~NOTICE ABOUT GUEST REVIEWS & COMMENTS ON MY WORKS~:

Since joining and posting on FF, I have had a lot of issues with Guest reviews, from not being able to reply to readers' important questions/not being able to stop/reprimand certain Guests from spamming/writing harassing reviews. I moderate Guest reviews since there is no option to block them entirely, but I wanted my readers to please follow these instructions I have put in place about Guest reviews and general comments when reading my works:

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…

The faintest glimpse of sunlight began to arise on a spring day. The sky was painted with a light orange hue and light pink clouds. A bird or two let out a quiet chirp as the world began to wake.

Deep within the forest, Apple the red fox had been awake for hours while she birthed her second litter of fox kits. Her mate, Copper, sat near her as she gave birth to five healthy kits.

The darkened kits suckled at her belly as the sun came up. Copper glanced down at them in admiration. He had been a parent before, though his kin had grown and gone off, but he had forgotten how frail new life was at first.

"How many were in the last litter? Four?" Copper tried to remember.

Apple nodded. "Yes, but only two made it. Five kits, hm? It's going to take some energy to keep up with them."

Copper chuckled slightly, supposing he would be sore from playing soon.

"Two tods, three vixens," Apple noted.

"Should we name them?" Copper inquired.

The vixen dipped her head, gazing at her kits. She looked at the two tods first and decided to name the one with the lighter fur.

"He can be called 'Hop,'" she decided. "And the other, Pounce."

"Are we going with a theme here?" Copper asked.

"Don't you like the names?" Apple asked.

"Of course!" her mate replied.

She turned to the three vixens now. One had visibly darker brown fur than the rest while the others were nearly the same shade.

"Let's call the dark vixen 'Rush,'" Copper suggested.

Apple turned to look at the final two. One was visibly smaller than the other.

"The small one can be called 'Whorl.'"

"And what about the last one?" Copper asked, looking down at his daughter.

"Chase," Apple decided.

The kits remained blind, deaf, and helpless for the coming days. Apple spent all her time with them, letting them nurse while Copper caught her as much prey as he could to keep her strength up.

"They'll open their eyes soon," Apple told him when he returned one day. "I can tell."

"I can't wait for them to see me! To see us!" Copper exclaimed.

Apple nodded and grinned, watching as the kits squirmed. They had already gotten much bigger. It wouldn't be long, she thought, until they were running around the den.

A few days before the kits finally opened their eyes, Copper returned with a plump rabbit for his mate. As he entered the den, he grumbled to himself, capturing Apple's attention.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Almost lost this rabbit to a cat," he growled.

"Cat? Have they stranded too far from their homes?"

"I've been suspecting something for a while, and I think I'm right," Copper muttered.

Apple tilted her head.

"I think feral cats have moved into the forest, near our territory," Copper explained.

"Feral cats? How many?"

"A good number," Copper told her, sitting down.

Apple quivered slightly. Cats could be dangerous to her kits if they stranded too far. She let out a quiet whimper thinking of harm coming to them.

"Don't get too upset," Copper assured her. "We're not in the middle of their territory, just on the outskirts. Besides, what are a few cats compared to some big foxes?"

Apple nodded, trying to ignore her anxious nerves.

"We just won't stray too near," Copper explained. "Still, it bothers me. No good cats stealing all the prey when they're not even meant to live in the forest. I wish they'd never come..."