Zookeeper for a Day

by Rebecca Johnson

  ‘Time to step in, I think,’ says Ben, the vet I helped with the giraffes. He and three other men slowly climb into the yard. The mother elephant looks at them warily and swings her trunk from side to side. She keeps looking down at her baby.

  Peter passes them a large piece of fabric.

  ‘Good girl, Sabula,’ says Ben, as he walks over to the mother and strokes her cheek. ‘Let us help you get this baby to her feet.’

  The four men gently pass the fabric under the calf’s tummy and hold one corner each. The mother elephant lays her trunk on her baby’s back. I’m sure she knows they are trying to help.

  When Ben nods they all start to lift, and slowly she is drawn up to stand. ‘Let’s hold her for a minute until she gets her legs steady,’ says Ben.

  We all stand and wait.

  The calf steadies herself then slowly takes a tiny step, then another. Her little trunk swings and knots and twists and pokes. It’s like she doesn’t know how to control it, but it’s so cute to watch.

  She finds her mother’s enormous face with it and wraps it around the middle of her mum’s trunk. Slowly the men lower the cloth.

  ‘She’s standing by herself!’ whispers Chelsea.

  ‘Now we just need her to drink some milk,’ says Peter.

  And then, ever so slowly, the little calf shuffles to her mother’s side. Her trunk explores and her mouth finally finds what she needs: a long, warm drink of milk.

  Ben turns and smiles at the group of teary-eyed onlookers. I turn around to look behind me and I see Mum. I slide past the others and give her a huge hug.

  ‘Well, I think you just saw something most vets will never see,’ says Mum quietly, hugging me right back.

  A newspaper photographer is let in to take a photo of the newborn baby, and Ben lets us stand in the photo.

  ‘Is my hair okay?’ fusses Chelsea.

  ‘Perfect,’ I say. ‘You look like a world-famous animal trainer and groomer.’

  ‘And you look just like a vet!’ laughs Chelsea.

  In the car on the way home Chelsea and I tell Mum about every single thing we’ve seen and done today. She is very impressed.

  Chelsea is in the middle of telling Mum about the blue ribbon on Grandpa the tortoise when she falls asleep against my shoulder, and there, out of the corner of my eye I see . . . a cricket climbing out of her shirt!

  Chelsea was right, there was one in there still!

  My first holiday job was selling ice-creams at a small suburban zoo. The pay was lousy, but I didn’t care because I got to wander around at lunchtime to look at all the animals. Juliet would have loved this job too. It makes me so happy to see how much zoos have changed and how well the animals are cared for. I still love going to zoos, and in Australia we are really lucky to have some of the best in the world.

  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

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (Australia)

  707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia

  (a division of Penguin Australia Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada)

  90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Canada ON M4P 2Y3

  (a division of Penguin Canada Books Inc.)

  Penguin Books Ltd

  80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL England

  Penguin Ireland

  25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland

  (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd

  11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ)

  67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand

  (a division of Penguin New Zealand Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Rosebank Office Park, Block D,

  181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Johannesburg, 2196, South Africa

  Penguin (Beijing) Ltd

  7F, Tower B, Jiaming Center, 27 East Third Ring Road North,

  Chaoyang District, Beijing 100020, China

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL, England

  First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2014

  Text copyright © Rebecca Johnson, 2014

  Illustrations copyright © Kyla May Productions, 2014

  The moral rights of the author and illustrator has 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: 978-1-74348-452-4

  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