A Snowy Robin Rescue by Mary Kelly

Author:Mary Kelly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic UK
Published: 2014-09-04T04:00:00+00:00

Evan peered in at the little room. It looked a lot like a vet’s surgery, with an examination table, a weighing machine and a small cupboard full of equipment. He imagined what it must have been like for the robin arriving here, and how terrified he would have been. “Is this where you removed him from the glue trap?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Karen. “Although it wasn’t done by me, but one of our veterinary nurses. She cleaned off the rest of the glue and then washed off the oil with washing-up liquid. It’s a really complicated job, and should only be done by a trained professional, so it was brilliant that you rang us.”

Hannah and Evan exchanged smiling glances.

“After that,” Karen went on, “he was put under a lamp to dry.”

“He must have been really scared,” said Hannah.

“Small birds do get very distressed,” agreed Karen. “That’s one of the risks of treating them. But your brave little robin made it through.”

Evan and Hannah grinned at each other at that. They liked how Karen had referred to the robin as “theirs”.

“And if you’d like to follow me through here,” she said, leading them back out into the corridor, “I’ll show you where he went after that.”

“Wow,” said Evan’s dad, “he’s been on quite a journey.”

Karen stopped outside another room filled with small cages with wire fronts. “This is where we put our animals to stabilize after their examination. The whole experience can be very stressful for them, so we like to put them somewhere warm and quiet.”

Hannah and Evan peered inside. They saw a row of incubators and some more open wire cages with a couple of pigeons crouching down on the floor of their cage. Each animal had a little piece of paper clipped to the front of the cage, saying what they were and why they had come in. Then Evan spotted a cage at the back with a pillowcase over the top.

“What’s that for?” he asked quietly.

“That’s for a blackbird that’s just come in,” said Karen. “He was quite traumatized, so we’ve covered his cage to block out some of the light and noise. Now,” she added, “I’ll show you to the next room and you’ll get to see your robin at last.”

Evan could feel his heart beat faster with excitement as Karen stopped outside another door, with a sign on it that read “Bird holding room”.

“In you go,” she said, holding open the door for them.

Evan and Hannah stepped inside to see lots of little aviaries, each one with green twigs strung up and birds perched inside. They passed two more pigeons and a blue tit, then Evan caught sight of a robin in a cage. The breath caught in his throat as he took in the familiar beady eyes, the red breast with the little white patch beneath… “Is that our robin?” he asked in a rush. “Is it really him?”

“It really is,” said Karen.

“I can’t believe it!” cried Evan. He stepped towards it. “Look, he’s hopping around,” he said.

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