by Justin D'Ath
She seemed to hear it, too.
As the noise in Jordan’s head grew louder, it began to sound less like a crying human baby and more like a crying animal baby. And not just like one animal baby, but lots of them.
‘I can hear it!’ Harry cried suddenly. ‘It sounds like puppies!’
Agent M woofed, and raced ahead.
The other two MF agents started running, too. Jordan no longer needed Harry’s help.
They found Myrtle next to a giant tree. There was a hole under its roots. A tiny brown puppy was peering out. Myrtle lay down on her belly with her head on the ground. Her head was bigger than the puppy. She made a whimpering sound. The puppy answered with a little yip, then came wobbling out into the daylight on its short, stubby legs. One by one, seven more dingo pups came out. They clambered all over Myrtle like she was a big furry climbing castle.
Agent H turned to Agent J. ‘Code Red?’ he asked.
He was talking about the Mission Fox Danger Codes. Code Red was the second highest.
‘Code Red!’ said Jordan.
They gave each other the MF high ten.
Mission Accomplished!
Jordan called Wildlife Rescue on the FoxPhone. Rachael answered.
‘This is Jordan from Mission Fox,’ he said. ‘Have you let the mother dingo go yet?’
‘Not yet,’ said Rachael. ‘We’re at the animal clinic in town. The vet’s giving her a health check. Then Matt and I will drive her to the release site. We’ll be leaving in half an hour.’
‘You might need to come back to our grandparents’ farm first,’ Jordan said.
‘Why?’
‘We found her puppies.’
Rachael whooped in delight. ‘You guys are legends!’
‘You’ve said that twice before,’ Jordan told her.
‘Triple legends!’ Rachael said.
Mission Fox was in the newspaper.
DINGOES, NOT PUMA!
A sixty-year-old local mystery was solved this week when twin brothers Harry and Jordan Fox (9) caught the so-called ‘Nullambine Puma’.
‘And guess what?’ Harry told our reporter. ‘It was dingoes!’ said Jordan. Harry and Jordan run an animal rescue service called Mission Fox. When they heard that something was killing sheep on the property next door to their grandparents’ dairy farm, the self-styled wildlife warriors set out to capture it.
‘They built the trap from an old calf pen,’ said the twins’ grandfather, Bill Corcoran. ‘We didn’t really think they would catch anything,’ said grandmother, Emily.
The boys were just as surprised as their grandparents when they found a live male dingo in their trap on Monday morning.
Yesterday they caught a female and eight healthy dingo puppies. Rachael Landers, from Nullambine Wildlife Rescue, praised the boys for their efforts.
‘If Mission Fox hadn’t caught the dingoes, they might have been shot or poisoned,’ she said.
The dingo family has been relocated to a secret location, away from any farm animals.
Thanks to Harry and Jordan, or ‘Mission Fox’ as they like to be called, residents of Nullambine can now sleep soundly at night, knowing that there are no pumas on the prowl.
‘We’re famous!’ said Harry, reading the newspaper story for the third time.
Jordan frowned. ‘But we’re supposed to be secret agents.’
‘We can be famous secret agents,’ Harry said.
‘You can’t be famous and secret,’ said Jordan.
‘Can so.’
‘Can’t!’
Nana stuck her head in the door. ‘What are you two arguing about?’
‘It’s a secret,’ said the famous twins.
When they came to collect the dingo pups, Rachael and Matt told the twins they should set their trap again. Just in case there were any more dingoes.
‘It’s unlikely,’ Matt said. ‘But you never know.’
The Mission Fox agents checked the trap every morning. But they didn’t catch anything else. After four days, the latest bone was getting a bit old. Nana was sick of cooking roasts just so the twins could bait their trap.
Jordan had an idea. He remembered the bones he and Harry had seen in the cave on Mount Nullambine.
‘Let’s use a rabbit,’ he said.
‘Cool!’ said Harry. ‘But won’t it get out?’
‘A dead rabbit, stupid!’ said Jordan.
There were lots of rabbits living in the blackberries just down the road from Nana and Pop’s. Often they got hit by cars. The twins found one that looked new. They put it in an old chook-feed bag and carried it all the way up to the back of the farm.
