Tiger in Trouble by Eric Walters

Author:Eric Walters [Walters, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781443129008
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Published: 2013-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

I jumped slightly up and my eyes popped open as the cold, wet little nose pressed against my face. A second little nose attached to a second set of beautiful brown eyes pressed against me. I wanted to roll over and pull up the covers, but I knew I had to feed the baby deer. A little tongue shot out and licked my face. I guess I should have found it cute — and really it was — but it had become less cute each time it happened. Every hour and a half all through the night I’d fed them, and this was the sixth or seventh time.

There was bright light streaming in through the windows. Obviously it was no longer night. I looked at the clock. Five-thirty-seven. It was way too early to be awake. Across the room I could see Samantha still sound asleep. Although I couldn’t see Danny in the bunk above her or Nick in the bed above me, I knew that neither of them would be awake.

One deer reared up on her hind legs and gave me a head butt in the face.

“Okay, okay, I’m getting up.”

I climbed out of bed. The glove and bottle were on the dresser, ready to be filled with milk. Beside them sat three big thermos bottles. Two were empty, while the third was still half-filled. Vladimir had made a big batch of formula, heated it up and poured it into the thermoses so I could feed the deer throughout the night. When he originally made up the three bottles, I thought there was no way in the world they’d need that much. Then, partway through the night, I was wondering if I’d have enough.

I stumbled out of bed, my feet feeling as heavy as my eyelids. I took the top off the thermos and carefully poured formula into the bottle inside the glove. I filled it to the top and then resealed the thermos. There was still enough for one more meal. Next I screwed the top back on the bottle, locking the milk into the glove.

“Let’s go for a walk, girls,” I said softly, not wanting to wake anybody up.

I walked to the door and they scrambled and bounced and chased after me, hitting each other and my legs. Opening the door, I held the bottle out in front of me so they’d go outside, then closed the door after all three of us were out.

I flopped down on the edge of the stairs. The instant the glove was within reach, the two babies tried to latch onto a finger. Despite the fact that there were two fingers they could suckle, they both fought over the same one. The other, just as good, leaked a little dribble of milk while they continued to ignore it in favour of the one they were both pursuing. The first couple of times they fought like that I thought that maybe one finger was better than the other. Then I saw that it didn’t matter; they fought over both.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.