Wojtek by Jenny Robertson

Author:Jenny Robertson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Birlinn Limited

‘Wojtek! Wojtek! Let him go!’ shouted Piotr.

Immediately Wojtek obeyed and slackened his grip. The soldiers who had brought Michał grabbed his chain. Injured and furious, he tried to fight them off, but the soldiers dragged him away, still roaring and growling. Wojtek made no attempt to follow his attacker. His breath came in big sobs. Lucynka was crying. They had all seen a new side to Wojtek. They had seen how he could fight to the death – but even so they still trusted their bear. Piotr ran his hands over Wojtek’s body to see how badly he had been injured.

He nodded at his friends, relief flooding his face. ‘He seems fine. A few tufts of hair pulled out, some cuts and bruises, but no bones broken.’

Wojtek sat down, shocked, and so thirsty that his tongue was hanging out. He held out his two front paws beseechingly. Piotr rushed off and brought a big bowl of milk, while Tadek and Lucynka crouched down beside the bear, talking soothingly to him. They could still hear Michał roaring in the distance.

Wojtek drank the milk down without stopping and Piotr smoothed the bear’s fur.

One of the sergeants explained that a ruler of Iran had given a brown bear cub to a high-ranking Polish general whose first name was Michał.

‘It seems the cub always had a vicious streak. No pretend fights with that one! He had to be kept chained up all the time,’ Piotr reported as they walked back through the camp together. ‘It’s going to be a problem to know what to do with him now.’

‘So long as he doesn’t ever come near Wojtek again,’ Lucynka said.

‘We’ll see he doesn’t,’ Piotr promised.

Michał stayed with the 2nd Transport Company for the rest of the summer and when the soldiers moved back to Palestine in September the ferocious bear went with them, but he was kept closely guarded, while Wojtek rode along with Piotr and Stan as usual. In Palestine the soldiers gave Michał to a zoo in Tel Aviv. The director wrote a letter of thanks to the Polish Army – and along with the letter, he sent the soldiers a replacement pet.

It wasn’t a bear this time. It was a little she-monkey. The soldiers called her Kaśka (Katie). She was small and thin, full of energy and fun. Lucynka told Wojtek about her. ‘She’s such fun. We can’t wait to see you together.’

But this new animal was going to mean a whole lot of trouble.

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