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- Herausgeber: Nosy Crow
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Serie: Zoe's Rescue Zoo
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
Henry the hippo turns up at the zoo after his mother dies. But the zoo already has a hippo and horrible Mr Pinch wants to send Henry away! Zoe can't bear to see the little hippo homeless, so she comes up with a hiptastic plan!
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The little hippo had spotted the pool of slurpy mud at the edge of the enclosure. He jumped right in, rolling around happily and splashing mud everywhere!
Chapter One
Feathered Friends
Zoe Parker scooped up another handful of sunflower seeds and scattered them on the ground by her feet. They made a gentle pattering sound as they landed on the grass. “Breakfast time!” she called, and smiled as a flock of colourful birds fluttered down from the trees around her and began to peck eagerly at the seeds.
It was a sunny Saturday morning and Zoe was helping Alison, the bird keeper at the Rescue Zoo. They were in a huge enclosure, full of leafy trees and winding streams, where more than thirty different types of bird lived. Zoe and Alison had already given the hummingbirds, the toucans and the parakeets their breakfast. Now they had reached the lovebirds and the macaws, which were some of the brightest, prettiest birds at the zoo – and some of Zoe’s favourites!
Meep was there too – although, Zoe thought with a grin, he wasn’t really being that helpful. Meep was Zoe’s best animal friend. He was a tiny grey mouse lemur, with soft fur, a long curly tail and big golden eyes. Meep also had a huge appetite, and Zoe realised that he was eating some of the birds’ breakfast as she and Alison were scattering the seeds on the ground. She giggled as he glanced around quickly to make sure that none of the birds were watching him, then snatched up a fat sunflower seed and started nibbling on it. Cheeky little thing! she thought to herself.
“You must be looking forward to the summer holidays!” said Alison, smiling at Zoe as she scattered handfuls of grain on to the grass. “Don’t they start next week?”
Zoe nodded. “I can’t wait!” she told Alison. “Six whole weeks off school. I can spend every day helping with the animals!”
Zoe wasn’t just a visitor at the Rescue Zoo. She actually lived there! Zoe’s great-uncle, Horace Higgins, was a famous animal expert and explorer, who had decided to set up a zoo for any animals he met on his travels that were in need of a safe, friendly place to live. Zoe’s mum, Lucy, was the zoo vet. Lucy and Zoe had moved into a little cottage at the edge of the zoo when Zoe was a baby, so she had grown up with animals all around her! Zoe loved animals more than anything, and wanted to be a vet herself one day. She knew how lucky she was to have such an amazing home.
“Zoe, I’m just going to pop to the store room and grab another bag of grain,” explained Alison. “Back in a sec!”
“OK!” replied Zoe.
As Alison left the enclosure, Zoe heard a cross squawk behind her and turned to see what was going on.
The mischievous little lemur was still helping himself to the birds’ breakfast – and one of the birds, a bright-green lovebird named Cyril, had spotted what was going on! With a squeak, Meep grabbed one last seed and leaped quickly on to Zoe’s shoulder just as Cyril swooped down towards him.
“Meep, you’ve already had your own breakfast back at the cottage,” Zoe scolded her little friend gently. “These seeds and grains are for Cyril and his friends!”
“But I’m still a bit hungry, Zoe,” explained Meep through a mouthful of food. “Besides, sunflower seeds are my favourite! As well as pumpkin seeds, bananas … oh, and blueberries, and peanuts…”
Zoe couldn’t help giggling as Meep listed all the food he liked – which was a lot! “Well, no more now,” she told him. “And say sorry to Cyril.”
“Sorry, Cyril,” grumbled Meep, and the lovebird fluttered his wings to show Meep that they were still friends.
Living at the Rescue Zoo wasn’t the only unusual thing about Zoe. On her sixth birthday Zoe had found out that she had a special talent: she could talk to animals! But it was a secret, and nobody else knew – not even Zoe’s mum or Great-Uncle Horace. Zoe was always careful never to speak to any of her animal friends when other people were around.
Just then, someone else opened the gate of the enclosure and stepped inside. “Hi, Mum!” called Zoe, waving. “Have you come to check Ruby?”
Lucy had the same dark, wavy hair as her daughter, but she usually wore it up in a ponytail, with a stethoscope around her neck. She had her special vet bag slung over one shoulder. “Hello, love,” she called back. “Yes – I need to make sure her wing is healing properly.”
Ruby was a scarlet macaw, with bright red, yellow and blue feathers. On a very windy day two weeks ago, a branch had snapped off a tree and fallen to the ground, catching the tip of Ruby’s wing just before it landed. Lucy had been visiting every day to have a look at it.
Ruby was perching on a low branch this morning, and Lucy gently lifted the poorly wing and peered at it.
“Is it getting better?” asked Zoe anxiously.
Lucy nodded. “Luckily she didn’t break the wing – that would have been much more serious. It’s just bruised and sore. It looks like she’s on the mend though. She’ll be flying again in a week or two.”
“Great!” said Zoe. She knew that Ruby was really missing being able to swoop around the huge enclosure with her friends. “Just in time for the summer holidays,” she added. “I should be able to come and watch her every day!”
Lucy hesitated for a moment, before nodding again quickly. “Yes, you should,” she replied, not meeting Zoe’s eyes. “Now, I’d better get back to the zoo hospital – we’re having a delivery of medicine this morning, so I need to check that everything we’ve ordered has arrived. I’ll see you at home, OK, love?”
“OK,” Zoe replied, but her mum was already rushing out of the enclosure, a worried expression on her face. Zoe frowned. “Meep, did you notice that?” she asked. “Mum was acting a bit strangely just then.”
Meep looked puzzled too. “As soon as you mentioned the summer holidays she had a funny look on her face!” he chirped.
Zoe nodded. “The same thing happened last night,” she remembered. “When I got home from school and we were having tea, I asked Mum what we were going to do over the holidays. I want to spend most of the time here at the zoo, but I was hoping one day Mum might take me to the new water park that’s just opened on the other side of town. But she changed the subject straight away!”
Ruby squawked reassuringly at Zoe, who smiled at the macaw. “You’re right, she’s probably just busy,” Zoe replied. “But … well, she’s always busy, and she never usually acts like this.”
Cyril fluttered over to join them and chirped curiously, wanting to help. Zoe quickly explained the situation with her mum, and Cyril thought for a moment, then squawked eagerly.
“That’s a good idea, Cyril – I’ll just ask her what’s wrong when we’re back at the cottage later,” said Zoe. “I’m sure it’s nothing to worry ab—”
But both birds and Meep had turned to look in the same direction, and Meep’s sharp ears had pricked up. Zoe knew that meant the little lemur had heard something! Zoe listened carefully and heard a faint rumbling sound, getting louder and louder. “It might be the delivery van, coming to drop off the medicine Mum was talking about,” she said.
But Meep was shaking his head. “I know what that sound is!” he squeaked. “It’s the Rescue Zoo bus!”
