally made the mother cat no longer look like a dead cat, and she could force herself to eat the food given to it every day.

As long as you can eat and drink, recovery is actually quite fast.

After only three days, all the examination results showed that it recovered! This is a miracle, and the essence may come from the greatness of the mother.

After comprehensive consideration, Chen Ying and her team decided to let the kittens have a tentative contact with their mother cat. During this process, Leopard and Yunyun participated throughout as bystanders and rescuers.

Especially Yunyun, although she didn't feed the kittens, she did everything a mother could do except this step. In some ways, she cared more about the kittens than her own cubs.

When the mother fishing cat was allowed to enter the small room where her cubs were, she hesitated for a while at the door. After all, in addition to the scent of her child, there was also another cat and a ferocious beast that made her feel threatened.

However, the beast should have no ill intentions towards it. When it was brought back, it was disheartened but not dead, as it still remembered the scent of the leopard.

Slowly approaching the specially made cat bed against the wall of the room, it stopped outside the protective cover, squatted and observed its abandoned but lucky surviving child.

After intestinal treatment, the little guy's diarrhea has disappeared and he has grown round and chubby. Although he doesn't have two front paws, it does not affect his appearance.

In fact, it is not true that it has no front paws at all. Its condition is a bit similar to human phocomelia, and its official name is "congenital limb amputation syndrome."

This rare disease in humans is caused by adverse reactions to certain drugs, resulting in fetal malformations. However, there is no clear conclusion on how this symptom occurs in animals.

For example, the famous police dog Patton was born with deformed forelimbs, but his brothers and sisters from the same litter were healthy. Moreover, both of Patton's parents were police dogs, so neither of them had a congenital defect.

You can vaguely see some granulation-like limbs on the kitten's front limbs. As it grows up, these limbs will grow accordingly, but they will not become healthy forelimbs.

After staying outside the protective cover for a while, the female fishing cat raised her head and looked around, then howled a few times.

Yunyun came out from the hiding place in the corner, looked at the mother cat from a distance, then turned to the side and skillfully went in through the special cat entrance and exit.

The mother cat saw it walk over to the kitten and lie down on its side, and her eyes became sharp.

After a stalemate of more than two minutes, the female cat also came to the entrance, tentatively touched the trap door, shrank twice, stood up and paced back and forth, then stopped, stared at the trap door for a while, and resolutely went in.

Yunyun ignored it, and it went around the edge of the protective cover to the other side of the cub, squatting down about 20 to 30 centimeters away, as if it wanted to get closer but didn't dare to.

After another stalemate of more than ten minutes, the mother cat finally moved. She approached the cub cautiously, lowered her head and sniffed it for a long time, then licked it tentatively.

Yunyun's claws moved, and the mother cat looked up vigilantly, but did not leave the cub.

Seeing that Yunyun had no intention of attacking her, the mother cat paced back and forth, then lay down on her side next to the kitten, held it in her arms and licked it a few times.

"Brother Chen, you said that the cat hasn't been fed for such a long time, can it still feed its babies?"

"There should be no problem." Chen Ying stood in front of the surveillance screen with her arms folded, staring at the screen. "When Leopard brought it back, it had no milk, but it was because it was weak. During the treatment, it received enough nutrition, and its prolactin is still there. In the last two days, it has had milk swelling."

For safety reasons, they helped with artificial milking every day and closely observed the metabolism of the drugs. Only today, after they were sure that the drugs were metabolized, did they dare to let the mother cat get close to the kittens, just to see if the mother cat was willing to actively breastfeed the kittens.

So far, the development is relatively good. Now it depends on whether the kittens can suck milk by themselves. After all, they have been waiting for food to come to them for such a long time, and they are not sure whether the kittens have the awareness to eat independently.

Perhaps the milk secreted by the mother cat stimulated the sleeping kitten. It subconsciously raised its head and sniffed around. Although it could have opened its eyes, it still closed its eyes out of habit to look for food. Its little mouth opened and closed, which was so cute that it made people tremble with admiration.

After looking for a long time, the little fellow still couldn't find the food. When Yunyun couldn't help but want to push it over, the mother cat stretched out her claws and pulled the cub into her belly.

I was lucky enough to be close to its mouth, and when it opened its mouth, it was stuffed with food.

But the taste when it entered the mouth was very different from usual. The kitten opened his eyes in confusion, and then found that the world seemed to have become different!

(End of this chapter)