Howl (8 page)

She watched her father descend. The further he went, the harder it was to see him, but as she strained over the stone lip of the well, she watched him scoop up the cub. He cradled it under one arm and climbed back up, then sat on the side of the well. The others gathered around.

Now that Robin was up close to it, the bear didn’t seem so scary. It was so little. No bigger than a small dog, but it had black, shiny fur, a tan snout, and a crest on its throat.

“He’s adorable,” she whispered.

“Believe me,” her father said. “This guy’s no teddy bear.” He lifted the bear’s paw and showed her its claws.

Griff pressed the tip of a finger against the end of one. “Sharp! No wonder they can climb trees. I could too, if I had spikes like that on the ends of my hands.”

“How come he’s holding his arm like that?” Squirm asked.

Robin stared, too. There was something odd about one of the bear’s front legs.

Her father blew air out his mouth as he stood up. “Let’s get it back to the barn where I can examine it properly. Without worrying about ‘mom.’”

He handed his medical bag to Robin, and, still cradling the bear, began walking back to the barn. Squirm and Griff picked up the ladder and Robin lugged the medical bag. It was heavy, but Robin always liked carrying it. It was like carrying hope.

She scanned the woods as she went. Now that they had the baby, wasn’t the mother even more likely to attack? She yelled out to the others. “What if the mother bear sees us? What if she comes after us?”

“And what if the sky falls in?” Griff called back.

Robin’s worry pushed more questions out her mouth. “What should we do? Run?”

Griff waited for her to catch up. “A bear can run way faster than you.”

Robin felt a rising sense of panic.

Griff put her free hand on Robin’s shoulder. “Settle down, girl. Remember, if she comes, she’s coming for her baby. We’ll just give her what she wants.”

Robin nodded, relieved.

When they got to the barn, the puppies yipped at the gate of their enclosure, and Relentless barked ferociously at the bear cub.

“She knows a wild thing when she smells it,” Griff said.

They took the bear into one of the stalls, and their father opened his medical bag. He brought out a stethoscope and placed the end that looked like a big silver medallion on the bear’s chest. The bear pawed at the tube.

Robin waited for a few moments then said, “Can I listen?”

“Sure.” Her father arranged the stethoscope in her ears.

Robin held her breath, thinking she’d have to be very quiet, but the thubbing sound coming through the stethoscope was strong and rhythmic.

“Wow!” she whispered.
How magical was that!

Squirm nudged her arm. “Can I listen?”

Robin sighed and gave Squirm the stethoscope. Sometimes having to share things with her brother was a drag.

“Cool,” Squirm said, then moved the round end of the stethoscope further down the bear’s body. “I hear squishing.”

“He’s digesting,” their father said. “Probably that kid he ate for breakfast.”

Squirm’s eyes twinkled at his father’s joke. “What
do
bears eat anyways?”

“They’re omnivores,” his father said. “So, pretty much anything — fish, berries, meat —”

“Garbage, if people don’t put it away properly,” Griff said.

Their father probed the bear’s front leg, from his shoulder to his paw. The cub made a yipping sound.

“He’s hurt!” Robin said, making a face.

He grimaced. “You got that right. It’s broken.”

“Can you fix it?” Robin asked.

“I can put a cast on it, but if I did that, I’d have to sedate him. We’d also have to keep him for a few weeks.”

“We could keep him here!” Squirm said.

Robin gripped her father’s arm. “We’ll take care of him.” She pressed his arm. “Please?”

Her father shook his head. “We have enough to handle with the puppies. You kids are probably falling asleep at your desks as it is!”

Robin fired back, “I haven’t fallen asleep at school once.” She didn’t mention that she almost had. Several times.

“Me neither,” Squirm said.

Griff looked at her son. “It’s not much extra time….”

“Don’t you get on the bandwagon too,” he said. He pushed his fingers through his short brown hair. “You have to have a special permit to keep a wild animal, even for a few days. It wouldn’t be legal.”

“Legal, shmeegal,” Griff said. “No one needs to know.”

