The Lonely Lion Cub Read online

  Great-Uncle Horace lifted up the side of the crate and Zoe’s heart leaped.

  Inside was a furry little animal with chocolate-brown eyes and a curvy tail with a brown tuft on the end. It was a fluffy, completely gorgeous lion cub!

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  Acknowledgements

  With special thanks to Natalie Doherty

  For Al, who’s always wanted me to write a book,

  and for Sarah, for giving me the chance to do it.

  Chapter One

  Zoe’s Zoo

  “Taroom! Taaarrrooomm! Tah-rah-rah-roomm!”

  A deafening trumpeting noise blasted through the quiet early morning. It was so loud it made Zoe Parker’s bedroom window rattle.

  Zoe’s eyes opened and she gave a wide grin. “OK, OK, I’m up!” she said.

  After a final stretch and wiggle of her toes, she leaped out of bed. She pulled on her jeans and a sparkly T-shirt before putting on the necklace she always wore – a pretty silver chain with a charm in the shape of a lion’s paw print. She glanced in the mirror as she tugged a brush through her wavy brown hair and smiled.

  There were so many postcards tucked into the sides of the mirror frame that she could hardly see her reflection! Each card was from a faraway place and showed a different exotic animal. There were graceful gazelles in the African savannah, a shy baby panda from the Chinese mountains and thousands of silver angelfish that sparkled like jewels in the Amazon river.

  As another trumpet blast rang out, Zoe pulled on her shoes and glanced at her bed. “Where are you, sleepyhead?” she whispered. “Come out, come out, wherever you are…”

  Everything was still for a moment. Then the covers at the bottom of the bed wiggled. “Aha,” said Zoe, as a small lump appeared and began to make its way up the bed. Then – ever so slowly – a pair of furry ears appeared from under the duvet. These were followed by a small, soft, pale-grey head with two huge, shiny golden eyes, blinking sleepily. Then, finally, a long, curly grey tail.

  “There you are, Meep,” giggled Zoe as the tiny mouse lemur crept out from under the covers. “Wakey, wakey. It’s breakfast time!”

  “Meep! Meep!” the little lemur squeaked happily, suddenly wide awake. He scampered out of bed and jumped into Zoe’s arms, chattering excitedly. She grinned as she held her fluffy friend.

  There was another trumpeting sound, and the little lemur jumped in fright and grabbed on to Zoe’s T-shirt. Zoe laughed again.

  “Don’t be silly, Meep, it’s only Oscar,” she said, flinging her window open.

  Zoe grinned as she looked out over the patchwork of animal enclosures. From her bedroom she could see all the way from the shimmering lake where the hippos swam, over the grassy green fields full of stripy zebras and tall, patterned giraffes, past the pond full of pink flamingos all standing on one leg, up to the windmill that powered the zoo with its sails turning in the wind, and all the way down to the elephant enclosure next door.

  Zoe didn’t think it was unusual to have a lemur sleeping at the end of her bed, or an elephant in her garden, because she lived in her great-uncle’s zoo!

  “Good morning to you too, Oscar,” she called down happily.

  The tip of a long, grey trunk appeared from behind a glossy banyan tree, followed by the tusks, head and huge flapping ears of Oscar the African elephant. He lifted his trunk up high and waved at her, his wise old eyes twinkling. “Taroom!” he trumpeted again.

  “No, Oscar, no school for me today. It’s half term,” she called back. “Listen, I’ll come and say hello later on, OK? And I’ll bring you a treat if I can.”

  Elephants munched on tree bark, leaves and grass most of the time, but Zoe knew they also loved sweet fruit like apples and oranges.

  Oscar flapped his ears and gave a final, happy trumpet.

  “OK, I’ll see if I can find you some bananas!” Zoe laughed.

  Living at the Rescue Zoo wasn’t the only amazing thing about Zoe’s life. She also had a very special secret – she could talk to the animals!

  Chapter Two

  Zoe’s Special Secret

  Ever since Zoe’s sixth birthday she’d been able to understand every squeak, roar, bellow and bark that animals made.

  She’d had a brilliant birthday party with her mum and her friends. The only thing that could have made it better would have been a visit from Great-Uncle Horace.

