by Lisa Yee
By the way he set his jaw, I could tell that Zac was thinking hard about what I had said. He let out a deep sigh, and then his eyes lit up. “I have a professor who specializes in wildlife rehabilitation. I don’t have her phone number, but I can e-mail her and see if she has any recommendations. But I can’t make any promises, okay?”
I nodded, then got teary again, this time with happiness. Maybe there was hope for this baby sloth after all.
Tomás was up in his tree when Zac and I returned to the Barroses’ house with the little sloth. He quickly scrambled down and looked curiously at the creature sleeping in my arms.
“Mãe!” he called, and ran inside to get his mother.
Olivia rushed out and inspected the baby sloth. “Poor girl. She’s probably dehydrated and hungry,” she said. She turned to Zac. “Take the canoe down the river to the third house. You know, the blue one with the red trim on the windows. They have goats. We’ll need some goat’s milk right away.”
As she said this, I realized how little I knew about taking care of a sick sloth. Sure, I had helped nurse Tweety back to health. And I have been taking care of my turtle Ginger for the past five years. But she lives in a glass aquarium with a water filter and lights, and I can buy her food at the pet store just down the street. I had no idea what to do to help an injured baby sloth.
I held the baby closer, careful not to squeeze her too tight, and gently stroked her fur. Tomás stood quietly by my side, and then started to sing a slow song in Portuguese that sounded like a lullaby. He leaned over to nuzzle the sloth’s soft head, but stopped. He pointed to the baby and held his nose. I had grown used to her smell by now and didn’t mind it.
In a little while, Zac returned with the goat’s milk. Olivia found an eyedropper and filled it with milk. I tried to give the sloth to Zac to feed her, but she wouldn’t let go of me. So I held on to her as Zac brought the eyedropper to her mouth. She eagerly took the goat’s milk, and my heart soared.
I thought of the times when Mom or Ama had said to me, “Eat! You should eat more!” And now, here I was, thinking the same thing.
Almost immediately after eating, the sloth fell asleep. I sat on the couch, not wanting to awaken her.
Zac sat down next to me. “I e-mailed my professor,” he said.
“What did she say?” I asked.
Zac shook his head. “Haven’t heard back yet. We’ve done all we can for now. The next step is to wait.”
I had no idea waiting could be so hard.
Marcos found an empty wooden fruit crate, and I asked Tomás to hold the sloth while I went outside to gather some leaves to cushion the bottom of the crate.
Once the sloth’s bed was ready, I joined Olivia, Marcos, and Zac in the living room, where Tomás was still cradling the baby. I smiled and took some pictures. Suddenly, Ama popped into my mind. How I would have loved to share a moment like this with her! I missed my grandmother so much just then. I would have given anything to hug her and to tell her about the baby sloth that we had found in the rainforest.
This little baby was all alone in the world. That’s when I decided that I’d give her a name. But what name would be worthy of this brave little girl? I asked myself. Then it hit me.
“I think we should name her Amanda,” I announced.
Zac smiled at me. “After Ama,” he said, nodding. He turned to Tomás and translated into Portuguese.
Tomás smiled. “Amanda,” he said, then whispered the name in her ear.
That night, I couldn’t wait to blog about Amanda. My classmates would be so excited to hear about how I had found her in the rainforest, and I knew that once they saw the photos they would fall in love with Amanda, too.
Tomás sat nearby, cradling the baby sloth as I wrote:
Today we found a baby sloth. She’s injured and in poor shape. Sloths, especially babies, are always in danger because they move so slowly. We were lucky to find this little one on the ground before a predator did. Although, sometimes other animals don’t even notice sloths because they are so still! Sloths eat and sleep and even give birth hanging upside down from tree branches. But Amanda is missing some claws and has trouble gripping. I can only hope that we can find her the help she needs to gain her strength back and learn how to survive in the wild.
When I was done writing, it was time for bed. I gently placed Amanda in her bed. Tomás looked on and furrowed his brow.
“O que?” I asked him. “What is it, Tomás?”
