Zookeeper for a Day Read online

  Contents

  CHAPTER 1 Some vets work at zoos

  CHAPTER 2 Vets can be disappointed

  CHAPTER 3 Vets need to make a good impression

  CHAPTER 4 Vets should always be prepared

  CHAPTER 5 Zoo animals eat a lot!

  CHAPTER 6 Vets need to eat too

  CHAPTER 7 Vets need a lot of help

  CHAPTER 8 Vets have some lovely jobs

  CHAPTER 9 Vets get scared too

  For my wonderful sister,

  Narinda, who loves a good

  adventure as much as I do.

  X R

  I walk into the kitchen for breakfast and find my brother Max is hogging the whole table with little piles of cereal pieces.

  ‘What are you doing, Max?’ I ask.

  ‘Playing with my food,’ he says. ‘It’s a new cereal called Dino Snaps. Every piece is a little dinosaur packed full of fibre!’

  I roll my eyes. He’s obviously used the TV commercial to con Mum into buying them.

  ‘Haven’t you got enough dinosaurs without eating them as well?’ I say, feeling a bit annoyed.

  ‘She got you some too,’ he says, fixing his line of iguanodons.

  I sigh as I open the pantry. As if I care what shape my cereal is.

  ‘Ooh, Zoo Snaps!’ I say. They’re shaped like cute little zoo animals! I turn the box around to look at the back and that’s when I see it – Want to be a zookeeper for a day? It’s a competition where you can win a day at the zoo with a real zookeeper.

  I read the entry conditions out loud. ‘In twenty-five words or less, tell us why you would make a great zookeeper.’

  I whip my Vet Diary out of my back pocket. To be a vet, I have to have had experience with all kinds of animals. This is just what I need!

  My best friend Chelsea, who lives next door, comes over just as I am jotting down some ideas.

  ‘Chelsea, I’m going to win a competition where you get to be a zookeeper for a day, and you get to take a friend!’ I show her the cereal box.

  ‘That’s sooo cool,’ says Chelsea. ‘You’d be perfect for that, Juliet. You’re nearly a vet, so you’d be really helpful.’

  ‘And imagine all the animals that would need grooming at a zoo, Chelsea.’

  Chelsea frowns. ‘I’m not sure about brushing tigers . . .’

  I laugh. ‘I don’t think they’ll put us in with the tigers! Besides, if you’re going to be a world-famous animal trainer and groomer one day, you’ll have to get used to some tricky animals.’

  ‘Imagine how great it would be?’ says Chelsea.

  ‘I know, we just have to win. We can enter as many times as we like, as long as each entry has a barcode from a box of Snaps cereal. Max and I both have one, so that’s two entries already!’

  We start working on our twenty-five-word entry forms right away.

  ‘How does this sound?’ I say after a while.

  Sounds good to me,’ says Chelsea. ‘How many words is it?’

  I count. ‘Twenty-seven.’

  We both look at the page. ‘You could say I’m instead of I am. That would save one word. And maybe just say ten instead of ten years old. That will give us one word left we can use. How about please?’

  ‘Perfect,’ I say, and make the changes.

  We fill in the two entry forms and walk them to the post box in the next street.

  Now all we have to do is wait . . . and eat a whole lot more cereal.

  After weeks of eating lots of Zoo Snaps, finally it’s the day of the competition draw.

  Chelsea and I take the phone into the lounge room and watch animal movies so that we’ll be right there when they call.

  ‘Juliet speaking,’ I say, when the phone rings at 2.00 p.m. Chelsea nods at me. She has her fingers crossed in her lap.

  ‘Oh, hi Gran,’ I say, trying not to sound too disappointed. ‘Mum’s at the surgery and I’m waiting for a very important call. Can we call you back later?’ I shake my head at Chelsea.

  ‘Okay, Gran, love you too.’

  We sit and wait all afternoon, but the phone doesn’t ring again.

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ says Chelsea, as she heads home for dinner. ‘I thought we had a really good chance of winning.’

  Even though it’s Friday night, I go to bed early because I feel really grumpy and Max is annoying me.

