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Icon by Jakkalwolf Original story/scenario/Makalu by Jakkalwolf Lindsey by me. Story taken from The Delta Project Support The Delta Project on Patreon! fav.me/dco7t44 https://www.patreon.com/DeltaProject/">www.patreon.com/DeltaProject/

The Animals' Social Worker

For ArrowQuivershaft

By Draconicon

Sitting in the locker room in nothing more than her bra and panties, Lindsey stared at the picture of the snow leopard that she'd glued to the front of her locker. She could see the beautiful creature stretched out, sprawled out over the snow, and more importantly, she could see the anatomy chart just beneath it. She ran her eyes over it several times, memorizing some of the details that she was still a bit fuzzy on, and then took a deep breath.

"Alright, here goes nothing..."

Sliding off the bench to get on all fours, she extended her arms forward and arched her back like a cat. She let herself yawn, her jaw dropping and stretching further, further, further than any human should be able to do. Her teeth pushed forward, the flat tops of them starting to grow out in a pointed way.

It always started at the face, for some reason. She wasn't sure why, and the other practitioners of her particular skill were never able to explain it, either. Everyone had a different way of starting the transformation, and for Lindsey, it was a simple move and a yawn that kickstarted the face's shift.

She felt the beginnings of her muzzle growing in as she closed her mouth, the familiar stretch and push from inside and out taking control. She rolled her head to one side, then the other as her ears started to roll up the sides of her head. The sharp feeling of the mismatched teeth in her mouth was slowly fading, but the rest of the change was still going strong.

Crawling on all fours in the way that the leopards would walk, she gradually started to pick up speed as her hands took on the shape of paws, as her fingers started to fatten and her palms started to thicken. Her back cracked several times as her spine started to elongate, the new disks having to go somewhere, and her ribs felt particularly heavy, even squashed beneath her bra as she shifted about.

Mmmph...always a bit stiff until those come -

Click.

Theeeere we go.

The safety releases for her undergarments hit just when the pressure was starting to get out of hand, dropping down when there really wasn't anything more to hide. Her breasts had pulled into her chest, and anything down below...well, that was more feline now than human, so she didn't have to worry about it.

She rolled her head from side to side again as her neck got subtly longer, her face completely feline. Her new fur coat started sprouting across her body, filling in the blank flesh where it went until it covered her from head to toe.

That just left the tail, and it was growing in enthusiastically enough. She shook the base of it a few times, feeling the new muscles growing, connecting as she put herself into the mindset of a feline, as she remembered how the muscles were supposed to connect and grow to allow her to move properly.

She took another step, only to suddenly feel a bit off-kilter.

Right, whiskers...

She focused on those, making sure that she remembered that. Soon, the little lines were sticking out of her face as they were supposed to, giving her a properly feline face and a better sense of balance. A quick once-over confirmed that she had become a quadruped of the proper feline species, and her legs were more or less fine. Not entirely the right musculature in the back ones, but she wasn't planning on doing any leaps and bounds like a real snow leopard might.

Right...let's see what bee's in Makalu's bonnet today...

The handlers entered the locker room after she gave a yowl for them, and they walked her through the back halls of the conservation center towards the new room. She panted softly as they walked, feeling the heat that was set for humans rather than snow leopards. She just hoped that it was better in the enclosure itself.

As they opened the sliding door at the back of it, she could already tell that it wasn't. Lindsey hoped that the heat was the only issue that Makalu was dealing with, but she doubted it. He had been too out of sorts of that. They wouldn't have called her in for something that simple.

So, she slipped through, and soon she was left alone in the enclosure with their newest male.

The snow leopard on the far side was drooped over a rock. Not draped, as some cats managed to do even when they were completely undignified, but drooped, his entire body flopped out and sprawled with his tongue poking out like he was sticking it out at the entirety of the human race. If it wasn't for the fact that the matter was as serious as it was, she would have found it rather humorous.

Lindsey bobbed her head to get his attention, and when he turned to look at her with a soft growl, she sat up on her haunches.

"Makalu. My name is Lindsey, and I'm here to help."

"Mmmph. What are you?"

"Just someone that's trying to make things better. Do you want something to cool down?"

"Very much."

The female trotted over to a feeding bucket that was off to the side. It was mostly clean, and a couple of drags through the water of the habitat cleaned it the rest of the way. Dunking her paw in the water confirmed that it was nice and cool, too.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Wait and see."

She dunked the bucket in the water, carrying the handle between her teeth over to him. She sat down on her haunches again, holding the bucket over his neck. Lifting one front paw, she pulled on the underside of the bucket until -

"Rawwwwwwwwr!"

Snow leopards did not generally roar, but Makalu did a credible imitation of one as she soaked the back of his neck. He leaped from the rock, shaking himself to and fro, batting the back of his ears with his front paws to try and shake the moisture off. Lindsey smiled as impish a smile as a cat could, and tossed her head, sending the bucket off into the distance.

"Better?" she asked with a teasing smile.

"Mmmph...better, but not nice."

"It helped."

"It was weeeeeird."

"But you're better."

"Ugh."

He started to flop again, but she stopped him by shoving her upper body against his, keeping him on all fours. He grumbled at her, but allowed it, starting to pad around the exhibit.

It really was too warm for him. It was too warm for her, and she knew that she'd be allowed to get out in an hour, at most. If she knew that she was stuck in her on a more or less permanent basis, she wasn't sure that she'd be able to stand it.

"So, you need it colder in here. Is there anything else that I can do to make it better?"

"You're making it better by being here."

"You're lonely?"

"Bored. Nothing to do."

She looked around. That much was true. There were no toys, no balls of food, nothing that might entertain a cat as he lived out his life. The pool of water in the middle of the exhibit wasn't so bad, but that was meant more for tigers than snow leopards. They weren't swimming cats, for the most part.

Making a mental note to fill it out better, she started to ask what else could be done, then had an idea of her own.

She walked back to the rock that he had been drooped over, smacking it with one forepaw. It dented far too easily, and she growled in her throat.

"Fake, huh?"

"Not-rock is not a rock," he agreed.

"Corner cutting..."

She sighed. It was like she wasn't even completely needed. A half-decent zoologist could have told the people running this place what was wrong. But if they needed to hear it from the expert before they were willing to put the money into fixing this place up...

She talked with him, asking him what else was fake. It turned out that just about everything in the exhibit was. The 'rocks' were closer to some sort of stuffed papier mache, not even a form of molded concrete. The water pool was too shallow for any sort of fishing, on the occasion that the keepers put anything in. The rocks around were just shameful in terms of climbing capability.

And in terms of climbing...

"You need stuff to perch on," she said.

"Many things."

"If I get them, will you be happier?"

"Hmmm. Never happy. But better."

He was a cat. Cats were very seldom happy, or at least, very seldom willing to admit it. But that was better than nothing.

She bobbed her head in goodbye, turning around towards the slitted door. Makalu dropped his head back down, flopping out in the too-warm room.

As soon as she reached the hallway, she jumped up on her hind legs and slapped the temperature control panel for Makalu's enclosure. It took two good smacks for her to find the temp down button, but when she did, she held it. Eventually, the handlers pulled her down, but she glared and growled when they tried to turn it back up.

"Just trying to save money," one of them muttered.

Well, save money, cost your job, she thought, grumbling as she was led back to the locker room. When I'm done here, heads are gonna roll...

The End