With the semester underway, Aspen was pretty busy with her classes. This semester she had Genetics, another difficult class. Needless to say, it had been a while since she’d been to the center. She received an email from the Volunteer Coordinator announcing a spring cleanup day to prepare the center for its’ annual Baby Shower. This was the one time of year the public could tour the center. As long as Aspen managed her time wisely she could spare a few hours to help prepare. When she arrived Kim greeted her in the parking lot. “Hi Aspen, how have you been?”
“Good. I came to lend a hand.” Aspen replied.
“Great, let’s head outback. Do you like gardening?” Kim asked as they walked through the side gate to the back. Several volunteers were milling about raking, scrubbing cages, and repairing enclosures. Kim stopped in front of turtle park, the pond made for the resident turtles to swim in. On the ground were several flats of spring perennials. “Can you help Ms. Anne plant all the flowers she brought?”
“Sure,” Aspen replied “Hi, Ms. Anne. How are you?”
“Better now that you’re here. Can you take the plants out of the plastic for me and hand them to me. It’s been really slow doing it myself,” Ms. Anne replied.
“Absolutely, here you go,” Aspen said handing the first one.
“All right, I will let you ladies get to it. Let me know if you need anything,” Kim said walking away. She had just seen Ms. Duck nibbling on some of the new plants. “Hey there little miss, you leave those alone,” she said shooing her away. What Kim did not know was that as soon as she left Ms. Duck was right back at nibbling the flowers. Aspen laughed to herself as she watched. It was like a young child trying to get away with something while their mother’s back was turned. Each and every time Kim came to the back she shooed Ms. Duck away, and each and every time Kim walked away Ms. Duck resumed her nibbling.
Ms. Anne and Aspen had a system down. Aspen broke the plant free from its’ plastic container while Ms. Anne dug the hole then Aspen handed it over to be planted in the ground. Occasionally after being scolded by Kim, Ms. Duck would come over to Aspen for a little loving. Ms. Duck loved to be pet, and she let you know; if you stopped too soon. Aspen had to stop for a moment to break more plants free and boy did Ms. Duck give her an earful. ‘Quack, quack, quack….’ She went charging at Aspen until she resumed the petting.
“You have become quite the little diva, haven’t you Ms. Duck?” Aspen asked her. Aspen quickly adapted her technique and freed several plants at once giving her time to pet Ms. Duck without falling behind. Ms. Anne laughed at the sight of Aspen’s dirty hands petting Ms. Duck. Round and round they went till all the flowers were planted. As Ms. Anne and Aspen cleaned up their mess of empty pots Ms. Duck took inventory of each new plant. It was as if she was inspecting their work. Aspen grabbed the hose to water the newly planted flowers, only to have Ms. Duck parade into the stream of water to get a drink and rinse her dirt-covered bill. It was hard work inventorying plants after all.
Aspen moved on to washing the opossum cages that lined the back porch. She scrubbed and rinsed them one by one. Spring pollen covered everything with fine yellow dust. As the water puddled it carried away all the pollen. Suddenly the back door open and Aspen heard the familiar sound of Dusty’s voice, “Good aye, mate. How’s it going?” He stood before her, very tan, hair much longer and blonder, hands on his hips, wearing hiking boots, cargo shorts, a David Bowie tee shirt, and a tan Akubra Coolabah hat. He looked like a cross between Crocodile Dun Dee and Indiana Jones.
Aspen set down the hose and gave Dusty a big hug. “Love the hat. When did you get back, from Australia?” she asked him.
“Just yesterday. The trip back is brutal. Caught up on my movie watching though. How have you been? How’s our mate, Jack, up to no good I bet?”
“I’m great, Jack is Jack. You know he has two speeds, zero or ninety, there is no in-between,” Aspen replied continuing to wash cages.
“Yeah, I know that feeling. So are you going to be here for the Baby Shower?” he asked.
“Sure am. I think I am wearing the squirrel suit!” Aspen said with eyebrows raised.
“Cool, well I’ll see ya then. I just stopped in to let Kim know I didn’t get eaten by a shark,” he laughed as he walked off to find Kim.
“Bye, Dusty,” Aspen laughed. Aspen noticed Ms. Duck was back and up to no good, “Hey there Ms. Duck, leave those alone. It’s decoration, not your personal salad bar.” Once Aspen was done with the cages she cleaned up and found Kim in the parking lot. “I’m done, what’s next?”, she asked.
