Lulu Bell and the Tiger Cub (2 page)

The group moved on to watch lots of other animals – lions, Asian elephants, giraffes and pandas. They managed to find the answers to several more treasure hunt questions.

‘Which is the tallest animal that lives on land?' asked Molly.

‘A gigantic giraffe,' said Max. ‘The sign said an adult giraffe can be six
metres tall – that's nearly the height of a two-storey building.'

‘What do pandas eat?' asked Daniel, as they reached the cuddly black-and-white animals.

‘Bamboo makes up ninety-nine per cent of their diet,' answered Lauren.

Mum checked her watch. ‘It's nearly ten o'clock. Time to head to the vet hospital.' She pointed towards a narrow path that was nearly hidden by trees. ‘This way.'

‘I've never noticed this path before,' said Lauren.

In the western corner of the zoo was a big modern building surrounded by trees. This was the vet hospital. Mum pressed the buzzer by the door.

A young nurse in a green uniform answered. A bulging pouch hung at her
waist, held on by a wide shoulder strap.

‘Hi,' said Mum. ‘I'm Chrissie Bell. This is my daughter Lulu, and her friends from Shelly Beach School. We're here to see Dr Bradley.'

‘Come in. I'm Rachael. I work with Dr Bradley.' Rachael opened the door wide and waved them in.

Lulu stared at the bag at Rachael's waist. It was squirming. A tiny orange head emerged and then disappeared again.

Rachael grinned, stroking the bag. ‘And this is Linh. She is a baby François' leaf monkey and she loves cuddles.'

The baby stuck its head out of the pouch and stared at the children with big black eyes.
Her name was spelled on the side of her bag.

‘Linh is a Vietnamese name,' said Molly. ‘It means gentle spirit.'

‘That's pretty,' said Lulu.

‘François' leaf monkeys come from north-eastern Vietnam and southern China,' said Rachael. She stroked Linh on her furry, orange head. ‘They are one of the rarest types of monkeys in the world.'

‘Why are they called leaf monkeys?' asked Daniel.

‘Because they eat leaves?' suggested Max.

Rachael smiled. ‘Exactly right. Linh was born here in the zoo,' she explained. ‘But her mother didn't have enough milk for her, so we are rearing her in the nursery. We've been taking turns to sleep
at the vet hospital so we can feed her during the night.'

Lulu felt worried for Linh. ‘Doesn't she miss her mother?'

Rachael nodded. ‘I carry her around so she doesn't get lonely. François' leaf monkeys are endangered in the wild. We need to make sure Linh has a healthy start in life. We are slowly introducing her back to her family.'

The group followed Rachael down the corridor. The vet hospital was light and clean with lots of large viewing windows. First of all, Rachael led them to a locker room. She showed everyone where to put their backpacks.

Rachael led them into the hospital itself.

The zoo vet hospital was bigger than the Shelly Beach Vet hospital at Lulu's
house. There was no waiting room. The operating theatre was much larger. But the main difference was the animals in the wards. Instead of cats and dogs and rabbits, there were amazing creatures from all over the world.

One room held injured birds, from owls and macaws to kookaburras and flamingos. Another room held glass boxes for the sick reptiles. There were snakes, lizards, turtles and water dragons.

Rachael led the way into another hospital ward. In one corner was a large pen. Inside it, a wombat was asleep on a red beanbag. He was curled up with a teddy bear.

At the sound of the humans coming in, he jumped to his feet. Lulu realised he only had three legs.

‘Harry lost his leg in a car accident,'
explained Rachael. ‘He can't go back to the wild, but he seems very happy toddling around now. Soon we'll move him out with the other wombats.'

Harry saw Rachael. He ran to the edge of the pen with a lolloping gait. He snuffled and sniffed through the bars.

‘He runs awfully fast for a creature with only three legs,' said Max.

‘That's because he thinks we're here to give him breakfast,' said Rachael. ‘He's very greedy.'

Rachael fetched a container of chopped carrots from the fridge. ‘Would you like to feed him?'

Of course, everyone wanted to. Each of the children took a turn to feed Harry through the bars. Harry butted the gate, demanding more food. He made friendly grunts as he crunched and chomped
his way through the carrots. Mum took photos of all the kids with Harry.

‘I wish we could take him home,' said Lulu, as Harry tried to nibble her fingers. Lulu looked at her mum with a winning smile. ‘He's gorgeous.'

‘No way,' said Mum. She threw her hands up in horror. ‘Wombats will dig through anything. And just look at the terrible mess he's made eating breakfast.'

There were chunks of carrot all over the floor.

‘Never mind,' said Rachael. ‘I'll clean it up in a moment. Let's just put Linh away, and then I'll take you to see Dr Bradley.'

Rachael put Linh in a large, warm cage. It was filled with toys. A bunch of tender leaves hung from the roof. Linh began to play with a bright orange ball.

Rachael carefully closed the cage and slid the bolt across.

The group followed Rachael into one of the treatment rooms. Dr Bradley was there, tending to a snake. The vet's long red hair was tied up in a ponytail.

She wore a pale blue shirt over khaki pants.

Dr Bradley smiled and said hello. She gave Lulu and her mum a hug. ‘Welcome to our hospital.'

