Oscar T. Thompson — Otter, to his friends — grinned over at his friend as he drove his pickup toward the zoo. “I’m telling you, Musky, they have no idea. We didn’t leave a single clue. And we’re gonna do the same thing next time, soon as we pick out which one to rescue.”
“We’ll keep going ’til the whole zoo is empty and all those poor animals are set free,” agreed Musky. His real name was Mike Musgrave, so naturally he was known around their high school as “Muskrat.”
Otter and Muskrat had been best friends for years, and had been planning and playing pranks for most of that time. But lately they’d gotten serious — in their own way — and had decided to put their skills to use sneaking into the town zoo and kidnapping animals. They considered it “rescuing,” but hadn’t thought to check with the animals themselves about being set free to fend for themselves in the surrounding forest.
They had hatched their plan only a week or two ago, and so far they’d chalked up only one successful rescue — they’d picked a slow-moving animal that spent most of its time sleeping upside-down in a tree. They’d carried the animal out to Otter’s pickup, settled it on a stack of blankets in the back, driven out to the forest, and simply hung the still-sleeping beast on a convenient branch. As far as they could tell, they’d gotten clean away with it. Otter had a job at the zoo cleaning up and toting bags of trash, and from what he could overhear from the other workers, everyone at the zoo was mystified.
It was Otter’s day off, but they were headed back to the zoo anyway, to plan their next rescue. Otter had a few possibilities, but wanted his friend’s opinion. As they strolled around the zoo, Otter kept up his commentary in a low voice. “Maybe those birds — they’re small enough to carry two at a time, and I’m pretty sure they don’t make a lot of noise.” A security guard patrolled the zoo at night. Otter knew his route, and figured as long as they were quiet, they could avoid him. “Those kangaroos are too big,” he whispered to Muskrat, “but look at those little guys right next to them.” He pointed at some smaller animals.
“Those are koalas,” said Musky. “They’re cute. I think they bite though.”
“We could bring a burlap sack,” said Otter.
“They might get really mad if we stuff them in a sack, though,” said Musky. “Aren’t there any other animals that just sleep all the time?”
“How about an owl?” said Otter. “I go past their cage all the time — it’s on the way to the dumpster — and they’re almost always asleep.”
“Okay, that sounds good,” said Muskrat. “How big are they?”
“Different sizes,” said Otter. “There are small ones.”
“Let’s go check them out,” said Musky. “It’s gonna be easier if they’re asleep.”
Sure enough, the owls were dozing, perched on various branches, roosts, and nests in the bird sanctuary area. “There’s the door,” whispered Otter. “And look, some of the really small ones are sitting in that tree right close by. We could reach them without even climbing.”
“We’ll probably need bags,” said Muskrat, “I heard that if you put a bag over a bird’s head so they can’t see, they just sit quietly.”
“That’s great,” said Otter. “That’s it, then, we sneak back in tonight and rescue some owls.”
They headed back out of the zoo to make sure they had a couple of bags you couldn’t see through, even if you were an owl.
Later that night, Otter and Muskrat snuck through the zoo, walking as quietly as they could, so as not to wake any of the animals. They were inside the aviary before they realized their plan had a problem. It was night, and all the owls were now awake.
“Otter,” whispered Muskrat, “they’re not sleeping any more.”
“I forgot,” whispered Otter, “Owls wake up at night. How could I not remember that?”
“You always forget your homework, too,” whispered Musky. He snickered.
Something about the situation, the homework reminder, and Muskrat’s chuckle set Otter off, and he had to bite back his laughter. Musky noticed him putting his hand over his mouth, shoulders shaking, and started to laugh too. They held it back as long as they could, but finally their snorts and giggles broke out. This startled the nearby owls, who wasted no time telling their friends about it the best way they could. For some, that amounted to only a harmless hoot. But some of the owls were a bit noisier, and shortly the whole aviary was an uproar of screeches, hoots, caws, and from a few odd-looking birds in a corner, what sounded like more laughter.
After a few minutes Otter and Muskrat got themselves back under control. “Let’s bail,” said Otter. “We’ll come back in the daytime and figure out a new plan.”
“Bail is exactly what you two are going to need,” said a voice from the doorway. It was the security guard.
———
“Okay, maybe it was a crazy idea,” said Raccoon. “But nobody else has any way to explain how you got here, Sloth.”
“That’s all right with me,” smiled Sloth. “It’s very nice here. I mean, it was very nice where I was before, too. Either place is fine. All I really need is a nice sturdy branch and some tasty leaves.”
“I don’t understand how you can be so calm about it,” said Raccoon. “If I suddenly found myself somewhere else, I’d really want to know what happened.”
“Oh, it would be very satisfying to know that,” said Sloth, “but I wouldn’t insist on it. There are more important things to think about.”
“Like what?” asked Raccoon.
“I don’t know, like tasty leaves I guess,” said Sloth.
“Whatever you say, Sloth,” said Raccoon. “I have to go bring this book back to Beaver. I’ll see you tomorrow, Sloth.”
“Have a nice visit with Beaver,” said Sloth. “Tell him I said hello.”
As Raccoon climbed down and ambled away, Sloth dozed off. A few minutes after she fell sound asleep, two humans wearing green outfits came walking along the path. “There she is,” said one, pointing. “Just where those two kids said they put her.”
“Yeah, she’s not one to move very far,” said the other. He was carrying a ladder, and used it to climb up to where Sloth was sleeping. He gently unhooked her from the branch and carried her down. “Okay, back to the truck,” he said. “We’ll get her back to her usual tree. She looks like her little adventure didn’t do her any harm.”
The two turned, and, taking the ladder and Sloth, walked back along the path. If Raccoon had still been there, she would have seen “ZOO” printed on the backs of their green jackets.
The first to notice Sloth’s absence was Squirrel, who hopped along a few minutes later. “Huh, gone again,” she muttered. “I guess Sloth can move quicker when she wants to. Probably just goes so slow around me to make my tail twitch. Hmph.” Squirrel flicked her tail in an annoyed sort of way and hopped along home. “Wait ’til Raccoon hears about this,” she said to herself.
