Saving Itsy Bitsy Read online

  They slipped into their science lesson just as it was about to begin.

  ‘Where have you been?’ said Petra, her face filled with concern. ‘Mrs Bristow wasn’t happy that you weren’t at breakfast.’

  ‘What did you tell her?’ said Hannah.

  ‘That you all had diarrhoea,’ she giggled.

  ‘Thanks . . . I think,’ said Talika.

  ‘Quiet, please,’ said Mrs Parry, their science teacher. ‘Today we’re going to do a quiz on parasites, and revise what you have been learning about dairy cows.’

  The girls usually loved science, but the double lesson felt like the longest of their lives. Abbey looked over at Milly. Mr McPhail was right, she did look really sad.

  As the bell sounded the girls bolted out the door, right into the principal, Ms Sterling.

  ‘Girls!’ she said. ‘Be careful where you’re going please.’

  ‘Yes, Ms Sterling. Sorry, Ms Sterling,’ said Abbey, unable to hide the impatience in her voice.

  ‘I do hope the hurry is for a good purpose,’

  she said, eyeing the trio suspiciously.

  ‘We’re racing to the library to get a book for our assignment,’ said Hannah.

  Ms Sterling frowned. ‘The library is that way,’ she said, pointing in the opposite direction.

  ‘We’re so stupid,’ laughed Abbey, slapping her forehead a little too hard. ‘How are we still getting lost around this place?’ Both Talika and Hannah shrugged sheepishly.

  Ms Sterling just sighed and stared at them.

  ‘Oh, Ms Sterling.’ It was a voice they all recognised. Hannah’s big sister, Elizabeth, was the school captain and she was never far behind the principal.

  Abbey saw their chance and motioned for the girls to slip away. When they raced back down to Henrietta’s stall, Dr Brown was in the feed room with Mr McPhail. Abbey knocked quietly on the door. Mr McPhail nodded for them to come in.

  ‘She’s very small and weak,’ said Dr Brown. ‘It’s going to be really tricky to raise her.’ The vet was holding the towel with the tiny piglet inside. She folded the edge back so they could see the baby again.

  ‘She’s so tiny,’ whispered Hannah, sadly.

  ‘Does she have any chance?’ asked Talika.

  ‘Dr Brown thinks there’s a very slim chance that she could make it,’ said Mr McPhail, ‘but she’s going to need a lot of care, something no one has time for.’

  ‘But we have to try!’ said Abbey.

  Suddenly there was another tap at the door of the feed stall. It was already crowded, but as Mrs Parry and Miss Beckett entered they all squashed in together. It felt like some kind of secret meeting.

  They peered over the vet’s shoulder at the dear little baby piglet lying cradled in the towel. She looked at them all through a half-closed eye.

  ‘We had to come and see for ourselves,’ said Mrs Parry to Mr McPhail. ‘When you said she was small on the phone, I had no idea she would be this small.’

  ‘Mr McPhail, you said no one has time to give this piglet the care it needs,’ said Abbey, ‘and you’re probably right, but maybe between all of us we could share the task?’

  Dr Brown smiled. ‘Abbey’s not giving up,’ she said to the animal husbandry teacher.

  ‘I told you she wouldn’t,’ he said.

  ‘More baby piglets die from being cold than from anything else,’ said Dr Brown in a matter-of-fact way. ‘So the first thing we need to do is make sure she’s kept really warm and very clean. We don’t want her to get an infection, so we should clean off any dirt first of all.’

  ‘I’ll get a basin and some hot water,’ said Mr McPhail.

  ‘Great,’ said Dr Brown. ‘We’ll bathe her in warm, soapy water. I’ve seen many a limp little newborn perk up after a bit of a bath and a rub. We’re also going to need some clean blankets and a pouch she can crawl into might be good.’

  ‘I can get those,’ said Miss Beckett, cheerfully. ‘I’ve got just the thing!’ She dashed out of the room.

  ‘I have some formula for piglets in my four-wheel drive and a couple of other things we’ll need,’ said Dr Brown, passing the piglet to Mrs Parry. ‘I’ll grab them.’

  Mr McPhail called out that the bath was ready. When the vet joined them in the office Mrs Parry carefully unwrapped the piglet and Dr Brown lifted her into the bowl.

  The little piglet’s eyes opened when she felt the lovely warm water surround her. She made a small grunting noise.