  She had just been falling asleep that night when her mum called her name. Zoe ran down the stairs and burst into the lounge to see a familiar figure wearing khaki trousers, an explorer’s hat and a safari jacket with lots of pockets. His kind smile and twinkly eyes were framed by a bushy white beard. On his shoulder perched his parrot, Kiki, a large bird with bright-blue feathers.

  “Great-Uncle Horace!” Zoe yelled, bounding up to him as he opened his arms and gave her a huge hug.

  “Happy birthday, Zoe!” Horace smiled. “You didn’t think I would miss it, did you?” His eyes twinkled as he handed her a parcel.

  Excitedly, Zoe ripped open the paper to reveal a beautiful model of the Earth.

  “Did you know that most of the world is covered in water?” Great-Uncle Horace told her.

  “Thank you for my present!” said Zoe, giving him a huge hug.

  Great-Uncle Horace smiled. “Since you’re so grown up now, I have a very important job for you. Can you look after Kiki while I talk to your mum about some zoo business?” He held out his arm and the parrot walked down it slowly, clutching his arm with her claws.

  Great-Uncle Horace had rescued Kiki from South America when he was a young man and Kiki was just a tiny ball of fluffy feathers. They’d spent almost their whole lives together, and were as close as Zoe and Meep were. Great-Uncle Horace always said that Kiki was his good-luck charm, and the beautiful macaw went everywhere with him. Great-Uncle Horace tapped the top of his suitcase, and Kiki stepped off his arm and perched on the handle.

  “Hi, Kiki,” Zoe said as she stroked the bird softly on her head.

  “Where have you and Great-Uncle Horace been this time?”

  The macaw gave a squawk. But it didn’t sound like a squawk.

  Zoe turned and looked at the bird curiously. “What did you say?” she asked.

  Kiki squawked again, and Zoe gasped. She’d heard Kiki say “Russia”!

  Zoe shook her head in amazement – she could understand the bird as clearly as she could her mum and Great-Uncle Horace.

  “But it was very cold,” Kiki said as she shook her feathers with a shiver.

  Zoe couldn’t believe it. She’d always talked to the animals she met – but they’d never talked back before!

  “Kiki!” she cried. “I can understand what you’re saying!”

  Kiki stared at Zoe, her dark eyes serious. Then she explained that animals spoke to people all the time, but only a few very special people understood them. She told Zoe that she couldn’t tell anyone that animals could understand people, not even her mum or Great-Uncle Horace!

  “You have to keep our secret,” Kiki said with a loud squawk.

  Zoe reached out and touched Kiki’s soft tail feathers. It was amazing to be able to talk to animals! The old parrot nuzzled her hand, and Zoe looked into her wise old eyes.

  “OK, I promise,” she said.

  Ever since then, Zoe had kept her special gift a secret, making sure she only talked with the animals when she was alone with them. Soon after her amazing discovery, she and her mum had moved into the Rescue Zoo, and Zoe now had lots of animals to talk to and secretly help.

  Meep nibbled her ear and Zoe stopped daydreaming with a jump.

  “I’m hungry!” he squeaked.

  “Meep!” Zoe scolded, gathering him gently into her arms and giving him a big good-mornin
g hug. “I’m sure we can find you something tastier to eat than my ear!”

  Giggling, Zoe skipped downstairs to the kitchen, with Meep holding on to her shoulder and his long tail wrapped around her neck like a scarf.

  First she made Meep’s breakfast. While the little lemur sprang on to the table and bounced around, she chopped a banana into little pieces and added a sprinkle of sunflower seeds.

  “Yum!” exclaimed Meep.

  Then Zoe poured herself a bowl of cereal and tucked in. As they ate, Zoe thought about the postcards around her mirror. They had all been sent by Great-Uncle Horace. He spent all his time travelling around the world searching for animals in need of help.

  Whenever he found an injured or lost creature he’d bring it back to live at the Rescue Zoo. But it had been ages since Great-Uncle Horace had come home with a new animal. Zoe knew he loved exploring and helping animals, but she always missed him when he was gone.

  “I wonder where he is now,” she sighed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. “What do you think, Meep?”

