“This gentle lady,” he continued, gesturing to an orange, striped cat with shining, scarlet hair, “is Dr. Cherry. This” he said, gesturing to a tawny cat with dark brown hair, “is her husband, Dr. Tahir. And this,” he said, waving to a young girl with a bright orange coat, darker orange hair, and shimmering blue eyes, “is their third daughter, Tangerine, or just Tange, for short.”

“It’s nice to meet you all.” Mhina greeted. “And you precious kittens must be my husband’s patients.”she said to the plethora of children accumulating around her.

A series of “yeses” and “yups” wafted up from the throng of little ones, as they continued to examine the tall woman before them. “Why is there a little bit of hair at the end of your tail?” one child asked. “Do you have claws? How big are your claws?” another said. “You have a lot of hair. Do only lions have hair and not wolves?” one more wanted to know.

“Children, children…” Cherry chided, “you are asking so many questions. Let’s let them relax a bit and welcome them to Calico before assailing them with everything we want to know.”

“It’s alright, doctor.” Mhina assured her. “I think I can answer these few questions, at least, before we move on. Let’s see; the hair at the end of my tail is called a, tuft. All lions have tails like this, see?” she said, pointing to her son, who was happy to show off his own tufted tail. “As for my claws, they are this big.” she said, extending her claws for display, leaving the children gasping with awe. “And my hair, most lions have very full-bodied hair, but wolves have hair, too. They just tend to cut it off, like Night and Blaze. But, my other son has a LOT of hair, even more than me.”

“Thank the Great Spirit he is not here.” Night quietly remarked.

Kit and Blaze exchanged troubled glances, then turned to their mother. A frown was etched across her otherwise lovely features, drawing her mate’s concerned attention.

“…oh no.” Night whispered.