  ‘Now, girls,’ said Dr Brown. ‘When you bathe a piglet you need to pay particular attention to her little hoofs, ears, eyes and the sides of her face. But you must not get any water in her ears at all.’

  Dr Brown showed the girls how to sponge her down.

  ‘What are we going to call her?’ said Talika, stroking the back of the piglet’s head as she soaked in her little bath.

  ‘Well, Abbey?’ said Mr McPhail. ‘You’re the one fighting for her cause. What will her name be?’

  ‘Bitsy,’ said Abbey, hugging the now clean piglet to her chest in a warm towel. ‘You know, like itsy bitsy.’

  ‘Bitsy,’ they all repeated in agreement.

  Miss Beckett arrived a few minutes later carrying an armful of linen. ‘Some old flannelette sheets,’ she said. She held up a fluffy drawstring bag. This is my old hot-water-bottle cover. I always knew it would come to good use.’

  ‘Perfect,’ said Dr Brown.

  She slid Bitsy into the bag and gathered the warm folds around her. The piglet’s little head poked out from the surrounding fluff.

  ‘Now,’ said Dr Brown, ‘for the first few days, we’re going to feed her a bottle whenever she’ll take it, but if she starts to come good, I’d like to get her used to a spoon as soon as possible. It makes it much easier for weaning later on if she can’t be reunited with her mother.’

  ‘When,’ said Hannah.

  They all looked at her, not understanding her meaning.

  ‘Not if she starts to come good, when.’

  Abbey nodded. She couldn’t have agreed more.

  ‘She’s very weak,’ said Dr Brown, ‘so we can’t force her to take the milk. It’s better just to get a few drops into her as often as possible until she can take more. You mustn’t squeeze the milk down her throat, or you’ll risk getting milk in her lungs.’

  ‘What would happen then?’ said Talika.

  ‘She’d probably get pneumonia, which would not be an easy thing to treat in such a small piglet.’

  Abbey had seen a calf with pneumonia once and it was pretty awful.

  ‘Before we start feeding her formula, it would be best if we could give her a little of her mother’s colostrum first.’

  ‘What’s colostrum?’ asked Talika.

  ‘For the first few days, before a mammal’s milk is produced in great quantities, the mother produces a secretion called colostrum, which is very rich in antibodies and helps her babies fight off infection,’ said Dr Brown.

  ‘But how will you get it?’ said Hannah.

  ‘Well,’ said Dr Brown with a half-smile on her face as she produced some latex gloves and a small bowl, ‘Mr McPhail and I are going to attempt to milk a pig.’

  ‘Now this, I’ve got to see,’ laughed Abbey.

  Henrietta lifted her head and grunted when Dr Brown and Mr McPhail entered the pig stall where she lay.

  ‘There, there, Henrietta,’ soothed the teacher.

  ‘No one’s going to hurt your piglets.’

  ‘Can you sit by her head and try to keep her calm and lying down? We’ll need her to relax,’ said the vet to Mr McPhail as she knelt quietly at the other end of the enormous sow, surrounded by cheeky piglets.

  A few of the piglets were still suckling. Mr McPhail spoke quietly and gently to the pig as he stroked her cheek.

  ‘It’s lucky she’s such a calm mother,’ said Dr Brown. ‘Most new mothers aren’t so easily soothed.’

  Dr Brown shuffled forwards on her knees, holding the bowl, until she was kneeling beh
ind the rows of piglets. Mr McPhail had cleverly placed Henrietta’s ear back over her eye. Slowly, Dr Brown grasped a teat that was piglet free and gently pulled it downwards. Henrietta jerked her leg and grunted crossly, but then lay still again. Carefully, the vet tugged at the teat and small amounts of milk dripped into the bowl. It took swift work from both Mr McPhail and the vet to keep the other piglets out of the way.

  ‘That looks easier than I thought it would,’ said Mrs Parry, but she spoke a little too soon.

  Suddenly, Henrietta jumped to her feet, sending the bowl and piglets scuttling in every direction.

  ‘Blast,’ said Dr Brown, wiping pig milk from her shirt and chin.

  ‘Perhaps if we feed her, you can milk her standing up,’ said Mr McPhail, trying to stifle a snigger.

  ‘Perhaps,’ said Dr Brown, grinning and seeing the funny side.

  Henrietta plunged her head into the trough as Mrs Parry filled it.

