Flying Fox

Chapter 3

"Good news?" He said as more of a question and the doctor nodded silently, the once present smile now gone from his face.

"The good news is his blood pressure and heart rate are normal, temperature is a little high but that could just be from all of the extra fur he was carrying around, he has no broken bones and, surprisingly, no ticks or fleas and his claws do need to be trimmed but due to the pacing they aren't as long as they would've been otherwise." The doctor sighed and looked away from Hawks, taking a deep breath before meeting his eyes once again to continue

"Now for the bad news... as you probably already knew he is severely underweight and malnourished making him severely fatigued, there is a large gash down his front left leg that may need stitches, but I'll have to shave around it to be sure, there are also scars on his paw pads which could be due to pacing- that could be for a multitude of reasons so we'd have to keep an eye out and uhh finally his eyes..." the doctor paused and took a shaky breath in before continuing

"He appears to have cataracts, making him partially blind. They aren't too bad at the moment but there is a chance they may worsen, at the moment his vision is most likely slightly blurry or foggy as well as making it very difficult for him to see in low light conditions, and since foxes are nocturnal... even if his vision doesn't worsen he... he won't be able to be released into the wild." The doctor's voice cracked slightly towards the end and his eyes watered slightly as he whispered an "I'm sorry"

I whined quietly and Hawks placed a hand on the doctor's shoulder
"It's alright, now what do we do from here?"

"Well I should probably start with taking a look at the cut but after that... look I'm going to be honest with you, the most we would be able to do for him is get him healed and release him into the wild, but due to his eyes we can't do that, and we don't have the facilities to care for a fox in captivity so the only real options here are to hope some shelter has what he needs, give him away to a zoo or..... put him down" a tear ran down the doctor's face and Hawks looked horrified as he thought over the options.

"What if I took him in?" Hawks asked and the doctor looked slightly confused
"I mean I have a big house with plenty of spare rooms and a fenced garden for him to run in, I don't live too far so I could take him for weekly checkups or however many he needs." The doctor looked slightly bewildered at this suggestion.

"Rehabilitating a fox takes a lot of work, he will need around the clock care for at least the next two weeks, I'm not sure - as a hero - if you'll have enough time." He responded meekly as he gently rubbed my ears

"Well that would be where you're wrong my reptilian friend, since I have a few months off after I wrap up the animal smuggling case, and since all that's left is paperwork I can do it from home!" Hawks exclaimed excitedly and his wings fluffed up slightly whilemy tail wagged excitedly.

The doctor went wide eyed and looked between me and Hawks
"If you're sure, then I'll get some adoption papers... oh! Do you have a license to own exotic animals?" The doctor asked

"Oh yeah give me a sec" Hawks held up a finger as he rooted through a wallet that appeared out of seemingly nowhere before handing a license to the surprised doctor who looked it over and saw that it was indeed genuine

"I'm not even going to ask" he mumbled as he walked over to an intercom on the wall and pressed a button
"Hey Shuri can you bring in the adoption papers please ... for a fox ... yes ... okay thank you."  The doctor turned and walked back over to the table
"Alright the papers are coming so I'm going to have a look at that leg if its alright with little Viridian over here."

The doctor grabbed an electric razor along with cotton, antiseptic, butterfly stitches and some gauze before walking over to the table and gently lifting my left paw, I whined slightly at the pain and Hawks immediately began to pet me in long strokes from head to tail
"I know, I know it hurts flower but I promise that it'll get better." The doctor assured me.

I lay my head down with my ears flattened and focused on Hawks' hands as I heard the razor turn on and begin to shear away the fur around the cut. I felt a stinging sensation as the doctor applied antiseptic and whimpered causing him to apologise once again.

He applied butterfly stitches along the gash and wrapped it tightly in gauze before gently lowering my paw
"The gash had already started to heal so stitches won't be necessary, but he probably shouldn't walk on that leg for a few days."

A few seconds later a dark-skinned woman came in and handed Dr Corallus some papers, which he kindly thanked her for before she skipped out of the room. The doctor then handed the papers to Hawks along with a pen
"These are the adoption papers you need to fill out, I'll just grab some medication and write out instructions for when Viridian should take them as well as his recommended diet." Hawks nodded and began to fill in the papers as Corallus grabbed a few medication bottles and wrote out fox care instructions.

Hawks finished filling out the papers and the doctor handed him the paper and medications
"so what are these all for and when do I need to give him them?" Hawks asked while looking between the bottles

The doctor quickly flicked through the adoption papers before placing them on his desk "He needs the antibiotics twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, I gave you enough for two weeks so that should be enough. The vitamin D, protein and iron supplements need to be taken once a day, I'd recommend wrapping the pills in ham or something he would rather eat so that he will actually take them."

Hawks nodded and put the pills into his pocket as he skimmed the list of instructions and items that the doctor had written before pocketing it as well. "I put my contact information on there if you have any questions, the blood test results should be back in about three days so I'll email you the results when I get them, and then we can set up another check up for him."

Hawks smiled brightly causing my tail to involuntarily wag when he shook hands with the doctor "Thank you so much Doctor , for everything you've done."

"Oh please just Corallus, I'm not a fan of formalities, besides you don't need to thank me for helping this beautiful boy." The doctor coo'd as he held my face while rubbing my ears, causing me to close my eyes and lean into his touch.

Hawks chuckled and pet my now soft and fluffy fur before carefully picking me and my blanket up, he thanked the kind doctor again before walking out of the building.