  The next morning I wake up to a terrible smell. Curly’s rolled in chook poo again and he’s standing beside my bed wagging his tail. I’m glad Chelsea’s coming over. It looks like the first thing we will be doing is bathing Curly. Again.

  The phone rings as we are up to our armpits in bubbles and dog hair. I’m holding Curly still in the laundry tub while Chelsea massages special apple-scented dog shampoo into his coat.

  Max answers the phone. ‘No, she can’t come to the phone, she’s busy.’ He hangs up.

  ‘Who was that Max?’ says Mum.

  ‘I don’t know,’ says Max, lining up his toy dinosaurs across the table. ‘Someone wanting Juliet.’

  Curly hears Mum’s voice and tries to leap out of the tub, just as the phone rings again. This time Mum gets it.

  She comes into the laundry with a big smile on her face. ‘Juliet, it’s for you. It’s Susan calling from Snaps Cereal.’

  I’m so excited that I let go of Curly and he leaps out of the laundry tub and runs through the house shaking and barking. I can hardly hear the lady on the phone. She tells me that I HAVE WON!

  ‘We won! They say we can go next Saturday,’ I say to Chelsea and Mum as soon as I get off the phone. ‘We’re going to be zookeepers!’ Chelsea and I jump around the laundry. Mum is really excited for us too.

  ‘We’re going to be so busy getting our zoo kits ready in time!’ I say.

  ‘Have you remembered all your different combs?’ I say to Chelsea the night before we go. ‘There will be heaps of different hair types.’

  ‘Uh-huh,’ says Chelsea. ‘And I’ve got a notebook for writing down training tips.’

  ‘Good thinking,’ I say.

  We go to bed early because we have to be at the zoo at 7 a.m. and it’s a long drive. Mum’s going to take us, so Chelsea gets to sleep over.

  Mum looks at my bulging vet kit as I walk out to the car the next morning.

  ‘You know, Juliet, you won’t need that today. The zoo vets will have everything they need.’

  ‘Mum,’ I say. ‘How many times has my vet kit come in handy? I’m not taking any chances. The reason we won is because they know I’m nearly a vet, so the least they will expect is for me to have my own kit. We’re going to impress them with how helpful we can be.’

  ‘Oh, I’m sure you’ll make an impression all right,’ says Dad as he puts Chelsea’s grooming kit into the car.

  When we get to the zoo, Mum comes in with us to sign forms and check when she should pick us up. We’re going to be here until 3 p.m! That’s seven hours of zoo time!

  We start by showing Peter, our zookeeper for the day, our vet kits. He’s so impressed he doesn’t know what to say. He just looks at Mum with big eyes.

  ‘It’s going to be really crazy here today,’ he says to Mum. ‘Sabula, one of our elephants, is due to have her first calf. The vets have been with her all night and it looks like it’s going to happen today.’

  ‘Those vets will have their hands full,’ Mum says.

  ‘It’s lucky Juliet is here,’ says Chelsea.

  The keeper looks a bit confused.

  ‘She’s nearly a vet,’ Chelsea explains.

  We kiss Mum goodbye and turn back to Peter. He gives us both a ‘Zookeeper for a Day’ T-shirt and we race off to put them on.

  ‘Right,’ I say when we get back. ‘Where do we start?’<
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  Peter tells us that the first thing we will be doing is checking the animals are all safe and well after the night. As he speaks I make a list in my Vet Diary.

  Our first stop is the sun bears.

  ‘I didn’t realise how much of a zoo you don’t see when you visit,’ says Chelsea as we walk down the corridors behind all the cages.

  The bears are very happy to see Peter. He taps his hand on the wire mesh and one of them stands up and puts her paws against the wire. Her long hooked nails poke through the wire and Chelsea takes a step back.

  ‘Did you know, Chelsea, that they’re called sun bears because they have the shape of the sun on their necks?’ I say.

  Peter nods and gives me a smile. He opens a container on his hip and scoops out some white gooey stuff with his fingers.

  ‘Ew, what’s that?’ yelps Chelsea. ‘I don’t think I can watch!’

  Peter stares at her for a moment. ‘It’s porridge.’

  ‘Oh,’ smiles Chelsea, biting her lip.

  Peter puts his fingers up against the wire and the sun bear licks the porridge from them.

