The Pampered Rabbit

by Tina Nolan

  “Let’s go down the side of the house,” Annie suggested, wanting to avoid Mia so they could get on with the search.

  So she, Eva and Karl skirted the house and spread out across the back garden, looking under bushes and behind a bench, upturning big empty plant pots and a watering-can to see if Sally and Sara were hiding there.

  “Let’s try behind the greenhouse,” Karl suggested. He rummaged amongst old autumn leaves, pricking himself on the thorns of a rose bush climbing up the fence. “Ouch!” he said, sucking his finger as it began to bleed.

  Annie sighed and shook her head.

  “They’ve vanished into thin air,” she murmured. A sudden thought struck her as she gazed at the breeze-blown thicket beyond the fence. “You don’t think…” she began.

  “…That Sally and Sara got out of the garden into the woods?” Eva gasped. She pictured the stout tree trunks and rough, rocky ground which went on for what seemed like miles to the distant hilltop.

  “If they did, we’ll never find them!”

  “Maybe not, but we can try,” Karl said stubbornly, pulling at the latch on the garden gate. “Come on!”

  He dashed ahead and Annie followed him, while Eva ran back to the hutch and seized the dish of oats. Just in case, she thought, though her hopes weren’t high as she followed Karl and Annie into the wood.

  The ground spread out before her – bright yellow daffodils poking out of the dark earth, new green shoots coming through everywhere she looked. Overhead, the bare tree branches made criss-cross patterns across the bright blue sky.

  “Karl, Annie – where are you?” Eva yelled.

  “I’m down by the stream,” Karl called back. “Annie went straight ahead, along the footpath. You go up the hill, Eva, so we’re properly spread out.”

  So she set off with the dish of food, trying not to crush the daffodils underfoot, bending down to search behind mossy stones and under fallen branches. “Here, Sara! Here, Sally!” she whispered. She spotted what looked like a rabbit hole in the banking to the right, and then another – in fact, a whole warren. Of course, the wood would be teeming with wild rabbits, and they wouldn’t take kindly to two black and white strangers. Tame animals never did well in the wild, Eva knew.

  Her heart thumped more loudly than ever.

  “Anything?” Karl yelled from the bank of the stream.

  “Nothing!” Annie and Eva yelled back.

  Eva climbed further up the hill. She stopped when she thought she heard a rustling in the undergrowth. “Wood pigeon,” she muttered, as the bird broke cover and flew up into a tree. She tiptoed on, up the hill.

  “Still nothing!” Annie reported from way below. “We’re never going to find them!”

  “Keep trying!” Karl said.

  Eva reached the brow of the hill, where the trees were thinner and green grass grew. She glanced back down the daffodil-covered slope. Out of the corner of her eye, Eva spotted movement under a nearby bush and a flash of black and white. She froze.

  The grass parted and Sara appeared, hopping uncertainly, then sitting back on her hind legs to twitch her ears and nose, staying still as a statue when she spotted Eva.

  Still Eva didn’t move a muscle. Did Sara recognize her? Did she know she was a friend?

  There was another rustle in the bush and Sally hopped clear, her dark eyes shining, the white marking under her chin bright in the shadow of the trees.

  “It’s me,” Eva whispered. Slowly, slowly she bent her knees until she was low enough to place the dish of food on the ground. “Remember me? I’m not going to hurt you,” she promised.

  Sally and Sara stared at her. They seemed very small out in the big world, and very scared.

  “I know – you don’t belong out here,” Eva murmured. “You’ve seen scary hedgehogs and wood pigeons. There are wild versions of you everywhere.”

  The two rabbits stared, twitching their whiskers and smelling the oats in the dish. They listened to Eva’s soft, familiar voice.

  Slowly they hopped towards her.

  “Nice food,” Eva said. “Yummy!”

  Hop-hop, Sara came first. She flicked her ears, then ducked her head towards the dish. Hop. Sally joined her. The oats smelled good, and they tasted even better.

  “And this is where I pick you up,” Eva whispered. Gently she stretched out and put a firm hand under Sally’s tummy. She lifted her up and tucked her under her right arm, reaching out for Sara at the same time, then holding her close.

  The rabbits were soft and warm. They didn’t struggle.

  “I’ve got them!” Eva called to Karl and Annie. “They’re both fine. We’re coming down.”

  Back in the Logans’ garden, Karl knocked at the conservatory door.

  Mrs Logan opened it and invited them in.

  “Mia, we found Sally and Sara for you,” Karl said, frowning as he saw her sitting on the floor beside Fern, who was wrapped in the white towel and lying very still.

