When the noise had stopped so that he could see in, the man had shot the mother lynx.
Then he had shot the dog, because that was the only thing to do.

And because he was very sorry and angry about the dog, he also shot the lynx kittens, where they crowded, spitting savagely, at the back of the cave.

But there were only three of them at the back of the cave.

The Little Sly One, instead of bothering to spit when there were other things more important to be done, had run up the wall and hidden in a crevice, so still she didn't even let her tail twitch.

Of course, like all her family, she didn't really have a tail, but merely a little blunt stub, perhaps two inches long.