Carcass Feeding

Chisanu’s tail flicked as he stirred, yawning as he raised his head and sniffed at the air, the scents of his home curling around him.

It was still warm, and stretching out his paws he could feel the sun peeking through the leaves above him, but he had to have been asleep for a few hours…

Evening, he supposed, and peering into the distance to take in the sky that was painted with reds and oranges confirmed it.

He huffed quietly as he hauled himself to his paws, claws instinctively digging into the tree beneath him to keep him steady. Remembering the way he’d come up was second nature, turning around carefully and making his way back to the tree trunk.

From there, getting down was as easy as letting his paws guide him, shaking out his fur as he made it to the ground.

“Chisanu! Chisanu!”

He perked up at the call, tail flicking before he picked up his pace. Dinner time, then, he mused.

He wondered if he’d be hunting it or not today…

“Chisanu!”

He huffed and let himself start running, legs stretching and muscles rippling as he made his way easily over the familiar terrain towards the voice of his keeper.

She was a kind human, if cautious.

And she almost always came with food or something interesting, so he didn’t mind answering her calls.

The smell of blood hit his nose as he drew closer, and he felt his mouth start watering. Smelled delicious!

He slowed as he rounded a bush into view of the usual feeding area, nose twitching as he pinpointed where the smell of meat was coming for, his keeper already safely back on the other side of the barrier of his home.

“Hey, buddy,” she greeted as he padded over to investigate his food. “You hungry?”

His tail flicked. What did she think? Didn’t he always eat his meals when they were given to him?

He settled in front of the apparent carcass, giving it another sniff before he found one of the bleeding injuries to his gifted prey and dug in.

The thought was there, as it often was, to take his food to one of the nearby trees for safekeeping. But there wasn’t any competition to worry about here, and the humans had never been foolish or cruel enough to try and take his meal, so there was no real need.

Though maybe… He paused as a bone crunched under his teeth, peering around at the blurry shapes around him.

The closest tree seemed nice enough from what he could tell, and he’d technically climbed it a couple of times before when he was getting a feel for his territory…

Why not?

He bent down to grab the carcass by the back of the neck, hoisting it up and carrying it towards the tree.

“Chisanu, no! Chisanu! Don’t, please!”

He flicked his tail and ignored his keep, muscles bunching before he propelled himself up. It always felt a little awkward to climb with a carcass, considering he only did it on rare occasions, but it only took him a few moments of shifting to figure it out and finish scaling into the tree to the closest sturdy branch.

Satisfied, he settled, draping his prize across the branch in front of him and happily resuming his meal, tuning out his keeper’s continued complaints about his behavior.

If they wanted the carcass on the ground so badly, they could come get it themself.

The thought almost made him snort, tearing off another bite of his meat and happily chowing down on it.

Once he’d finished his meal, the small creature now stripped of anything of value, Chisanu stood, tail flicking once more.

His keeper had fallen silent, or perhaps left, but he didn’t really mind either one. They were welcome to the remains of his meal at this point, and with the sun dipping lower…

Well, cleaning himself off and turning in for the night didn’t sound half bad really.

He scaled his way down the tree, sniffing at the air for a moment. There were plenty of human scents lingering, but he wasn’t sure if his keeper was still waiting for him to finish eating or not.

Oh well.

His tail swished and he padded away, making his way to his favorite rock, still warm from the dying light of the sun, and settle in to groom his fur, slowly removing the red to return it to its usual white color.

Hm… Cave or here for sleep?

He sniffed the air. No sign of rain…

Here was good, he decided, curling up and relaxing.