The children crowded around. Dr Bradley was painting antiseptic cream onto some stitches on the snake's belly.

‘This is Tammy the carpet python,' said the vet. ‘She was brought into the zoo with an unusual problem. Last week we operated to remove three golf balls from her belly. She thought they were chicken eggs and ate them.'

The kids grinned. The snake slithered into a large coil.

‘Would you like to hold her, Lulu?' asked Dr Bradley. ‘She's not venomous.'

Lulu gave a little skip of excitement. ‘Yes, please.'

Dr Bradley showed her where to hold the snake. Lulu was used to helping her dad in the vet hospital. She knew how to hold the reptile calmly and quietly. Lulu was surprised by how heavy the snake was. The other children took turns to stroke the python's slippery scales.

‘In another couple of weeks we can release her back into the wild,' said Dr Bradley. ‘Hopefully she has learnt not to steal golf balls.'

Rachael took Tammy and went to put her in the reptile ward.

Just then the phone rang. The vet answered.

‘Hello? Dr Bradley speaking.' She paused as she listened. A frown crossed her face. ‘Okay, I'll be right there.'

Lulu knew that look. It meant that an animal was injured. She wondered what could possibly have happened.

‘Is everything all right?' asked Lulu.

‘It's Berani, one of the tiger cubs,' said Dr Bradley. ‘He's had a fall.'

Dr Bradley turned to Mum. ‘I'm driving over to the tiger enclosure to check one of the cubs. I can take one passenger. Lulu can come with me if she'd like to.'

‘I'm sure she'd love to,' Mum said. She turned to Lulu. ‘Wouldn't you, honey bun?'

Lulu nodded. ‘Yes, please.'

‘How about you walk over with the other children and meet us?' Dr Bradley suggested to Lulu's mum.

Dr Bradley pulled on her jacket and gathered a medical bag full of equipment. She asked Lulu to take a large carry cage. Lulu followed Dr Bradley out through a
side door into the garage. A small buggy was parked there. It had two seats in the front and a bench seat in the back where they put the baggage. Dr Bradley drove very slowly along the path.

The other kids ran as fast as they could back to the Sumatran tiger enclosure.

Dr Bradley parked the buggy around the back. There was a concrete building where the tigers slept. A zookeeper in a khaki uniform was waiting by a locked door. He looked worried.

‘Hi, Tom,' called Dr Bradley. ‘What happened to Berani?'

‘I put his mother away in her sleep pen,' said Tom,
the zookeeper. ‘Then when I went in to clean the big enclosure, I found Berani limping. I think he fell when he was climbing one of the trees. He's getting far too curious for his own good.'

‘I'll take a look,' said Dr Bradley. ‘We'll probably need to take him back to the hospital for an X-ray. When did he last eat?'

‘His last solid food was last night,' replied Tom. ‘Then he had some milk early this morning.'

‘Good, then he should be fine if he needs to have an anaesthetic.'

Dr Bradley lifted the carry cage out of the back of the buggy. She passed it to Tom, then picked up her medical bag. She turned to Lulu.

‘I'm sorry, Lulu, but you can't come inside the tiger enclosure,' explained
Dr Bradley. ‘Why don't you pop around the front and watch through the glass? Then you can come back with us to the vet hospital afterwards.'

‘Sure,' said Lulu. ‘Thanks, Dr Bradley.'

Lulu raced around the front of the enclosure.

Through the glass, she could see the biggest cub was standing on three legs. One of the hind legs was lifted in the air, with the foot dangling down. The tiger cub tried to limp. The other two cubs sniffed around curiously.

In a minute, Mum arrived with the other students in the group. They were all huffing from their run. Now Lulu could see Dr Bradley and Tom the zookeeper walking through the long grass towards the tiger cubs. Tom talked softly to the animals.

One of the female cubs trotted towards them. Tom smiled and ruffled her furry head. The tiger rubbed her face against Tom's hand. She licked Tom on the fingers with her long, raspy tongue and made a loud chuffing noise. Tom chuffed back. It reminded Lulu of her family cats, Pickles and Pepper, purring.

Dr Bradley knelt down in the grass beside Berani. Tom crouched beside her and scooped Berani up in his arms. Carefully and gently, Dr Bradley examined the tiger's hind leg. Then Dr Bradley wrapped the cub in a towel and put him inside the carry cage.

Tom picked up the cage. Dr Bradley waved to Lulu to meet them around the back. They set off towards the rear of the enclosure, followed by the two smaller cubs. Lulu ran around to meet them.

Tom got into the buggy's passenger seat and cradled the cage on his lap. Lulu could see two tufted ears flicking back
and forth. Lulu squeezed in the back where the cage had been.

Dr Bradley drove back to the vet hospital slowly and parked the buggy.

A low rumble came from the carry cage on Tom's lap.

‘It's all right, Berani,' soothed Tom. ‘Our clever vet will have you chasing around in no time.'

‘You bet,' Dr Bradley said, smiling at Lulu. ‘Have you ever seen an operation on a tiger cub?'

Lulu shot out of the back of the buggy. ‘Really? Can we really, truly watch?'