ORANGE

It was early, the grass wet beneath her bare feet. Each damp stride took her further from the house where children slept at strange angles. A pale sun was beginning to extend its fingers through the hedge at the bottom of the garden. She placed a bowl on the ground, retreated a few yards, stood motionless barely breathing and waited. She saw its triangular ears first, orange and large as it emerged from the shadows.  It trotted towards the food and dipped its outsized young head into the bowl. It was the only cub left, a beauty. She smiled.