Outback Adventure Read online

  ‘You hold his tail, Jarrod,’ I say. ‘I think I can get to his neck from the side here, without us having to uncover his head.’

  It’s a bit tricky to work around each other without letting the lizard go, but we manage to peel the side of the jumper up enough to see where the grass is caught.

  ‘Hold him still,’ I whisper as I edge my scissors in to do the job.

  I snip the wiry grass and gently start to pull it free from around the lizard’s neck.

  Jarrod pulls the bunch of tumbleweed away from under the jumper.

  ‘When I say go, we all need to jump back together. One, two, three, go!’

  We all leap back as I pull the jumper off the hissing lizard. It darts forward and scurries up the nearest tree in seconds.

  ‘Well, I never!’ says Grandma.

  ‘I guess that’s why she’s nearly a vet,’ says Jarrod, smiling.

  ‘I guess so,’ says Grandma. ‘We’d better hurry back now. The others will be back soon and a vet certainly wouldn’t want to miss them bringing the cattle in.’

  As we come back up the driveway we see a cloud of dust in the nearby paddocks. The muster is back!

  ‘Come on, Chelsea and Jarrod,’ I say when we pull up at the house. ‘Let’s sit up on the fence to watch them come in.’

  We all climb up on the rails of the stockyards. The dogs are running like mad from side to side, keeping the cattle in a group.

  The gates are open and the cattle head towards us with hooves pounding the dry earth. Uncle Stan cracks his whip high above their heads.

  ‘I’ve never seen so many cows!’ yells Chelsea over the noise of the herd and the motorbikes. More and more cattle are driven into the huge holding paddock. They’ll stay there until the calves can be separated from their mothers.

  We wave to Mum and Uncle Stan and Grandpa. I look behind me as one of the dogs shoots under the fence barking. Suddenly, I lose my balance and fall heavily onto the ground inside the yard.

  ‘Juliet!’ screams Chelsea.

  I’m winded and can’t get up. The terrified faces of Jarrod and Chelsea look down from above me.

  I can see the strong brown legs of a thousand cattle coming thundering towards me and I start to cry.

  Suddenly, Jarrod jumps down beside me and waves his arms madly at the cattle, yelling, ‘Get back! Get back!’

  He pulls me up by the arm and helps me climb over the fence to Chelsea. I’m shaking as I fall onto the grass on the other side of the fence. Jarrod clambers over after me.

  Uncle Stan and Grandpa have seen what’s happening, and they leap off their motorbikes and rush over towards us.

  ‘Are you all right, love?’ says Uncle Stan, helping to steady me.

  Chelsea is busily brushing the dust off my clothes.

  I nod and try to smile at him, but I’m still very shaken.

  ‘Well,’ says Grandpa, giving Jarrod a pat on the back, ‘you were very brave there young man. You’re nearly a cattleman by the looks of you!’

  Jarrod smiles and Uncle Stan ruffles his hair.

  I give Jarrod a huge hug. Vets love working with cattlemen.

  Later that night as we all sit by the campfire again, I show Jarrod my list of the animals he’s met and he beams when he sees the last entry.

  ‘Can I keep this, Juliet?’ he says. ‘I’d like to add to it and post it back to you one day.’

  ‘Sure you can,’ I say as I tear it from my Vet Diary.

  ‘And could I have that list of animals that can live in apartments, too?’ he says.

  The look on Aunty Sophie’s face when she hears this makes us all burst out laughing.

  I can’t wait to show Jarrod how to set up his apartment for a pet of his own!

  I’ve never actually been to Longreach, so when I wrote this book I had to try to find out as much as I could about it. I took my chances and started randomly ringing people who lived there to ask them to describe some things for me. I was very lucky to find a station owner called Leone from a working cattle station called Sunnyside. She was a fantastic help, giving me so much detail about the hard work that comes with a drought. What people say about country folk being helpful certainly seems to be true. I am definitely going to visit Longreach sometime!

  As a little girl, I always wanted to be a vet. I had mice, guinea pigs, dogs, goldfish, sea snails, sea monkeys and tadpoles as pets. I loved looking after my friends’ pets when they went on holidays, and every Saturday I helped out at a pet store. Now that I’m all grown up, I have the best job in the world. I get to draw lots of animals for ­children’s books and for animated TV shows. In my studio I have two dogs, Jed and Evie, and two cats, Bosco and Kobe, who love to watch me draw.

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia

  India | New Zealand | South Africa | China

  Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies

  whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

  First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2015

  Text copyright © Rebecca Johnson, 2015

  Illustrations copyright © Kyla May Productions, 2015

  The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  Cover and text design by Karen Scott © Penguin Group (Australia)

  Illustrations by Kyla May Productions

  puffin.com.au

  ISBN: 978-1-76014-068-7

  THE BEGINNING

  Let the conversation begin...

  Follow the Penguin Twitter

  Keep up-to-date with all our stories YouTube

  Pin ‘Penguin Books’ to your Pinterest

  Like ‘Penguin Books’ on Facebook

  Find out more about the author and

  discover more stories like this at penguin.com.au