  The vet crouched down and attempted the milking process all over again, which was even harder now as the piglets were all scampering about and trying to stay close to their mother. Apart from the odd stomp of her foot, Henrietta was too busy scoffing her food to care about what was happening below her belly, and the bowl was soon half-filled.

  ‘This will be plenty for the first twenty-four hours,’ said Dr Brown. ‘We’ll put it in a sterile bottle in the fridge and just warm a little as we need it. Then we can start Bitsy on the formula when she begins to come good.’ She smiled at Hannah as she said it.

  The girls and their teachers watched as Dr Brown showed them how to warm the milk in the smallest bottle they had ever seen then hold it to Bitsy’s little snout. A tiny drip of milk hung from the end of the teat, and dribbled onto the end of her nose.

  ‘Come on, Bitsy,’ said Mrs Parry. ‘You’ll love this stuff.’

  Bitsy closed her eyes and didn’t move. The milk dripped from her snout, no bigger than a five-cent piece, and onto the towel. The same happened with the next drip.

  ‘Come on, Bitsy,’ pleaded Abbey, giving her a tickle behind an ear no bigger than a thumbnail.

  One eye opened, and a little pink tongue came out and licked the third drop of milk from her nose.

  ‘She took some,’ said Miss Beckett, sounding as excited as Abbey felt. ‘Do it again, Abbey!’

  Dr Brown dripped more and again the tiny tongue licked at it when Abbey tickled the piglet’s ear. The vet tried to squeeze the teat gently into Bitsy’s mouth, but she wasn’t ready. She seemed to have drifted off to sleep again.

  ‘So,’ said Dr Brown, ‘give her a little time to sleep then try again. Hopefully, after a while she’ll take more and more. You can’t force her though. When she finally associates the teat with food, she will take it.’

  The bell signalling the end of the break rang.

  ‘We better go,’ said Hannah. ‘We’ve got drama.’

  ‘Miss Beckett and I will look after Bitsy and try to feed her again,’ said Mrs Parry. ‘Come to the lab at lunchtime and we’ll work out what to do next.’

  The girls gave Bitsy a gentle stroke goodbye then raced back to class.

  ‘A talent quest?’ said Talika, with a look of horror on her face. Their drama lesson had ended with some very scary news.

  ‘I can’t sing, dance or play any instruments,’ said Abbey.

  ‘I played the violin in primary school, until my parents begged me to stop,’ laughed Hannah.

  ‘Have they always had a talent quest at the school?’ asked Talika.

  ‘Elizabeth never mentioned one,’ said Hannah, ‘but then, to be perfectly honest, I don’t listen to everything Elizabeth says.’

  ‘Mr Grimmel said everyone has to do something in it,’ said Talika, looking very worried.

  ‘Come on,’ said Abbey, picking up her books. ‘We’ll talk about it once we’ve checked on Bitsy.’

  When they walked into the science lab, Mrs Parry was writing something on the board. Abbey looked around, but couldn’t see Bitsy anywhere.

  ‘Is Bitsy all right?’ said Abbey, suddenly feeling concerned herself.

  ‘She’s fine,’ said Mrs Parry, smiling and patting her stomach gently.

  Hannah looked horrified, and Mrs Parry laughed.

  ‘Oh, Hannah, don’t look so worried. I haven’t eaten her! She’s under my coat, in her pouch.’

  Mrs Parry held back the side of her coat to reveal the fluffy bag tied snugly around her waist with a scarf.

  ‘It’s the funniest thing,’ she said. ‘Watch this.’

  Mrs Parry took the bag with Bitsy in it and laid it on a towel in a box beside her desk. After a moment, the bag started moving and the piglet squealed in a very unhappy manner. As soon as Mrs Parry picked it up and held her close, the squealing stopped.

  ‘She likes cuddles!’ said Abbey. ‘That’s so cute.’

  ‘Well, it’s all very well to like cuddles,’ said Mrs Parry, ‘but both Miss Beckett and I have to go to a staff meeting while you’re on lunch break, and I’m just not sure how Ms Sterling will feel hearing piggy squeals coming from under the table. You girls are going to have to babysit.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Hannah. ‘Do you want to go first, Abbey?’

  Abbey couldn’t wait. Mrs Parry helped the girls to tie the scarf around Abbey’s middle and then button her blazer over the top.

  ‘How do I look?’ Abbey said, standing up straight and pushing her stomach forwards.

  ‘Like you’ve been eating too much of Mrs Bristow’s meatloaf!’ laughed Talika.

