Swiftcurrent Creek Peanut butter and jealous

This morning, the recovered Relonikiv sat in the den's mouth, simply basking in the winter sunshine. He found that when he closed his eyes, the sun warmed his eyelids. It was pleasant. When he reopened them, he always had to squint against the bright glare. This little game kept him busy for a solid ten minutes and might have gone on a lot longer if a bright red cardinal hadn't suddenly landed on the ground perhaps ten feet from him.

The puppy immediately sat up a little straighter, then froze, watching as the little red bird hopped around in the snow. It kept dipping its beak, which the pup found fascinating. It also caused a stirring deep within him: the first true inklings of a predator. Relonikiv wanted to pounce on the pretty bird, catch it and play with it. On some even baser level, he also wanted to kill and eat it.

Tapping into these first hunting instincts, the youngster slid forward and began slinking toward the cardinal. Stealth was not his forte at this point in his young life, however, and he had hardly gone a foot when the bird took wing. Relonikiv abruptly bounced onto his feet and barked at it, then began to run with his head tipped skyward. With no real grasp on such concepts as space, he truly thought there was still a chance of capturing it, even when it rose higher and eventually disappeared.

The runty pup slowed, then stopped, still staring up at the bright blue winter sky. He pouted for a moment, then dropped his gaze to a more earthward level again. His pout faded into a curious expression when he failed to recognize his surroundings. Relonikiv swallowed and turned slowly in a circle. The den lay about one hundred yards over yonder, yet having never been anywhere near this far from it, he simply didn't recognize it even when he was looking right at it.

He felt a brief sense of panic, though two more birds—a pair of chickadees this time—flitted by overhead and Relonikiv's curiosity took precedence over his fear of being lost. Resuming his usual smile, the pup once more gave chase, running even further from his family's den and unknowingly making a beeline for the territory's namesake creek.