  Annie and Eva stood outside the door, holding the two black and white rabbits in their arms.

  “Mia, did you hear what Karl said?” Mrs Logan prompted.

  Mia looked up with a blank expression. “I don’t care,” she whispered. “I don’t want them any more.”

  Eva gasped. “But…” she began.

  “They gave Fern a horrid bug,” Mia wailed. “Look how sick she is!”

  This wasn’t fair, so Eva spoke out. “No, listen – Fern was sick before Sara and Sally came, remember.”

  “There’s no point, Eva,” Carrie Logan sighed. “At the moment, Mia’s too upset about Fern to listen to what you’re saying.”

  So Karl backed out of the conservatory, and together he, Annie and Eva took Sara and Sally back to Animal Magic.

  “Mia just turned her back on them,” Annie explained to Heidi Harrison. “It’s like they were birthday presents that she didn’t want.”

  Eva was close to tears. She’d let Karl return the two rabbits to the small animals unit. “It’s not fair,” she told her mum.

  “How can our rabbits have made Fern sick? Mia brought Fern in for you to look at ages before Sara and Sally ever went near her!”

  “People who love their animals and who are upset when they fall ill don’t always make a lot of sense,” Heidi reminded them. “Are you OK, Karl?” she asked as he came back into Reception. “You’re not feeling too bad about things, are you?”

  Quickly, Karl shook his head and went out into the yard to greet Jen, who had just got back from Clifton.

  “It’s a shame,” Heidi murmured. “But there really is nothing we can do about it.”

  Karl burst back into the room a moment later. “Jen’s got Fern’s blood results,” he told them excitedly.

  Annie and Eva crowded round Jen as she showed Heidi the print-out.

  “Severe anaemia – which means she’s low in iron – and a vitamin deficiency,” Jen reported. “Mia’s rabbit has not been receiving a balanced diet.”

  Heidi studied the results with a puzzled look.

  “But Mia’s the last person in the world to neglect Fern’s diet. If anything, we all agree she’s spoiled her rotten.”

  “Exactly!” Jen felt she’d hit on the answer. She turned to Eva, Karl and Annie.

  “Tell me in detail – what does Mia feed her rabbit?”

  “Fresh fruit,” Annie answered.

  “Raw vegetables,” Eva said. “And she lets her graze the grass in her run.”

  “Muesli,” Karl added.

  Jen listened carefully. “And that’s what she’s always given her?”

  They nodded. “Nothing but the best,”

  Karl insisted.

  “Then I think Fern has been getting away with what’s called selective feeding,” Jen explained. “We concentrated on it on part of the course this week. It’s when a pet like a rabbit or a hamster is given a loose cereal feed and is able to pick out bits of food that they prefer and discard the rest. The owner might not notice it, but it means that over
time the pet misses out on essential nutrients.”

  “Like small toddlers only eating sweet, sugary stuff and pushing away food that’s actually good for them,” Heidi realized. “So how could Mia have prevented it?”

  “By feeding Fern nuggets instead of loose cereal. The nuggets are made by crushing all the ingredients together, and forming little pellets. In that way, the pet swallows everything it needs.”

  “And that’s what’s happened to Fern?” Eva asked. “Selective feeding. Would she be this sick if she was low in – what was it – iron and vitamins?”

  Heidi and Jen nodded. “Definitely, if it happened over a long period of time,” Heidi said.

  “And can you help Fern get better?” Annie asked anxiously.

  “For sure,” Jen told them in a confident voice. “Karl, pick up the phone and tell Mia to bring Fern down here right away!”

  “Fern’s unbalanced diet has made her prone to gastro-intestinal problems,” Jen explained to Carrie Logan.

  “That’s stomach problems to you and me,” Karl told Mia.

  Jen, Carrie, Karl and Mia were in the examination room with Fern. Eva, Annie and Heidi looked in through the open door.

  “That’s why she was lethargic and started vomiting,” Jen went on as she gave Fern vitamins from a dropper. “Without the blood test we might never have put our finger on the problem.”

  “So it was my fault that Fern was sick?” Mia said in a small voice. “Not anybody else’s – just mine.”

  “You couldn’t have known,” Eva told her. “It takes an expert like Jen or Mum to come up with the answer.”

  “But I blamed you,” Mia sighed as tears welled up in her eyes. She stroked Fern while Jen worked. “I’m sorry, Eva, and Karl, too – I shouldn’t have said those things.”

  “What things?” Karl kidded, shrugging his shoulders and giving Mia a quick smile. “Don’t think about it – OK.”