  Meep wrinkled his tiny nose as he thought carefully. “Maybe Goo is in Madagascar, where I came from?” he suggested, his mouth full. “Helping chameleons!”

  Zoe smiled. She knew Meep only said “Goo” because he found “Great-Uncle Horace” a bit of a mouthful – but she thought it was very sweet! Zoe stroked him between his ears and Meep wriggled in delight.

  “Maybe,” she replied. “Or he could be rescuing flying foxes in Australia. Or… or—”

  “I know! I know!” Meep jumped around excitedly, scattering bits of banana. “He’s in the Specific, looking for tiger sharks!”

  Zoe smiled. “You mean the Pacific. Great-Uncle Horace says that’s the world’s biggest, widest, deepest ocean.”

  She stopped eating when she heard the crunch of footsteps on the gravel path outside. Someone was coming. Zoe winked at Meep and put her finger to her lips.

  Now they could hear a voice. A furious voice.

  “Horrible, rude, nasty little fleabags! This is the last straw!”

  Chapter Three

  Mean Old Mr Pinch

  The door flew open and the zoo manager, Percy Pinch, stormed into the kitchen. Zoe gasped. Mr Pinch was normally very clean and tidy. His crisp blue uniform was always neatly ironed, his tie was perfectly straight and his black shoes so shiny that you could see his pointy nose in them.

  But today he looked rather different. His uniform was splattered with smears and smudges. Bits of kiwi fruit dripped from his shirt, mushed-up mango covered his shiny shoes and there was banana in his hair. Mr Pinch was covered in fruit!

  “Hello, Mr Pinch,” said Zoe, trying not to laugh. “Have you been making a fruit salad?”

  Meep exploded into giggles and Mr Pinch glared at them both.

  “This is an outrage!” he snapped. He was tall and skinny, with a thin mouth that always looked as if he had just accidentally eaten something nasty.

  Zoe’s mum followed Mr Pinch through the door. She was wearing her zoo uniform with RESCUE ZOO VET embroidered on the pocket under a symbol of a hot-air balloon. Her brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she had a stethoscope around her neck. She took Mr Pinch over to the sink, grabbed a damp cloth and helped him wipe the mess off his uniform.

  “There, there, Mr Pinch,” she soothed. “We’ll have you cleaned up in no time.” She secretly rolled her eyes at Zoe and smiled. “Morning, love. You’re a good girl for getting breakfast ready. And good morning to you too,” she added as Meep chattered at her.

  “My lovely clean uniform is ruined!” Mr Pinch moaned. “Those messy orangutans!”

  Zoe couldn’t understand why Mr Pinch was so grumpy all the time. Being at the zoo made Zoe happier than anything else in the world, yet Mr Pinch never smiled.

  Last year Great-Uncle Horace had brought a tiny, fluffy, very rare white tiger named Sasha home from Siberia after he’d been injured in a trap. Sasha was one of the most beautiful creatures Zoe had ever seen, but Mr Pinch had simply been annoyed. As all the other zoo staff rushed to meet the newcomer, he had muttered, “Ugh, another cat! Doesn’t Horace know I’m allergic?”

  “Oh, the orangutans were just playing,” Zoe’s mum said.

  Zoe grinned. She was sure the orangutans had thrown the fruit at Mr Pinch on purpose!

  “Exactly,” Mr Pinch said. “If we had less playing, things might stay clean and tidy. If you ask me, this zoo needs more rules and less fun.”

  “More rules less fun! More rules less fun!” Meep said cheekily, then blew a rude raspberry which splattered Mr Pinch with more banana bits.

  Zoe burst out laughing. “Naughty Meep!” she whispered. “It’s lucky he can’t understand you!”

  Mr Pinch spluttered crossly as he wiped globs of banana out of his eyebrows.

  “That is exactly the type of behaviour I’m talking about!” he blustered. “That creature should be in a cage!”

  Meep gave a little shudder and Zoe stroked his soft fur. She knew he was thinking about the tiny cage that he had been kept in until Great-Uncle Horace had found him and brought him to the Rescue Zoo. Even though Meep was now a happy little lemur, he still trembled every time he was inside a cage. He didn’t even like the lovely big enclosure that Great-Uncle Horace had built for him, which was why he was allowed to spend all his time with Zoe.