Squirm looked up at his father. “Please, Dad —”

Robin watched her father roll his lips back into his mouth.

Griff touched his arm. “Remember why you became a vet — to help animals.”

He made a huffing sound. “Okay, but you’re all sworn to secrecy. I don’t want my boss at the clinic finding out. He does everything by the book. Besides, if the authorities get a whiff of what we’re doing, we could be fined. They might even euthanize the bear.”

Squirm squinted up at his dad. “What’s ‘euthanize’?”

“Putting to sleep,” his father said.

“In other words, killing it,” Griff said, bunching her mouth so it looked like a fist.

Robin winced. “They can do that?”

Griff shook her head. “Wild animals don’t have rights, Robin. People can kill them at will. For any reason, any time.”

Squirm looked astonished. “Can they?”

“Not dogs and cats,” his father clarified as he injected a small needle into the bear’s front leg. The bear quickly went limp, and he laid the animal gently down in the straw.

“Thanks to the SPCA,” Griff added.

Squirm kept his eyes on Griff. “What’s the SPCA?”

“Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,” Robin said. She only knew because she was reading a book on the SPCA for a book report. She’d expected the book to be boring but couldn’t put it down. The book talked about cats being skinned alive, horses being beaten to death, and a whole bunch of other terrible things that the SPCA had stopped. It was hard to read about but good to read about too.

Her father took some things from his medical bag. “Okay, I’ll set his arm and we’ll keep him, but only until the bone has healed. Then he’s going back to the wild. Is that clear?”

Robin nodded quickly. Squirm did too.

“And
no
more animals. A dog, nine puppies, and a bear is enough.”

Robin and Squirm shared a triumphant look and watched as their dad set the bear’s broken leg. “Besides, there’s not just the authorities we have to worry about, it’s the redneck hunters here as well.”

Squirm looked at Griff. “What’s a ‘redneck hunter’? Do they really have red necks?”

Griff laughed. “I think people who were originally called rednecks actually did have red necks because they worked in the fields — their necks got red from the sun.”

“A redneck would think it was nuts to set this bear’s arm,” his father said. “They’d say, ‘Let nature take its course.’”

Squirm looked confused. “Are the Kingshots rednecks?”

A smile played on Griff’s lips. “Bingo.”

After the bear’s arm was set in a small cast, the four worked at nailing some heavy fencing around the inside of the stall. Every once in a while, the little cub tried to lift its head, but it was too sedated to hold it up for long.

“I think he knows we’re here,” Robin said.

“I bet he can smell us,” Squirm said.

Griff laughed. “He can smell what you ate for breakfast three days ago.”

“I wish I could smell like that,” Squirm said.

They lapsed into silence. Robin thought about the soft thudding the bear’s heart had made.

“Do you think Conner really would have killed it?” she asked Griff.

Griff snorted. “Yes, I do.”

“You see that crossbow?” Squirm said. “It was deadly.”

Robin looked at Griff. She felt confused. “But you kill things….”

Griff spoke quietly. “Yes, but I do it with respect. And, I eat the meat. Besides, I’d never kill a
baby
!”

Her son added, “I don’t think any self-respecting hunter would.”

Griff continued. “The way I figure it, a wild animal would rather die out in nature from the quick bullet of my gun than be loaded into a truck and taken to an abattoir.”

She stroked the baby bear. “Conner and his dad, Rick, they don’t kill to eat. They kill to feel powerful. You should see the inside of their place. There’s antlers and animal heads on every wall. Like trophies. I bet they make Kingshot and Conner feel like big shots every time they look at them.”

“But he
is
a big shot,” Squirm argued. “Look at all the stuff he’s got, trucks, cars, ATVs —”

“Big boy toys.” Griff let out a long, slow sigh. “Stuff like that might give you a thrill at first, but it doesn’t last.” She tousled Squirm’s hair. “It just goes to show, you can never have enough of what you don’t really want.” She stood up. “And speaking of mounting heads on a wall, that’s what I’m going to do with Conner’s if he doesn’t bring Ari back soon.”

