By the time you pulled into your house's driveway, Likax had fallen unconscious. Fearing the worst, you jumped out of the car as soon as you put it into park. You opened the back door and gently slid your arms underneath him, picking him up. As you cradled the young feline, you felt something stirring in your heart: a slight sense of affection for him, brought on by the situation and by how appreciative he had seemed to have been as you rescued him.
You walked to the door quickly, knowing you had to hurry. You could feel Likax breathing, so you knew he wasn't dead yet, but his body was getting colder. Thank God your roommate Javier's car was there in the driveway as well.
You headed up the front steps to the door, kicking it with your feet loudly. Within half a minute, the silhouette of Javier's face appeared at one of the translucent glass windows on either side of the door, and you heard the lock quickly sliding open, the door flung wide seconds later.
"Jesus, Carson!" Javier exclaimed, his voice higher pitched than usual and his eyes wide with shock. "What the hell happened?"
"I found him in the woods," you answered, stepping through the door. "He was limping and coughing up blood."
Javier followed you into the den, clearing pillows and magazines off of the couch. "And you brought him here?" He seemed to be getting a little hysterical. Javier was a good friend and a dependable roommate, but the mix of his Hispanic heritage and his flamboyant personality made him a self-avowed fiery, passionate Latino with a tendency towards drama. Even little things could drive him crazy-- yeah, you thought, little things, like bringing a dying anthro home.
You shot a sharp look at your roommate. "What should I have done, left him there to die?"
"Why didn't you take him to see a doctor?"
"You know the people here in Danville." You placed your hand on Likax's throat, checking for a pulse, then moved it down to his chest. "Unless they happen to work at Centre, most of them couldn't give two shits about anyone 'abnormal'. They'd let him die on their doorstep rather than help out one of 'his kind'."
"What about Lexington? Or Louisville?!" Javier was starting to hyperventilate. He definitely had more medical knowledge than anyone you had ever met and he was extraordinarily compassionate, but he had a hard time dealing with high-pressure situations. Not a great trait for a future doctor, you thought, but you knew he would improve with time and practice.
"Look at him, Javier!" you exclaimed as you furrowed your brow. "He's practically dead already. Do you really think he'd survive another thirty-minute drive?"
"I don't know what you expect me to do, though." Starting to sweat a little, Javier pushed you aside and knelt next to the couch, feeling Likax's chest and forehead. "I haven't studied anthro medicine yet, and I've only dealt with a few while volunteering." He wiped his brow and turned to look at you, almost crying by this point. "You're asking me to perform a miracle."
You crouched down next to your roommate, placing your hand on his shoulder. "Listen, Javier. I'm not asking anything other than for you to do whatever you can. Besides, you know more about medicine than any of those quacks over at the medical clinic, and I'll help out with anything you ask." You paused for a moment, making sure he saw the trust in your eyes. "I believe in you, Javier."
He stared at you for a few moments, absorbing your faith in him. Finally, he took a deep breath and started to calm down. "Okay," he said. "Okay."
Turning back to Likax, he continued placing his fingers on various parts of the bobcat's body. "He's in shock. We might be dealing with a collapsed lung." After a few moments, he shook his head in frustration. "How can anyone perform an examination with all this fur everywhere? The only thing I know for sure right now is that he's still breathing and he has a pulse, though it's definitely lower than what it should be."
"What do you need?" you asked. Not only did you want to help your roommate deal with the situation, but for some reason, you also felt an intense desire to do whatever you could to save this bobcat. This young, cute bobcat.
Javier sighed, running his hands through his short black hair. "What I need is a surgery table, a surgical instruments… and a surgeon who knows what the hell he's doing." He turned towards you, a determined look beginning to form on his face. "Go get me my hospital bag from my room."
"Got it," you said, rising to your feet and heading towards the stairs.
"It's sitting on the shelf above my desk. And Carson!" he called out, and you turned your head back to look at him. "There's an AED underneath my bed too."
You scrunched up your nose. "An AED?"
"Automated External Defibrillator." Seeing your continued confusion, Javier continued, his voice filling with more and more urgency. "The thing that gets someone's heart beating again if it stops. I got it as a graduation gift from an uncle with a weird sense of humor. It's about the size of a briefcase, black and yellow and made of plastic. Bring it too… just in case."
Gulping as you nodded, you ran up the stairs and threw open the first door on the right. Javier's room was the polar opposite of yours, everything clean and organized, the shelves labeled and the closet neatly divided by clothing type and season. Three large filing cabinets stood next to the desk, holding every school assignment Javier had done since kindergarten. His walls had none of the band or movie posters that wallpapered your room, only his high school diploma on one side and a framed picture of his family on the other.
Looking over at Javier's desk, you saw that the black medical backpack was right where it was supposed to be, directly above it on a shelf marked "Hospital Bag". You grabbed it and slung it across your shoulder, then knelt down to look for the defibrillator kit. Javier kept the space beneath his bed even more organized than the rest of his room, full of long plastic containers with labels like "Old Medical Journals" and "Med School Brochures". The black and yellow briefcase was there, just like Javier said, sandwiched between a container and the wall.
As you tried to free it, you heard Javier's voice cry out from downstairs, "Carson!! Hurry!" With the AED in your hands, you ran out of the bedroom and almost threw yourself down the stairs, hoping you hadn't taken too long, that there was still time to save your new furry friend.
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