  ‘Lots of zoo animals are trained to stand up like this, so we can check their undersides for injuries. It’s called target training, ’ he explains, ‘and it gets the animals used to having the vets treat them without being sedated.’

  Chelsea has her notebook out and is writing furiously. ‘I could try that on Princess, my cat,’ she says.

  I bob down to get a closer look at the bears’ tummies as each one stands up. ‘They all look fine, Peter,’ I say.

  Suddenly the door opens and a vet in surgical clothes comes rushing into the room. His name tag says ‘Ben’.

  ‘Peter, we need a hand with the giraffes. Kamu has torn his ear overnight and we need the others out of the way. I’m short on time because Sabula could have the calf at any time.’

  ‘Right,’ says Peter, and we’re off.

  Chelsea and I struggle to keep up as Peter and Ben stride along the path towards the giraffe enclosure.

  ‘Wow, I thought the bears were big!’ gasps Chelsea when we get there. ‘They are so beautiful up close.’

  The giraffes are bunched in a corner. Their long, graceful necks cross over each other as they look at us. The largest one has a small patch of blood on his ear. It’s hard to see from all the way down here.

  ‘I don’t know what he’s cut it on or how bad it is, but I need to take a look,’ says Ben. ‘Can you get the others down the end and we’ll try to get Kamu into the crush?’

  ‘Sure,’ says Peter, and we trot off after him.

  ‘Why would they want to crush him?’ whispers Chelsea.

  ‘A crush is a special narrow pen where they can stop the animal from moving around, Chelsea,’ Peter says, laughing. She looks very relieved.

  Peter grabs some carrots and climbs up to a tall platform. ‘You can come up with me,’ he calls down, ‘but one at a time.’

  ‘You go up, Chelsea,’ I say. ‘I want to watch the vet.’

  I walk back to where some other keepers are helping to separate Kamu from the giraffes and herd him into a small pen. I can’t help but peek into Ben’s vet kit lying open on the ground. It’s very impressive and has instruments I haven’t seen in Mum’s surgery. I might need to get myself some new supplies.

  I hear Chelsea giggling and look over to see her on the high platform with Peter, feeding carrots to the giraffes. Their long blue tongues wrap around the carrots and pull them into their mouths. ‘Ew yuk!’ she squeaks, as giraffe slobber drips on her shorts. She won’t be happy about that.

  Ben has climbed to the platform beside the crush and is now looking at Kamu’s ear. Another keeper is feeding carrots to the patient and a vet nurse stands by to pass equipment up to Ben.

  ‘Ah, I see what the problem is,’ says Ben to the nurse below. ‘He’s got a huge splinter. He must have been rubbing his head against the trees or something. Can you pass me my tweezers, please?’

  The vet nurse looks around in the kit. ‘Can you remember where you put them? They’re not in the usual spot.’

  ‘Oh, blast. I left them in the steriliser after I stitched that water buffalo. Can you run and get them?’

  ‘I have tweezers!’ I say, throwing my vet kit open. ‘And I sterilised them in my mum’s surgery just before we came.’

  They all look over, as if noticing me for the first time.

  ‘I’m Juliet,’ I say, shrugging. ‘I’m nearly a vet.’

  ‘Well, Juliet, nearly a vet,’ says the vet nurse, smiling, ‘you’d better take your sterile tweezers up to Ben, really a vet.’

  I cannot believe my luck! I told mum my vet kit would come in handy. I just knew it. I can’t get the smile off my face as I climb the ladder and pass the vet my tweezers.

  I’m about to climb down when Ben says, ‘You can’t leave now. This could end up being a two-vet job, you know!’

  I look over at Chelsea brushing a giraffe’s neck and give her a tiny wave and a huge smile. Right now, all our dreams have just come true.

  Ben carefully pulls out the large splinter (I’m allowed to keep it!) and I dab some antiseptic cream on Kamu’s ear before we climb down the ladder.

  I proudly return my tweezers to my kit and put the splinter in a specimen jar, then I snap the kit shut.

  ‘Well, it’s a lucky thing we have another vet on duty today,’ smiles Ben. ‘We might need a hand if this baby elephant decides to finally make an entrance today.’ He ruffles my hair, picks up his kit and heads off.

