The Silky Seal Pup (5 page)

Chapter Seven

Zoe and Meep Get to Work!

On Sunday, Zoe and Meep ran to Higgins Hall after breakfast. They couldn’t wait to see what the Rescue Zoo’s owner thought of their ideas!

“Great-Uncle Horace?” called Zoe, pushing open the enormous oak front door. “It’s me!”

Higgins Hall was hundreds of years old. It had once been a grand house, with huge paintings on every wall, an enormous library and even a maze in the garden. But when Great-Uncle Horace had started the Rescue Zoo, he’d turned every room into a home for different animals. The great white pelicans lived in the swimming pool, and in every bathroom there was a different type of lizard. Great-Uncle Horace had only kept the cosy attic for himself and Kiki.

“Zoe? I’m in the butterfly room, my dear,” called a cheerful voice.

The butterfly room had once been a beautiful ballroom. Now it was warm and steamy, with trees and tropical flowers growing in huge pots all around. When Zoe and Meep walked
in, Great-Uncle Horace was standing in the middle of the room, with colourful butterflies perched along his arms and on his head. Hundreds more fluttered above him. Zoe felt something tickling her cheek as a pretty purple butterfly came to say hello. She held up her hand and the butterfly settled on her finger.

“It’s nice to see you both so early,” said Great-Uncle Horace, beaming at them. “But is everything all right, Zoe? You look rather anxious.”

Zoe suddenly felt like crying. She’d been brave for all the animals, but now she gave a big sob. “I know the zoo is in trouble,” she sniffled. “I listened to the meeting in Mr Pinch’s office yesterday.”

“Oh, Zoe, you don’t need to worry,” Great-Uncle Horace sighed, putting his arm round her shoulders and giving her a comforting hug. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t find out, my dear, because I didn’t want you to get upset. I promise everything will be all right.”

Zoe dried her eyes as she looked at Great-Uncle Horace. His kindly eyes twinkled as he gave her a big smile.
“Now, why don’t you come and see my chrysalises…”

Zoe frowned as Great-Uncle Horace wandered across the room, chattering excitedly about the chrysalises.

She looked at the three papery packets hanging from a tree branch, but her mind was full of the money-making ideas the animals had come up with. They had to save the zoo! Turning to Meep, she whispered, “Let’s go and talk to Mum instead.” She said a hurried goodbye to Great-Uncle Horace and slipped back outside.

On their way to find Lucy, they stopped to peer into the seal enclosure. Zoe felt even more worried when she saw Star’s tired face. While the other seals played in the water, Star was lying on a rock
sleepily. The little seal explained that she hadn’t felt afraid of the dark when she was in the parrot enclosure, with so much friendly chatter around her. But she’d woken up once she was back in her enclosure, and had felt frightened again. She hadn’t managed to sleep another wink all night.

Zoe felt so sorry for her. “I promise I’ll find a way to help you,” she told the sad little seal. “But first I have to help save the zoo.”

Zoe and Meep found Lucy in Oscar’s enclosure. She was halfway up a ladder, rubbing special cream into one of the elephant’s huge, flapping ears. “Hi, Zoe!” she called. “Poor Oscar scratched his ear on a branch this morning, so I’m making sure it doesn’t get sore.”

Zoe waited for her mum to climb back down the ladder. “Mum,” she said as Lucy reached the bottom, “I know the Rescue Zoo needs money.”

“Oh, Zoe, I didn’t want you to worry about the zoo closing down. We’re going
to do everything we can to save it. We’re going to have a big fundraiser and raise lots of money.”

Zoe felt her heart lift at the thought of a fundraiser. As soon as people saw how brilliant the Rescue Zoo was they were bound to give them lots of money!

“I want to help,” she said bravely. “I’ve already got some money-making ideas!”

She told Lucy about the parrot show and the information sheets. “Brilliant!” Lucy said, smiling. “Why don’t you use my laptop to start writing the sheets? When I get home tonight, I’ll help you add the Rescue Zoo hot-air-balloon logo to each one, so they look really smart.”

Zoe was so relieved that her mum thought her ideas might help the Rescue Zoo. She and Meep rushed back to the
cottage, determined to get started. They sat at the kitchen table and Zoe switched on the laptop.

“Let’s start with Oscar,” Zoe decided. Great-Uncle Horace had taught her all about African elephants, and she’d learned lots more because she had spent so much time with her biggest animal friend. She opened a fresh page and wrote Oscar’s name at the top. “I’ll say that elephants are the biggest land mammals in the world. Oscar is seven, but he’ll get even bigger until he’s about ten. What else can we tell visitors about him?”

“Write about his trunk!” chirped Meep.

“Good idea, Meep,” said Zoe, typing quickly. “African elephants have very clever trunks, which can suck up water and pick up food.”

“Let’s put what he eats,” suggested Meep, jumping up and down.

Zoe nodded. “Elephants are herbivores, so that means they eat plants, roots and fruits. Oscar’s favourite treats are oranges and bananas.”

“And he likes to be tickled behind his ears!” added Meep.

“Perfect, Meep!” said Zoe, writing the last line. “Now, what about the giraffes?”

The two friends worked hard all day, and only stopped for a quick lunch when Zoe heard Meep’s tummy rumbling.

