At the very South of the continent where the last temperate forest-like shrubland of Catland can be found, a small brown and black-striped Forest Cat (Catus desilva) hides in the shadows. It is skittish and rarely seen out in open habitats like grasslands. They are usually outcompeted by other cat species in open habitats. However in the chaotically tangled shrubland habitat they are much better suited. It's a place where other cats don't as often venture into and thus don't impose much competition for the shy forest cat. Elderberry and mulberry have not quite evolved into trees yet, with many ground-level branches and lack of a defined trunk, and some mulberry have evolved into winding thorny ground cover. This creates a dense thicket that usually keeps the Forest Rabbit (Cuniculus timidus) safe, except when there is a forest cat in the territory. This thorny ground cover is slowly becoming more dominant as the climate warms and tree-like forms of elderberry are forced back South, replaced by shorter heat-tolerant species from the North.

The coat of the forest cat is longer than their grassland cousins, flowing backwards and downwards to channel off the cold heavy rain common to their cloudy home climate. Underneath is a softer layer to keep them warm. Combined their overcoat and insulating layer are so efficient snow doesn't melt on them. They will sleep through snow storms and the built up snow around them will provide insulation from the external air temperature and wind (a steady -1C is better than highly fluctuating -10C or -20C wind chill). Their coat thickens and lengthens in winter, then in the spring they shed little tufts of cat wool which are gathered by birds and mice to line their nests.

One of those bird species is the Blue Sparrow (Domesticus livens), of which only the male is blue as the female needs to be able to hide on her nest or forage safely. Being able to be such a striking colour and survive with cats around is a signal of a male's fitness to survive. That and most females are attracted to the blue. Both factors reinforce a vicious cycle selecting for bluer and brighter males. Both males and females forage for food for the chicks but more males are killed while foraging than females. That said, females usually have backup males in mind if her primary mate dies. Those backup males provide a lot of help and gifts of food and nest insulation (such as the cat fluff) to the female even while her mate is still alive and well, so that she remains impressed and doesn't forget them. If her mate dies, the backup male takes over and if her chicks are still small and vulnerable, the backup male will cause the deceased male's chicks to "disappear" next time the female takes her turn to forage (so there is no fight and thus no risk of injury to the male from their mother). There is no evolutionary benefit for her to realize what happened, so she obliviously becomes receptive to mate again and makes a new clutch of eggs with her new mate, provided the season is still good for it.

A species struggling with change is the tiny Pith Mouse (Musculus spongia) . Pith mice habitually make their nests inside shrub wood, specifically the pith cavities of some elderberry shrubs. They chisel their way through a weakness or crack in the bark with their incisors before entering the pith cavity. Their incisors grow at a faster rate for this job, especially at times of year when they will be most needed such as the best months for reproduction, which ranges over late spring, through summer to early fall. Once they make a large enough access to the pith, they bore out and eat some of the pith, which is mostly fibre with trace nutrients, making a very safe, narrow cavity to live in. Remaining pith acts as insulating foam, keeping the nest from losing heat too quickly in winter.

The problem with this is that elder shrubs have simply been evolving pith cavities that are too narrow even for the mice to nest in. Some elder also harden their pith gradually producing a brittle pith that shards, making for much less inviting nesting, instead of allowing it to hollow with the plant's age. The reason for this is that too much of this nesting eventually kills the shrub, so only shrubs unsuitable for nesting in have been showing up lately. The mice could adapt to finding a different place to nest if only this were their only problem. The problem is compounded by the fact their preferred habitat of dark, dense shrub forest habitat with an elevated tree canopy-like layer has also slowly been disappearing due to the warming climate, an added stress to deal with. This double-whammy is what is causing some populations to crash. Their diet is typically grains, seeds, newly emerging leaves and fruit, but some populations are having dietary intolerances to changes in the local flora, a result of these populations' lost genetic diversity and events of inbreeding. Healthy populations are not widely connected and exist in zones.

Another mouse species that evolved quickly only to become restricted after the climate's warming is the Musculus pinus (Evergreen Mouse), another valid name of which is the spruce mouse due to it's close association with the spruce trees. They suffered worse than the Pith Mouse, which are following the movement of elderberry shrubs into the vacant spaces left behind by the receding spruce forests. Spruce forests strongest holdouts are in the mountains and thus the spruce mouse is also most common in mountains, though there are a few lowland forests that they inhabit. Their diet is reliant on the spruce seed kernels for winter calories, which they stash in larders they excavate or discover in their environment, mainly holes in trees.