Heart beat out my chest.

He puffed his chest as far as it could go and bounded back toward home. His oversized paws were as familiar to him as his fluffy tail, so they didn't trip him up as he raced back. There was a lot of excitement building up inside of him, bubbling to the surface so that he felt he could almost fly if he tried.

In his mouth there swung a mouse, its limp body a pendulum that swayed while he raced back with thundering feet to the place where he resided with his parents and siblings. It had been mostly dead when he found it - a broken back would do that to a thing - but he had finished it off and he was proud.

So it was that the first place he had thought to go (mama's boy that he was) was home, to his mother. His eyes sought Blue Willow eagerly as he came home. Which was where she was bound to be. He hoped. Otherwise he'd have to start searching all of the pack's land until he found his dearest mother.