When they heard Lucy arriving home, Zoe was finishing a sheet about Star. “Mum, come and read what we’ve done!” she called.

Lucy sat at the kitchen table and looked through all the sheets, with Zoe perched on her knee. When she got to the very last one, she read it aloud.
“Star the harp seal. Star is the Rescue Zoo’s newest animal. She likes milk and being cuddled, but she’s still very nervous of people. We’re trying hard to show her that the Rescue Zoo is her home now.”
Tears sprang into her eyes and she pulled Zoe into a tight hug. “These are wonderful,
Zoe. I know that when people read them, they’ll realise just how special the Rescue Zoo really is!”

Chapter Eight

Parrot Practice

As soon as the school bell went on Monday afternoon, Zoe rushed back home to the Rescue Zoo. She and the parrots had a show to practise for!

Zoe and the keepers had spent all of Sunday arranging the fundraiser. They’d put colourful posters all around Zoe’s town to tell people about it, and every
keeper was planning their own special event or stall.

Annie, the parrot keeper, had been happy for Zoe to do a show with Ruby, Rio and Cupid, and had even suggested they have it on the patch of grass near the gift shop, where all the visitors could come and see it. Zoe had been careful not to give away too much about what the clever parrots could do. She wanted it to be a surprise!

Zoe ran into the cottage and dumped her bag on the kitchen table. “Meep!” she called. She listened, but there was no scamper of paws as Meep ran to greet her.
That’s strange
, Zoe thought. Meep was
always
waiting for her after school.

Zoe wandered out into the zoo. As she got closer to the parrot enclosure she
could hear cross squawking.

Meep was standing on a fence on the outside of the enclosure, talking to Ruby and the others.

“There you are, Meep!” Zoe called in relief. Meep bounded off the fence and into her arms for a cuddle.

“I was helping!” he chattered happily.

Ruby gave an indignant squawk and ruffled her feathers.

Zoe laughed. “Ruby says you were being a very bossy lemur!”

“I wasn’t!” Meep protested.

Ruby opened her beak and did a perfect impression of Meep’s bossy chattering.

Zoe stifled a giggle. “Never mind, I’m here now,” she said. “And we’ve got a show to plan!”

Zoe unlocked the parrot enclosure with her paw-print necklace, and she and Meep slipped inside. “I think we should have a flying bit, and then your impressions—”

Zoe stopped talking as a group of visitors came up the side of the enclosure. As they peered in she felt like one of the animals! She picked up the parrots’ food bowl and pretended to be filling it.

Finally the visitors left and Zoe turned to the parrots. “OK, if we start with Ruby—”

Rio gave a warning squawk and Zoe stopped talking just as the door to the enclosure opened.

“Oh, hello, Zoe,” Annie said cheerfully. “I didn’t know you were in here. Are you practising for the show?”

“Er, yes,” Zoe replied awkwardly.

“You should use hazelnuts,” Annie suggested. “Rio will do anything for them.” She pulled one out of her pocket and held it up. With a flutter of wings, the cockatoo landed on her arm and picked the nut out of her fingers with his clever feet.

Annie started sweeping the enclosure, and Zoe turned to Meep. “It’ll be difficult to have our rehearsals while Annie is here. I can’t talk to the parrots in front of her,” she whispered to Meep. “We can’t start practising while all the visitors are wandering around either…” Zoe looked round the enclosure as she wondered what to do. Then, as she glanced over to the seal enclosure, she thought of Star and had an idea. “Of course! Let’s
practise at night, once the zoo’s empty!”

That night, Zoe and Meep crept out of the cottage again. First they stopped at the seal enclosure, to check on Star. The little seal was awake and whimpering, her eyes shining in the darkness. Zoe scooped her up for a cuddle. “We’re going back to see the parrots. You’re going to see the very first rehearsal for their show,” she told her. Star cheered up straight away, squeaking happily.

Once they’d slipped inside the parrot enclosure, Zoe explained her ideas for the show. The parrots listened eagerly, their heads cocked to one side. “I’ll pick an animal, then you can make the sound,” Zoe suggested. “Let’s start with…a wolf, like Luna and her cubs!”

Ruby let out a loud, deep howl. It sounded so real, Zoe almost believed one of the wolves was standing next to her! “Warthog,” she said. Rio oinked noisily. Meep fell off his log laughing, and Zoe was delighted to see Star giggling shyly.

“When we do the real show, I’ll ask the audience to think of some animals too,” Zoe explained. “After that, I thought you could do some special tricks! Why don’t you start by flying in a pattern?”

Ruby bobbed her head up and down excitedly. Then she squawked to her friends, and the parrots sailed into the air. They flew along in a perfect line, then around in three neat circles. It was going really well until Ruby and Rio tried to land on the same branch and almost crashed into each other!

One by one, they perched on the branch, gripped the bark with their strong claws and swung upside down, which made Star gasp. Finally they flew down and landed in a row on Zoe’s arm.

Zoe pulled out a bag of hazelnuts from her pocket and offered the clever birds one each. “That was brilliant!” she told them as they munched the nuts happily. “With a few more rehearsals it’s going to be perfect! I didn’t know how talented you were. I can’t wait for the visitors see you in action.”

As the parrots chatted about more tricks, Zoe grinned. She was sure the visitors were going to love the show. Clever Ruby and her friends might just save the Rescue Zoo!