He held up his hand for me to wait and then ran down the hall. When he returned, Macaco was in his arms. He gave his stuffed monkey a big hug, and then gently placed him in the crate next to Amanda. With great effort she wrapped herself around Macaco and snuggled up to him.
My heart nearly burst with love. I gave Tomás two thumbs-up and he returned the gesture. Then together we watched over Amanda until she fell asleep.
dreamed that I was hiking in the rainforest with Zac. Amanda was on the ground, helpless and crying, but I walked right past her and kept going. When I realized what I had done, I turned around. But she was gone…
I awoke in a sweat. It was still dark outside. I immediately went to check on Amanda in her crate, but she wasn’t there. I panicked for a moment—had she escaped? Had somebody taken her? Then I saw the light on in the kitchen.
“Lea, bom dia,” Marcos said, looking up at me. He was sitting at the dining room table cradling the baby sloth in one arm and feeding her from the dropper.
I felt my body relax as my breathing slowed down. Phew! Amanda was safe.
“Babies need to eat often,” Marcos explained as he dipped the dropper into a glass of goat’s milk. “Their stomachs are small, so they need to eat lots of little meals.”
I nodded, recalling that when Abby’s little brother was a baby, it seemed like he was being fed all the time.
Marcos shifted and handed Amanda to me. “Why don’t you finish feeding her?” he said. “I’ve got to get ready for a daybreak river tour.”
I took Amanda, who looked drowsy. It felt great to hold her again. “Isn’t it awfully early for a tour?” I asked him.
“The sunrise over the Amazon River is a sight unlike any other,” Marcos said, after taking a long sip of coffee. “It’s worth getting up extra early for. I’ll take you before you leave,” he promised.
Before I leave…
In a few days my parents would fly to Manaus to meet me, and then together we’d travel back home to Lafayette Square, my neighborhood in St. Louis. I thought back to when I had first arrived in the Amazon, when I felt out of place and homesick. I looked down at Amanda, who was sleeping soundly. Now I couldn’t imagine leaving the rainforest. I couldn’t imagine leaving Amanda behind.
After Marcos left, I got out my tablet and logged on to my blog while Amanda napped nearby in her crate. I wanted to stay as close to her as possible. Even though she had been drinking the goat milk, she seemed to be getting weaker, and this worried me.
I had a lot of comments on my blog. As I scrolled through the posts, I smiled. Everyone loved the botos, although a couple of the boys accused me of photoshopping the picture to turn the river dolphins pink. And most of my classmates had commented about Amanda. It seemed that they were as smitten with her as I was.
JESSA: She’s so cute!
MS. SWAIN: How lucky that you found her!
EMILIA: Oooh, I want a sloth as a pet!
LUCA: Is her fur soft or prickly?
DAX: Cool! You should bring her home to St. Louis.
JAYDEN: Is Amanda going to live???
Then I read this:
ABBY: Really, Lea? I can’t believe you took that sloth out of her natural habitat!
I gasped. Of everyone in my class, I thought Abby would have been the happiest with what I had done! Suddenly it felt like a weight had been dropped on me. I couldn’t believe that Abby had accused me of doing something wrong. Amanda needed our help—couldn’t Abby see that?
I bent over Amanda’s crate to chec
k on her. She was even more lethargic than just fifteen minutes ago when I had finished feeding her. She looked up at me and let out a weak cry.
I gathered Amanda in my arms and ran into Zac’s room. “Zac? Zac!” I said, rousting him awake. “I think Amanda’s getting worse. Can you check to see if your professor has gotten back to you yet?”
He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Without a word, he logged on to his laptop. “Nothing yet,” he reported. “But it’s only 6 a.m. She’s probably still asleep. We need to be patient.”
“But Zac,” I cried, “I’m not sure how much longer she’ll last without help. I’m so scared.”
He peered at Amanda and sighed. “I’m worried about her, too.”
As we sat down to breakfast, I put the crate between Tomás and me. Amanda slept next to Macaco, too weak to hug him. Olivia brought out freshly baked cheese rolls, but Tomás, Zac, and I didn’t have much of an appetite. We ate quietly, spending more time watching the baby sloth than eating our meals. Zac kept his laptop on the table so that he would know right away when his professor responded to his e-mail.