  ‘I can’t wait to be a real vet,’ I whisper under my breath.

  ‘Okay,’ says Peter, appearing beside me. ‘We’d better clean out these enclosures before we let the animals out of their night stalls. The zoo will open soon and the visitors aren’t going to like it if all they can see are piles of dung.’

  I whip out my diary and turn to the page of zookeeper jobs.

  Peter hands us each a scoop and a bucket as we enter the red panda enclosure. The panda looks at us through the bars of its night cage as we walk around scooping up droppings. Peter follows us, raking the sand.

  ‘Chelsea, if you keep holding your breath, you’re going to faint!’ I laugh.

  She says nothing, but she shakes her head quickly. It’s hard to speak when your cheeks are full of air.

  ‘I know,’ says Peter to the gorgeous panda as it looks out at us. ‘We’re a bit late with breakfast this morning, but the girls are going to get it for you as soon as we’re finished.’

  I grab a specimen jar out of my vet kit and use a stick to poke some red panda poo into it.

  I look up to see Peter staring at me with an odd look on his face.

  ‘I have a scat collection,’ I explain.

  ‘I have droppings from twenty-three different animals already at home. You know, you can learn an awful lot about an animal from its poo.’

  ‘Well, I’ve never met one like you before,’ says Peter, shaking his head.

  I smile. I think he likes me.

  We head into the zoo kitchen and it is super busy. The amount of food that is being cut up is incredible.

  Peter can see we’re amazed. There are huge tubs of fruit, vegetables, pellets and grain spread out around us, and each staff member is carefully reading clipboards and weighing amounts of food before putting them into labelled trays.

  ‘Will they eat all of this in one week?’ I ask.

  ‘Oh, no,’ laughs Peter. ‘This is just for one day! There’s also a meat locker for all the carnivores and an insect room where the maggots, mealworms, crickets and other insects are raised.’

  I whip out my Vet Diary as Peter keeps talking.

  ‘I’m going to leave you girls here to help prepare some meals for the animals while I go and finish raking and cleaning enclosures,’ says Peter.

  ‘Oh, hang on, Peter,’ I say, reaching for some specimen jars from my vet kit. ‘Can you get me some more scat samples, please?’

  Peter looks at me for
a minute, then smiles and takes the jars. I bet he’s going to want to start his own scat collection now I’ve given him the idea.

  ‘Please don’t make me touch a maggot, Juliet,’ whispers Chelsea in my ear.

  Chelsea and I help the zoo staff with preparing the food for the red panda, penguins, sun bears, tamarins, otters, iguanas and the bamboo partridges. I make a page for each in my diary for when we go to visit them so I can write down any facts.

  Whilst Chelsea cuts the fruit and vegetables into very neat little pieces, I go with a lady called Stacey to the room where all the insects are being bred.

  The smell is disgusting! I pull a face and slap my hand over my mouth. It’s lucky that Chelsea didn’t come too.

  ‘Gotta get used to bad smells if you want to work with animals,’ says Stacey gruffly. We scoop some mealworms (which are not actually worms at all, but beetle larvae) into little dishes and collect some fly pupae (these are maggots in cocoons turning into flies!). We also grab a couple of containers of crickets.

  ‘Not many animals actually like maggots,’ says Stacey as I peer into the tank full of writhing white fly larvae, ‘but lots of them love the pupae.’

  I couldn’t imagine eating anything worse.

  As we come out of the insect room, a man returns with a large tub of porridge.

  ‘Did she eat anything?’ asks Stacey.

  ‘No,’ says the big man. ‘Ben hopes she’s not far off now, so fingers crossed. She’s having a lot of trouble.’

  Chelsea and I know they are talking about the baby elephant being born. ‘Imagine if we got to see a newborn elephant calf !’ I say.

  Stacey overhears me. ‘They won’t let you anywhere near that calf today. The public won’t see it till the end of the week.’ She walks back into the insect room.

  ‘We’re not the public!’ says Chelsea. ‘Juliet, you’re nearly a vet. You’ve already helped out once today.’

  Peter comes back in and we load up our cart to go and feed some animals.