Page 7 of Reluctant Rogue

“We got her moved to the quarantine cage,” Ramon told him, “as soon as they noticed her condition.”

“And that was early this morning?” Liam asked, crouching to peer through the bars at the small clouded leopard laying passively on the cement floor. She had her head on her front paws, turned from them, and evinced no interest at all, not even a flicker of her ear in their direction.

“I guess. I came on at ten, and she was already in here. They told me you were coming, and to bring you back. I’m not a keeper, not yet.” Pride crept into the young man’s voice. “I will be, though.”

Liam looked around at that, a smile touching his lips. “Good man. I won’t know until I’ve done some tests, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say you have good instincts.”

Ramon’s eyes flew to his. “Really? You mean that?”

Liam nodded. “Although I can’t be sure yet. I’ll be taking some blood samples, do a general workup. But yeah, I think you’re onto something.”

He looked around, even as he drew his bag closer to pull out a syringe and a small vial of sedative. “Where are her files?”

“There aren’t any. At least, they can’t find them.”

Liam had inserted the needle into the vial and was drawing up the liquid, but he paused at this, frowning. “What?”

“Probably why they chose me to meet you,” Ramon said with a fatalistic shrug. “I’m on the bottom rung. Plus, they’re all busy, ripping apart the files room trying to find her paperwork.”

Frowning, Liam glanced over at the leopard, who hadn’t moved, nor shown any interest in their presence. Her eyes were closed, as if she were sleeping, only the very tip of her tail twitching now and then.

“How long has she been here? She’s not new, is she?”

“Nope. She’s been here at least as long as I’ve been working here, six months anyway. Not that I’ve seen her often. But you can’t miss her when you do see her.” The dark brown eyes were filled with admiration. “She’s beautiful. Or was.”

Liam nodded in understanding. The leopard’s short coat, which should have been shining and smooth, was dull and unkempt from lack of grooming. Still, he had to sedate her, despite the lack of records. It was a matter of safety, and protocol.

“We’ll have to hope she doesn’t have any negative reaction to being sedated,” he told Ramon. “Without records I can’t know, but I can’t examine her without sedating her.”

“Yeah, I know. They probably figured you’d have to.”

Liam slid him a glance. “So is the regular veterinarian really down with the flu? Or are they trying to save their asses by not calling him until they’ve found the records?”

Ramon grinned at him, and shrugged. “I’m not saying, man.”

Liam laughed. “Good enough.”

The leopard was lying easily within reach through the cage bars, so he administered the sedative quickly into the neck area between her shoulder blades and moved back quickly, settling in to wait.

Once she was asleep, with Ramon’s help he removed the cat from the cage and onto the waiting table, where he quickly took her vital signs and weighed her on the table’s scale.

“Damn,” Ramon commented, and Liam nodded his agreement.

“She’s seriously underweight at twenty-two pounds. Granted, they’re small cats, but still.” He moved his hands over the leopard’s sides, pressing gently. “I can feel her ribs easily. She’s skin over skeleton.”

“Dehydration, too?”

Liam did a quick check, pinching the loose fur between the cat’s shoulders and watching it smooth into place. “Not so much,” he replied. “Not enough to put her on IV fluids, at any rate.”

Swiftly he drew blood samples, then stroked the cat’s fur. “I’ll get these to your lab. In the meantime, keep her isolated so we can watch her closely. See if she can be tempted to eat, and keep a record of what she eats, and how much. I’ll forward my results to your vet, and he can take over when he’s back.”

“You can tell them she’s done fine under sedation,” Liam said, then paused with a grimace. “They can record that in her chart, when they find it.”

Ramon grinned, and Liam rose to his feet.

“I’ll be off now, Ramon. I know I’m not your regular vet, but here’s my card. Please call and let me know how she does.”

Ramon took the card, nodding. “I’ll tell them. Thanks for coming, Dr. McConnell.