It didn’t work. Apart from the dead rabbit and a few flies, nothing was in the trap the next morning.
‘I guess Matt was right,’ Harry said. ‘We caught all the dingoes.’
Jordan looked into the forest on the other side of the fence. ‘Let’s give it one more try,’ he said.
The next morning when the Mission Fox agents reached the top of the first hill, they stopped to rest as usual. Jordan got out the FoxScope and switched on Mega Zoom.
‘The door’s closed!’ he said.
They let Agent M off her leash and ran after her across the wide green paddock. Myrtle got there first. She circled the trap, then came charging back to the twins with her tail between her legs. The fur along her back was standing on end.
‘What’s wrong with her?’ Harry puffed.
Jordan stopped to pat Myrtle. She was whimpering and shaking. Harry went sprinting ahead in his GoFaster sneakers.
‘Be careful, Agent H!’ Jordan called.
Harry reached the trap and ran around the other side to look in the door.
Then Jordan heard two sounds, almost at the same time.
One came from outside the trap: ‘Shishkebab!’
The other one came from inside the trap: ROARRRR!
Jordan, Harry and Myrtle ran back to get Nana and Pop. The twins and their grandparents crammed into the front of the truck. Myrtle stayed at the house – for once, she didn’t want to come with them.
Pop stopped the truck a short distance from the puma trap. They all got out. Harry led the way, then Pop, then Nana. Jordan stayed near the truck because his eyes were itchy and there was a tickle in his throat. (At Nullambine Primary School there was a list of all the children who had allergies. Jordan was on it. It said he was allergic to stinging insects and cats. (It should have said pumas, too.)
Pop, Nana and Harry looked into the trap. The puma let out a low, rumbling growl – it was a really spooky sound.
‘Poor thing!’ said Nana. ‘It’s scared to death.’
‘What will happen to it?’ Harry asked.
‘Well, they might want it at Nullambine zoo,’ Pop said.
‘It would pine away and die at the zoo,’ said Nana.
‘Then I suppose it will have to be put to sleep.’
‘You mean killed?’ cried Jordan, who could hear what they were saying.
Pop turned to him. ‘It isn’t a native animal, Jordan,’ he said, getting his name right for once. ‘And pumas are dangerous.’
‘It was dingoes that killed Mr Nelson’s sheep!’ Jordan said.
‘We don’t know that for sure,’ said Pop.
Nana crouched to get a better look. ‘It looks really old, Bill. I don’t think it could kill something as big as a sheep.’
‘All it eats is small stuff like rabbits,’ Harry said. ‘We went into its cave and saw lots of little bones.’
‘What?’ gasped Nana.
‘We were looking for the dingo pups,’ Jordan explained. ‘The puma was there. It could have hurt us if it wanted, but it left us alone.’
Nana and Pop looked at each other.
‘What do you think, Emily?’ asked Pop.
Nana didn’t answer. She looked at Harry, then at Jordan.
‘How good are you boys at keeping secrets?’ she asked.
They all got back into the truck. Agent P drove sl
owly forward until they were parked right next to the puma trap. He had a piece of fencing wire with its end bent like a hook. Reaching out his window, Agent P hooked the wire through the top of the cage door and lifted it open. Then he quickly shut his window.
It took a moment for anything to happen.
‘Maybe it’s gone to sleep,’ whispered Agent H.
‘Shhhh!’ said Agent N.
There were rustling noises from the trap. A big whiskery head came out, followed by a long tawny body. The puma was very old. There was grey in its fur and bare patches on its elbows. It limped slowly to the fence and slipped between the wires.
Just before it reached the forest, the puma turned and stared back at the four people in the truck.
For a moment it seemed to look Agent J right in the eye. It didn’t look mean or scary, it just looked like a tired old animal going home.
‘Goodbye,’ Jordan mind-whispered.
But he was too late. The puma had slipped away as quickly and as quietly as if it had never been there.
As if it was just a rumour.
VISIT JUSTIN D’ATH’S WEBSITE AT WWW.JUSTINDATH.COM
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Text copyright © Justin D’Ath, 2012
Illustrations copyright © Heath McKenzie, 2012
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