When his computer pinged, everyone turned and looked at it. Zac set down his glass of papaya juice and immediately checked his e-mail.
“Good news,” Zac finally said, beaming. “Professor Da Rocha says there’s a wildlife sanctuary about an hour from here. They specialize in wild animal rescue and rehabilitation.”
“So they’ll take Amanda?” I asked hopefully.
“I’m not sure if they’ll have enough room or resources,” Zac said. “But I’ll call them right away.” He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the number on his screen.
As Zac spoke to the sanctuary worker, he nodded solemnly and kept glancing at Amanda. At one point he held up her claws and examined them, speaking rapidly in Portuguese.
I held my breath. This could be Amanda’s only chance for survival. What would happen if the sanctuary wouldn’t take her?
“Obrigado,” Zac said and hung up the call.
“Well?” I asked.
“They said to bring her in. She’ll get an exam, and then they’ll decide if they can help her.” Zac turned to Olivia. “May I take the truck?”
Olivia nodded. “They’ll know what’s best for Amanda,” she said with a warm look at me.
I gave Olivia a hopeful smile and then leaned over Amanda’s crate. “We’re going to try to get you help,” I whispered.
The hour-long drive felt like forever. Tomás and I took turns holding Amanda. She wouldn’t—or maybe couldn’t—drink anymore. She hardly moved and couldn’t even lift her head. I blinked back tears.
As we drove, Zac tried to assure me that Amanda would be okay. “The sanctuary workers will know what’s best for her. The only place she’d be safer is with her own mother.”
That got me thinking about Abby’s accusation. Questions tumbled over and over in my head. Was I wrong to take Amanda out of the rainforest? What if her mother came back for her and realized she was missing? Was I as bad as the poachers? On the other hand, what would have happened to Amanda had we not found her and taken her home? I looked at little Amanda, and my throat tightened.
I was about to ask Zac if I had done the right thing, but then I thought about how hard I had tried to convince him to help me save her. I couldn’t tell him now that I was questioning our choice.
friendly woman with cropped blonde hair accented with a swatch of pink greeted us at the Amazonas Wildlife Sanctuary. “Olá! Hello,” she said, extending her hand and shaking Zac’s as Tomás gripped Macaco and hid behind me. “I’m Erika, the director of the wildlife sanctuary. You must be Zac. Professor Da Rocha told me to expect you. She says you’re one of her best students. I was an exchange student myself before I settled here in Brazil. Nice to meet you in person!”
Zac returned the handshake and then introduced Tomás and me.
“Muito prazer,” I said. “This is Amanda.” I turned so that she could see Amanda’s little face over my shoulder.
“May I?” she asked, reaching out to Amanda. Reluctantly, I handed her over. Erika’s friendly blue eyes got serious. “She doesn’t look well,” she said. “Please, follow me this way.”
Erika guided us into a room that looked like a doctor’s office. She gently set Amanda on a metal table and listened to her heart with a stethoscope. Tomás held both Zac’s and my hands as we all watched silently. Erika inspected Amanda’s fur, looked in her mouth and ears, and took a blood sample. Amanda was very brave and did not cry. I remembered being afraid to go to the doctor’s office when I was little. But I always got a sticker at the end for being brave.
Finally Erika handed Amanda back to me, and then wrote some things down on a chart.
“She’s very lucky that you found her when you did,” she began. “Her injuries are consistent with a fall from a high place, and she has a fractured leg. From the look of her wounds, I would guess that she was attacked by a harpy eagle. Did you see her mother when you found her?”
Zac and I both shook our heads.
Erika pursed her lips. “It’s possible that she wasn’t as lucky as her baby.”
“You mean—” I began.
“Most likely the eagle made off with the mother.”
I was silent as tears welled in my eyes. How terrifying that must have been for Amanda and her mother…
“Baby sloths hold on to their mothers until they are about eight months old,” Erika continued. “I would venture that this little girl is about five or six months old. If they were being attacked, it’s likely that Amanda let go. It looks like her wounds are quite infected. If they go untreated, she could die.”