Kim replied, “We just have to set up the tents in the morning. Do you want to check with the animal care staff and see if they need any help?”
Aspen found Morgan outside doing the aviaries. Each screen enclosure could hold multiple birds. There were only a few birds time of year, but they did have some mourning doves and cedar waxwings, not to mention Indy. “Hey Morgan, they are about wrapped up with the Baby Shower prep, do you need any help?”
“Absolutely, can you go grab me two new dishes of crow chow? I set them down as I was working and who do you think came along and knocked them over and ate most of it?” Morgan said somewhat amused, somewhat annoyed.
“Ms. Duck?” Aspen said looking shocked. “No! Your kidding, not our sweet and innocent Ms. Duck! She would never do such a thing,” Aspen said sarcastically. A little ways away stood Ms. Duck, head tucked back into her feathers, one eye open looking at Aspen as if she knew they were talking about her antics. Yet she stood proud and innocent. Aspen went inside to get two new dishes of crow chow. It was another one of the strange recipes they made at the center for the animals, a little of this a little of that to make sure the birds got all the nutrients they needed. As she filled dishes in the kitchen Nicole was at the intake window taking in a new patient. Aspen took Morgan the new food dishes then returned to Nicole.
“Hey Nicole,” Aspen said as she approached, “what just came in?”
“A shrew- I had to look it up! I always get moles, voles, and shrews mixed up.” Nicole replied holding up the plastic crab box she had placed the shrew in on a little fuzzy cloth.
“Awe, that’s cute. I think our dog has caught one of those before,” Aspen replied. “How can you tell the difference between them?”
“We don’t get them that often so I look at the pictures that Kim made for the intake book.” Nicole showed Aspen in the book, “See this one is darker, has a pointed snout, little shovel hands to dig, and you can see its’ eyes and ears- it’s a mole. The vole is reddish-brown with a gray belly and round ears. It looks more like a mouse. This is what we got in,” Nicole said pointing to the picture of the shrew. “It is like the mole but had little feet not those bigger shovel feet on the front.”
Morgan approached catching the end of the conversation and peered over their shoulders saying, “They also have very different lifestyles; moles live in tunnels underground and hunt earthworms, grubs, and such. Voles live in grasses and are herbivores. Shrews, on the other hand, live under structures, and in old tunnels from other animals and eat both vegetation and insects, worms, and such. Be careful it doesn’t bite you. They are venomous. It won’t kill you or anything but it will hurt like the dickens and swell up for a few days.”
“Well, that’s good to know. It’s so cute you wouldn’t think about it biting you. Let alone it being venomous,” Aspen said peering through the plastic box at the little guy.
“Just remember they are all wild animals, and anything with teeth can bite,” Morgan said with a big chomp and a smile, “even me,” she joked.
“Oh yeah, I meant to ask you, Nicole, how’s your piggy doing?” Aspen inquired.
“He is great. We got him fixed. Did you know they can start mating when they are only a few months old? That’s how some people get tricked into thinking they’re getting a mini pig. They see pictures of the parents and think, oh they are small, so the babies will be small too. What they don’t realize is that babies are having babies.” Nicole had taken out her phone and was showing Aspen some pictures of her pig. There was one of Nicole walking him on a leash with her dogs, one of him laying across her shoulders on the couch watching TV, and another one of him just lying on the floor with the dogs. It looked much healthier and happier than when Nicole first got him. He had been surrendered to a local veterinarian.
“Well doesn’t he just fit right in? I can’t believe you walk him on a leash. Do people ever do a double-take, like they can’t believe what they are seeing?” Aspen asked.
“No, not really. I live pretty far out. There are all kinds of farms and such out there. A pig isn’t strange at all,” Nicole declared proudly.
Aspen giggled and asked, “What did you name him? Justin Squealer? Wilbur? Sir Oinks a lot? Mr. Piggy?”
Nicole laughed, “We have several dogs so he is just one of our puppies and he loves the mud so we named him Mud Puppy. We take him on walks with the whole gang. I don’t think he knows he is a pig.” Nicole said.
“All right, I think I will head out, I will see you first thing in the morning for the shower,” Aspen said.
“Ok, see ya,” Nicole said as she and Morgan finished the afternoon checklist.