Her son stopped his hammering. “Ari’s with Conner? How did that happen?”

Griff shrugged. “He offered to take her for a ride and she went.”

“You shouldn’t have let her!”

The sound of the ATV approaching stopped their conversation. Squirm yawned. “Is Conner going to be Ari’s boyfriend now?”

Griff dropped the hammer she was holding. “What a dastardly thought. But I can see why she likes him. He’s got that choirboy cherubic face, yet he’s a bit of a rebel. A lot of girls like that. In my generation, we used to swoon over James Dean.”

“What’s swoon?”

Griff smiled with amusement. “What your sister is doing.”

Robin peeked out the barn door and watched her sister saying goodbye to Conner. When Robin had seen her with other boys, she’d always looked bored, as if she was putting up with them, but now, with Conner, her face was flushed and dreamy.

Robin went back inside and helped arrange more straw in the bear’s stall.

Squirm yawned again. “I’m hungry. Can we go now?”

Griff nodded. “Of course. I’ve got to get some baby food ready. This guy’s going to be hungry when he wakes up.” She looked at the bear fondly. “Won’t you, Mukwa.”

“‘Mukwa’?” Robin asked.

Griff explained. “It’s Ojibway for the word
bear
.”

“Cool,” Squirm said.

After they left, Robin stretched out on the bale of hay and looked at the cub. He was sleeping with his head tucked into the soft fur of his chest. As if feeling her gaze, he opened his eyes. Becoming agitated, he tried to pull himself up.

Robin spoke to him quietly. “I know. You’re wondering where your mom is. But I promise, you will see her again. As soon as your arm’s better.” The bear seemed to settle at the sound of her voice. “Meanwhile, we’re going to take care of you. So, you don’t have to be afraid. You and your mom will be back together soon.”

Robin wiped her eyes. What was she crying for now?

The baby bear became quiet and closed its eyes. In another few moments, she heard the low rhythmic snuffle of his breathing and knew he was asleep. She smiled. They’d saved the bear from being shot. That was good.

She stood up and checked on Relentless and the puppies. They were all piled on top of one another, legs and tails and snouts going in every direction, but fast asleep. That felt good too.

Whistling, she left the barn.

Robin’s alarm went off at six. With the bear to feed as well as the puppies, she had to get up even earlier these days. She pulled a jacket over her pajamas and stumbled bleary-eyed towards the barn. As soon as she stepped outside, the brightness of the day greeted her. The sun was out, and it felt warm against her face. No wonder all the snow was melting. There was hardly any in the yard now. She took in a deep breath. The air smelled fresh and new, and it made her feel hopeful and alive.

As usual, Mukwa smelled her coming and was standing at the front of his enclosure when she came in. The creak of the barn door ignited the puppies into a frenzy of ecstatic yips and yelps. Their exuberance at the sight of her made all her tiredness disappear.

She went to the back of the barn and made up Mukwa’s formula, then pulled on the oven mitts and tattered old coat that hung beside his enclosure and went in. Mukwa hopped into her lap the moment she sat down. Because of his cast, it was difficult for him to hold the bottle, so she helped him get it into his mouth and held it in place. He made happy little grunting noises as he sucked, and his claws clicked on the plastic sides of the bottle. Feeling his heat through the coat, she relaxed, and a lovely contented feeling moved through her body.

When he was finished with the bottle, he crawled down from her lap and scampered around the enclosure, chasing a ball. It wouldn’t roll any more, because he’d inadvertently punctured it, but he swatted it with his cast and chased it around.

“I’ll bring you a new one tomorrow,” she promised and went to feed the dogs.

The puppies were getting some solid food now, and as soon as she set the bowls on the floor, Greedy Guts tried to eat both her own food and the food of the puppy next to her. Robin picked her up and set her bowl away from the others. When they were all done eating, she took them outside in batches. Relentless trotted beside her, corralling any puppies that strayed.