I gasped. “Do you think you can treat her?”
“Yes, I think so,” she said. “The good news is that antibiotics ought to clear up the infection in a few days. The bad news is that her leg will take much longer to heal, and a couple of her claws are broken, probably from the fall.”
“But Amanda’s going to be all right, isn’t she?” I asked. “Will she eventually be able to return to the rainforest?” Maybe Abby would see that I had done the right thing if I could just tell her that Amanda would return home.
Erika shrugged. “I can’t make any promises. But I’ll tell you what: You can leave Amanda here with us for now. We’ll give her medicine and monitor her for the next couple of days. If she pulls through, then we’ll come up with the best plan for her.”
I bit my lip and nodded. I couldn’t imagine leaving Amanda, but I knew she would be in good hands here.
Erika smiled. “Amanda needs a bath. Do I have any volunteers to help me?” She repeated her question in Portuguese for Tomás. He came out from behind me and raised his hand.
Erika filled two blue plastic tubs with warm water. She dipped Amanda in the shallow water of the first tub and showed Tomás and me how to gently wash her with baby shampoo, making sure to be careful with her fractured leg. Then we moved her to the second tub. Erika dropped a handful of leaves and flowers into the water. It smelled like a fragrant tea.
“This will keep Amanda parasite-free and smelling good,” Erika explained as we rubbed the leaves and tea into her fur.
I gingerly lifted Amanda out of the bath. Erika wrapped her in a soft yellow towel. “Normally, we hang our sloths up to dry in the sun,” she said, pointing to a couple of sloths clinging to branches nearby. “But since Amanda’s claws are damaged, we are going to have to teach her how to hang on. For now, we’ll dry her with this.” Tomás’s eyes widened when she pulled out a blow-dryer. Zac held Amanda as Erika dried her, so I could take pictures.
Amanda looked so cute and fluffy when she was done with her spa treatment. I held her and buried my nose in her fur. She sure smelled better than she had when we arrived at the sanctuary. “You’re beautiful,” I told her. “But then, you always were.”
Zac turned to Tomás. “Should we give you a bath next?” he asked in Portuguese, and then again in English. Tomás giggled and offered up Ma
caco in his place.
Next, Erika set Amanda’s injured back leg in a small cast. “This way the bones will fuse correctly,” she explained.
Zac nudged me. “She looks like Dad.”
I giggled, remembering how Dad had hobbled around in his cast back in Praia Tropical. I took photos to share with him.
Erika finished the cast and applied some antibacterial ointment on Amanda’s wounds. “Now, this baby has been an excellent patient. I have something for her.”
A sticker! I mused. And I was right, sort of. Erika gave Amanda a hibiscus flower. That’s so cute, I thought. A sloth version of a sticker that she can play with. But I was wrong. Instead, the flower was to eat!
“Sloths love these,” Erika said. “They’re a real sweet treat.” Amanda nibbled on the flower slowly and happily.
Later, while Amanda napped, Erika gave us a tour. I was expecting that the sanctuary would look like a zoo, with penned-off areas for the animals. But I was surprised to see that most of the animals roamed free—although they did keep natural enemies separated. Monkeys scampered on couches, birds perched on the backs of chairs, and sloths hung upside down from a wooden pole that looked like the ballet barre I used to practice on when I was little.
Half a dozen volunteers and sanctuary personnel were bathing and feeding the animals. I watched a young man running after the most enormous guinea pig I had ever seen. It was as big as a dog!
“What is that?” I asked.
Erika chuckled. “That’s Clara the capybara. Capybaras are the biggest rodents in the world.” I took a quick photo to post to my blog.
Erika let me feed some passion fruit to a toucan named Tiago. When he was done, he let out a loud squawk. “That’s toucan for ‘thank you!’” Erika said.
Next, I got to hold a tiny monkey the size of my thumb. “Her name is Beatriz and she’s a pygmy marmoset,” Erika told me.
I laughed as the little monkey scrambled up my arm. “This place is better than any zoo I’ve ever been to!” I told Erika. “Do you get a lot of visitors here?”
