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Virgo's hands were sticky with a gross layer of hotdog juice. There wasn't much literature available when it came to the training of cheetahs and other big cats. Virgo had sat outside Whiskey's enclosure with a stack of dog training books instead. Though he was well aware that the two species were nowhere close biologically, it was the best chance he had to help Whiskey's behavior improve. The first thing he had learned as he watched Whiskey trot around the enclosure was that animals responded best to positive reinforcement training. A lot of the books had mentioned using something called "high value" rewards. Virgo wasn't sure that cheese was safe for Whiskey to have, but hotdogs were probably fine. Now he stood in the food preparation room of the research facility, chopping hotdogs into tiny cubes. He dropped them into a ziplock bag and headed out to get Whiskey leashed up. It had always been easy to get Whiskey into his signature green floral harness. Virgo figured that Whiskey

Of all the cats that Devon worked with, Dove was the one he found himself scratching his head about the most. According to her papers and the behaviorist that the cat club had on staff, she technically could be considered domesticated. And in some ways Devon could definitely see it. In quiet moments he'd been able to pet her, and she was less destructive with her toys and other enrichment items than her wild counterparts. Devon had even been able to get a harness onto Dove on one occasion. The trouble seemed to be that Dove was incredibly skittish. Staff had lost count of the number of triggers that the cheetah spooked at. She had never once redirected this fear as aggression towards anyone. Dove would simply get scared of something in the environment and dart away. This made it incredibly risky for Devon or anyone else to take her outside of her enclosure. He was sure that this lack of exposure had only compounded Dove's fear. There was so much outside of her environment that she

The job listing had only specified that Virgo would be working with big cats as part of a larger ecological project. He'd had no idea that this meant he'd be holding a leash with a cheetah hybrid attached to the other end. As said hybrid - Whiskey - stared back at him, Virgo wondered if the pay rate was worth it. Handling Whiskey had so far proved to be... challenging. The plan was to get Whiskey to a point that he could both be handled safely by the team of researchers, but would also fit in socially with the pack of animals he was to be released with. Virgo couldn't really help with the second part, but he could probably improve the first. He just needed to figure out exactly which areas Whiskey fell short in. The most apparent problem was that Whiskey's leash manners were pretty abysmal. The second the cheetah hybrid saw something he found interesting, he was pulling his handlers around like a freight train. Virgo had almost lost his footing several times on the first day the two

The joint supplements that Nacho was on were certainly helping with her elbows, but the staff at the facility all knew that this likely wouldn't be enough to truly get her ready for release. She needed to be in the best health that she could be before they turned her over to the wild. A lot of work and conversation went on in the background that Nacho was completely unaware of. Other than the supplements, the first change that she noticed was a new item that had been added to the enclosure one night when she was still a cub. Coming out with her mother and siblings that morning, Nacho soon found that a large log had been placed across a part of the enclosure. She could smell something delicious on the other side of it. When Nacho got right up to the log she found that it was much taller than she was. The only way she was going to be able to get to the other side would be by climbing over it. She reached up with a paw and dug her tiny claws into the wood. She struggled to lift herself

Nacho had always sort of known that something was up with her elbows. Sometimes when she landed from any kind of jumping that she did, it was like her elbows would just give way and cause her legs to collapse underneath her. At first she had just assumed that she was clumsy. It was only after discussing her family history with her mother that she learned this was a problem that was known about. During this conversation, Nacho's mother also revealed that the humans who cared for them were already doing something about this to help her. Nacho's elbow issues had been diagnosed when she was still just a very young cub. Since she was slated to be released as part of a population control program this was something of a concern. She needed to be able to hunt for herself if she was going to be a successful contributor. Nacho became part of a different research program while she was still young and safe enough to handle. The program was focused on testing out different kinds of joint