  ‘As if,’ said Abbey, pulling a face. ‘That stuff would make you lose weight.’

  ‘Now, girls, I have to run. She’s not long ago had a few more drops of milk, but Dr Brown said that whenever she gets restless, try her on a little more. Do you remember how to do it?’

  The girls nodded and Mrs Parry handed Hannah the bottle of milk in a warmer.

  ‘Just a few drips until she licks it up, okay? Don’t force her.’

  Hannah nodded, and Mrs Parry raced from the room, looking at her watch.

  ‘I am famished,’ said Talika. ‘We missed breakfast and morning tea because we were with Bitsy; we can’t miss lunch too.’

  ‘Do you think anyone will notice the lump under my coat?’ said Abbey.

  ‘She hardly makes a bump at all,’ said Hannah. ‘We have to eat though, or Bitsy will survive and we’ll all starve!’

  Abbey tried to look casual as they entered the dining hall. Mrs Bristow was in her usual position behind the counter, making sure nobody got a crumb more than they were supposed to. Mrs Bristow was the head of the dining hall and most of the time seemed like she was in a pretty bad mood. Abbey had given her the nickname ‘Chuckles’ when they first met her. As they lined up behind the other girls, the rolls and drinks were given out. Abbey held her hand lightly over her blazer.

  ‘Where were you at breakfast and morning tea, ladies?’ snapped Mrs Bristow in her loud, accusing manner when Hannah stepped up to be served.

  ‘Um, we weren’t well,’ stammered Hannah.

  ‘Is that right?’ said Mrs Bristow. ‘Well, I’ll be checking with Miss Beckett about that, won’t I? I very much doubt she would have forgotten the rules about letting me know if a student is missing a meal, let alone two.’

  Hannah nodded and took her tray. Talika grabbed her lunch and darted towards the furthest table.

  Abbey stepped up to the counter, her hand still pressed lightly against her tummy.

  ‘What’s under your coat?’ bellowed Mrs Bristow.

  Abbey nearly dropped her tray. The whole dining hall froze. Every eye was on Abbey.

  ‘Pardon me?’ said Abbey.

  ‘You heard me. What’s under your coat?’

  The room was dead silent.

  Abbey’s hand pressed slightly harder against her jacket and she stared directly at Mrs Bristow. She was about to say something when a surprisingly loud and long grunt came from beneath the layers of material.

  Abbey’
s face went bright red. The girls around Abbey couldn’t help but laugh behind their hands.

  Chuckles’s eyes bulged and the little veins at her temples popped up.

  ‘Abbey Mason, you should know that Willowvale Girls do not break wind in public!’

  Abbey looked confused for a second. ‘I am sorry, Mrs Bristow,’ she said politely, regaining her composure. ‘It’s just that I have a dreadfully upset stomach. I had diarrhoea this morning.’

  ‘Spare us the details,’ snapped Mrs Bristow, screwing up her nose. ‘Take your roll and eat it in your room. I don’t want your germs in my dining hall.’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Bristow!’ said Abbey, trying to keep the grin off her face. She slipped past her friends on the way to the door, and Hannah popped the tiny bottle of warm milk in her pocket.

  ‘See you there,’ whispered Abbey.

  When Talika and Hannah entered their dorm room, Abbey was sitting cross-legged on her bed, with a little bundle in her lap.

  ‘Look,’ she whispered, ‘she’s trying to lick even more.’

  ‘Oh, you clever little thing, Bitsy!’ said Hannah, stroking the piglet’s head.

  ‘Still no luck getting her to take the teat though?’ said Talika.

  Abbey shook her head.

  ‘Let’s take her down to show Mr McPhail and visit the other piglets,’ said Hannah. ‘We’ve still got time until the next bell goes.’

  Mr McPhail was very pleased to see Bitsy lapping the milk. The girls told him about how she liked to be cuddled.

  ‘Dr Brown is popping in on her way back from Darrowby this afternoon to check on Henrietta, so I might keep the piglet here and get her to give Bitsy another check-up,’ he said.

  ‘You’ll have to cuddle Bitsy the whole time,’ said Abbey.

  Mr McPhail rolled his eyes, but tucked the little piglet’s pouch inside his shirt.

  The girls hung over the rail and looked at the huge sow and her other piglets in the sty. The other newborns seemed very big compared to Bitsy, but they were so cute, starting to totter around the pen now, making happy little grunting noises.