  “Look after Fern for a sec,” Mia whispered to him, turning and going over to Eva. “I’m sorry I blamed Sara and Sally and sent them back here. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

  “That’s OK.” Eva’s reaction was stiffer than Karl’s. Even though the crisis was over and Fern was going to get better, she still couldn’t quite forgive Mia.

  “And one other thing,” Mia went on, looking straight into Eva’s eyes. “I know you probably think I left the hutch door open and let Sally and Sara escape on purpose, but I didn’t.”

  Eva looked steadily back at Mia.

  “I was in a panic,” Mia explained. “Fern had just been sick and she was lying on her side, all lifeless, so I just grabbed her and ran for the house. I forgot all about the door.”

  Slowly, Eva nodded. “I believe you,” she murmured. And a great weight seemed to lift from her mind.

  “Come back tomorrow for Sally and Sara,” Heidi had told the Logans. “Settle Fern back into her hutch overnight, keep her warm and make sure she has plenty to drink.”

  So it was arranged for three o’clock on Sunday afternoon, which turned out to be a beautiful spring day with a blue sky and a crisp breeze.

  “Hoop!” Eva told Holly.

  They were out in the yard putting in a spot of training.

  The puppy galloped at the green plastic ring and leaped straight through.

  “Good girl – now, weave poles!”

  In and out of the line of sticks Holly raced.

  “Hurray!” Annie and Jen clapped from the side of the yard. “Well done, Holly!”

  “Now, see-saw!” Eva called out.

  Brave little Holly trotted towards one end of the plank. She stepped on it and got her balance, then she ventured to the middle, feeling the plank tilt and violently dip.

  “Whoa, steady!” Mark cried.

  “Cool!” Eva beamed as Holly kept her balance and completed the see-saw just as she had taught her.

  Eva called Holly to her for a pat and a biscuit treat. “You’re a perfect ten, Holls!”

  “Every time,” Jen agreed.

  They were so busy congratulating their wonder-pup that they didn’t notice Mia walk into the yard until Karl took a step back and bumped right into her.

  “Sorry!” he gasped, then blushed.

  “I forgive you.” She grinned. “I came to take Sara and Sally home. Is that OK?”

  “They’re in a pet carrier in Reception, waiting for you,” Eva told Mia eagerly.

  She was about to run and fetch them when her dad grabbed her arm.

  “What?” Eva asked.

  Mark nodded towards Karl. “Let him do it,” he said quietly.

  “Oh – right!” Eva got it at last. She stood back to watch Karl lead Mia into Animal Magic.

  Soon they came back out with Sally and Sara in the carrier. “I’ll help you carry them up the hill,” Karl offered.

  It was Mia’s turn to blush. “Thanks,” she murmured, letting Karl lead the way across the yard.

  “How’s Fern?” Jen asked as Mia followed Karl through the gate.

  “Much better already, thanks!” Mia told her. “I think she’s looking forward to seeing Sally and Sara again.”

  “I’m glad,” Jen said quietly.

  And the small group came together in the middle of the yard at Animal Magic to watch Karl and Mia cross Main Street and carry the two rescue rabbits up Earlswood Avenue to their new home.

  “Isn’t that exactly what we do here!” Heidi murmured. She’d come up behind Mark, Eva, Annie and Jen as Mia and Karl had left the yard. “We work our magic to match the perfect pet with…”

  “…The perfect owner!” they chorused.

  “Isn’t it great when it works out?” Eva sighed.

  “Couldn’t be better,” her dad agreed.

  “Which is why we’re having the Animal Magic party next weekend,” Heidi reminded them. “To say thanks to everyone, and to look forward to the next twelve months. Let’s hope they’re as good as the last.”

  “Hey yes, the party!” Annie and Eva cried.

  “Can we have a barbecue?” Eva pleaded, her eyes sparkling. “Please, please, please! Burgers and sausages and ketchup, with paper plates. We could set it up by the house, and people can go inside for drinks from the fridge…”

  Yip! Holly agreed with a lively wag of her tail. When it came to food she knew what she liked. Definitely sausages, please!

  Copyright

  STRIPES PUBLISHING LTD

  An imprint of the Little Tiger Group

  1 Coda Studios, 189 Munster Road,

  London SW6 6AW

  Text copyright © Jenny Oldfield, 2008, 2018

  Inside illustrations copyright © Artful Doodlers, 2018

  Cover illustration copyright © Anna Chernyshova, 2018

  Images courtesy of www.shutterstock.com

  First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing [Ltd] in 2018

  eISBN: 978–1–84715–993–9

  The rights of Jenny Oldfield and Artful Doodlers to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved.

  Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  www.littletiger.co.uk

 

 

 
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