Zoo Linguist Quotes

“A hoarse scream came from somewhere in front of them, and Billy stopped. Lee froze. The scream came again and again, the short repetition of it mad and desperate. She whispered as softly as she could. "Billy, is someone hurt?" But he didn't respond or turn around.
She cautiously joined him and Kimmie at the front, and she saw a bobcat in Billy's lamp light, staring them down as a humanlike wail came from the cat's mouth.
Billy moved slowly toward the animal with his arm outstretched as Lee pleaded for him to come back. When he reached it and offered his hand up to smell, the animal froze with its teeth bared. Lee imagined it mauling him and then moving on to her.
But then the animal rubbed its cheek against his palm like a housecoat, and Lee heard a low rumbling. The creature was purring. He gave it love for a few minutes until the cat got tired of it and loped out of sight.
He let out a breath and chuckled low to himself. "She was just lonely.”
― Alli Dyer, Strange Folk