Howl by Karen Hood-Caddy Page A

“Don’t tell anyone, okay?”
    His face had a shy, dreamy expression. “I have a thing about bears.”
    Zo-Zo scrutinized him. “What do you mean, ‘a thing’?”
    “One tried to maul me when I was a baby. My bassinette was outside, and this bear came right up, my mom says to eat me, but I think it was just saying hello. I love bears.” He turned to Robin. “Can I come and see it? Please?”
    Brodie looked at Robin. “How about Saturday?”
    Robin wasn’t sure what to do. The safest thing was to say no. However, if Brodie and Zo-Zo came on Saturday, her father would be at the clinic, so they’d be able to play with the animals at their leisure. And her father wouldn’t be the wiser. She just might get away with it. But what if she didn’t get away with it?
    “I work in the morning, but I can come after that,” Brodie prodded.
    “Okay, Saturday it is,” Zo-Zo said.
    Robin heard the word “sure” slip out of her mouth.
    On the weekend, sunshine blasted through Robin’s window, making it easy for her to get out of bed. Wanting to get the animals fed, and fed quickly, she skipped breakfast and headed outside. The day was windy but bright and seemed to rush towards her like a best friend. She smiled. Zo-Zo and Brodie were coming today. How good was that? She stepped quickly towards the barn.
    “Guess what?” she told Mukwa as she went into his enclosure and began feeding him. “You’re going to meet my friends today!”
    Mukwa looked at her as if he totally understood.
    “This bear is so smart,” she said to Griff when she heard her come into the barn.
    “All bears are smart,” Griff said. “That’s why the Natives hold them in such high esteem. They believe bears are equal, if not superior, to man, with the same intelligence, memory, you name it.”
    The puppies started to yip and bark for their breakfast. Robin covered her ears.
    “Hold your horses,” Griff shouted over the din. She put a handful of food into each bowl and stood back as the puppies wolfed it down. She laughed. “Breakfast in fifteen seconds flat. That might be a record.” She looked at Robin. “You feeding those other animals we don’t have?”
    “Oh, the skunks,” Robin said, clueing in. She nodded. “As soon as I’m finished with Mukwa.”
    “I’ll take the puppies out then.” At the word “out,” there was an explosion of yipping and yelping. Griff opened the enclosure, and the pack of puppies bolted towards the barn door and ran outside.
    “Come on, Relentless,” Griff said. “You better come along and help me keep these babies from running off in ten different directions.” Relentless ran ahead, and Griff hurried after them. “I might be getting too old for this.”
    Robin hurried to feed the skunks. She had hidden them at the back of the barn, and so far not even Squirm knew about them. She didn’t want him to know. Normally, she fed them quickly and left so he wouldn’t come in and find her with them, but he had slept over at his friend Tom’s last night, so this morning she didn’t have to worry.
    She made up some formula and took it and some needleless syringes into their enclosure. Very gently, she picked up one of the skunks and held it in the palm of her hand. It was no bigger than a small egg. Carefully, she tilted the baby skunk’s head back and eased the syringe into its minuscule mouth. As she pressed the plunger, most of the food went in, but some came back out again. This always happened when she went too fast. Slow down , she told herself, but it was hard. She felt so revved up. Brodie was going to be here. She was excited and nervous all at the same time.
    She eased the next bit of food into the baby skunk more slowly. This time, the whole amount went in, and she could actually see the skunk’s belly expanding. She smiled. It felt so good to be able to help them survive. Who knew what would have happened to them if she hadn’t taken them in. They probably would have died. She didn’t