No cubs this year

It was the end of Spring. A cold snap had set upon the land and it felt much closer to Winter, thought WhiteWolf, than Summer. She had been increasingly preoccupied lately with the thought of the new pack she was about to raise. The new cubs had been growing in her belly for nearly three months and it was time for them to join this cold world.

She slept next to her pack, snuggling close against her mate, John, who she knew would continue to be a good leader and role model for her growing family. She cracked an eye open in between dozes. It was midnight... then late night... then morning. She felt the perfumed air of Summer and the time had arrived! She stole off towards the den and then, near enough to it, she laid down and proceeded to give birth. It was then that her dream suddenly turned to nightmare - she looked upon the little bodies and, blood chilled, found that they had no life in them. They were dead, all of them. Before they had even a chance to live.

The female's heart was very heavy. She would have no new pack this year. Full of a special kind of pain no other in her pack could understand, she kept to herself for a good half of the day, broken and uncomprehending. She had not been especially hungry or sick... her body was fully mature but not yet old... why? Why had her young ceased to be? What terrible fate could have befallen them? Just, why?

She rejoined her old pack, the only family she now had, and rediscovered her old family life. It was a jarring change to what she had expected but she did not find it unpleasant, and simply carried on. She could try again next year, after all. There was still time.

---WhiteWolf

Note to readers: This story is actually true, except for the part about the actual pregnancy taking place, because there was no way she could reasonably expect to have cubs right up until the last minute without this embellishment. But Summer actually arrived and my alpha female, who I know did mate in the Spring, found herself with no cubs!! I don't know if maybe I accidentally overwrote the pregnancy variable when I last spawned prey, or my saves got mixed up or something, but to this day I couldn't tell you what happened! It is so very strange that I decided to post this little story about it to try and imagine the anguish a wolf would feel who was expecting cubs and yet did not have any!

Hmm this is rather strange.

It is weird, isn't it? I can't honestly think of why WhiteWolf wouldn't have had cubs unless my save somehow got corrupted... I somehow doubt that WOLF's programmers allowed for the player wolf to mate but not become pregnant. My wolf is 4 years old, very much middle-aged, so I doubt it could be age-related. So strange.

---WhiteWolf

^^° You know.. that "Prey Respawn" is a little dangerous. It's been reported that the female stops caring about her pups if you use it while there already are pups. A fine way of getting the female to hunt with you again but a bad idea if she's still pregnant I guess. Seems you damaged the savegame. That's why there were no pups.

There has to be a byte causing this problem and it's yet to be found. (I really want to code a patch-application for savegames... But I know it'll become a hassle since the byte-addresses are different for most savegames, just a floating thought.) But if it's found that bug we trigger will stop doing this to unborn pups and caring females.

So that is what happened. I thought that might have been it. I wasn't sure though because I've got a new computer and I've moved so many files across from the old one in the past few weeks that I could easily have overwritten something or used the wrong version by mistake... this does make sense, though. And I don't actually mind not having cubs for one year - it breaks up the natural cycle a little bit so that there's more time for hunting and exploring. It'll make me appreciate it all the more when there are cubs the following year.

---WhiteWolf

^^ You can refill the preystock before mating so your next litter won't be endangered.
But I'm not sure.. wasn't there that problem of the prey dieing out rather quickly after that? oO

There was, yes... however, it may be worth living with sparser prey for a little while if it means I would be able to raise another litter. Even with very little prey one year, our entire pack minus one did manage to survive - even the little ones. It may be a risk worth taking.

Hey, you know what else happened in my game that was funny though? At the same time that I DIDN'T have cubs, my territory expanded. Its range doubled. o_o; I now have loads of land and am constantly plagued by Shadow, the 6-year-old lone wolf, who keeps trying to live on its fringes. Seriously, I've attacked her like five times.

---WhiteWolf

My favorite wolves are Centaurus and Shadow. Shadow is stubborn. I liked the story though.

I had Shadow in my pack once, I had to beat her down about three times before she'd quit challenging me.

Oh, and good story. I might wright one about one of my packs.