  Of course, Mr Pinch wasn’t very happy about that. He didn’t even like Zoe being allowed to roam around the zoo, let alone Meep. Zoe usually tried to keep out of Mr Pinch’s way, but the zoo manager was always sneaking around, checking that everyone was obeying the rules.

  Zoe tickled Meep’s belly as the little lemur shivered. There was no way she’d let Mr Pinch take Meep away from her. Luckily her mum jumped in.

  “Zoe, love, could you take this food package to the penguin enclosure? Little Poppy Penguin isn’t very well, so she needs to have a special diet.” She glanced at her watch. “The zoo will open in a few minutes and I’d like Poppy to have her food before the visitors arrive.”

  “We have real zookeepers to do that sort of thing, you know,” Mr Pinch grumbled.

  Zoe jumped up before he could say anything else. “OK, Mum,” she said.

  Meep leaped on to her shoulder and stuck out his tiny pink tongue at Mr Pinch. Zoe grabbed the package and dashed outside. She sighed with relief as the door clicked shut, and set off into the Rescue Zoo. Zoe’s cottage was right at the entrance to the zoo, just inside the big gates that were decorated with all kinds of animal carvings.

  The gates would soon be open, letting in a stream of visitors. The first thing they would see would be a beautiful signpost standing next to Zoe’s cottage. It was made from African wood and had golden arrows pointing the way to different parts of the zoo. On top of the signpost was a golden hot-air balloon – the symbol of the Rescue Zoo.

  Beyond the signpost, a red-brick path led straight ahead and then wound around the zoo. Wooden walkways connected the path to each animal enclosure.

  Around the edge of the zoo stood a tall oak fence topped with solar panels, which glittered in the sunlight. Great-Uncle Horace liked the Rescue Zoo to be kind to the environment as well as to the animals who lived there.

  “Come on, Meep,” Zoe said, smiling as she set off down the path. “We’ve got some special food for a poorly penguin.”

  And from the sound of the roars, growls, yaps and squawks floating towards her, it seemed like Poppy wasn’t the only animal in the Rescue Zoo who was ready for breakfast!

  Chapter Four

  The Penguin Puzzle

  Zoe headed towards the penguin enclosure. Walking through the zoo was like visiting all the different countries of the world. Zoe and Meep passed a warm stretch of golden sand dotted with prickly cacti where the zoo’s herd of camels lived.

  After that was a steamy green forest of lush trees and rare wild flowers, full of chattering capuchin monkeys. Great-Uncle Horace wanted each animal’s enclosure to be as much like their h
ome in the wild as possible.

  Zoe couldn’t resist stopping at one particular enclosure. It was shaped like a huge white igloo. As Zoe went inside she shivered in the cool air and rubbed her arms, which were suddenly covered in goosebumps. Meep’s teeth chattered noisily.

  Inside the igloo was a platform where visitors could look down on a large, sapphire-blue pool. Twinkling icicles hung from the roof. Towards the back, a snow machine made a soft humming sound as it blew out a gentle patter of white flakes. Apart from that, everything was quiet.

  Zoe glanced around to make sure nobody was nearby. She leaned on the railing.

  “Hello?” she called. “Bella, are you there?” As she spoke, her breath misted in the freezing-cold air.

  A ripple appeared on the pond’s surface and a small white head appeared with a splash.

  “Grrr, grr!” Bella growled playfully as she paddled towards Zoe.

  Bella was one of Zoe’s favourite animals. She was a cheeky little polar bear cub with the whitest, fluffiest fur Zoe had ever seen. She looked up at Zoe with her bright brown eyes and gave another low growl.

  “Of course I want to see you dive!” Zoe told her. “Have you been practising?”

  With a grunt, the polar bear flipped upside down and disappeared into the deep water. She twirled happily and then shot back up to the surface.

  “Brilliant, Bella!” Zoe laughed as the bear splashed around the pool. “We have to take something to one of the penguins now,” Zoe said, “but we’ll see you later, OK?”