Silky at the Zoo

One day Silky, the lamb, asked her Mommy to take her to the Zoo. Silky's Mom also liked the Zoo, but she knew that she would need help so she told the shepherd where they were going.

When they arrived at the Zoo, Silky's Mommy took her to see the farm animals. Silky loved seeing the other kinds of sheep, some with brown faces, others with black faces, some with pink noses, and some so woolly that you just couldn't see their noses at all. Silky also wandered around the chickens and thought that they were silly to go around pecking at the dirt all day. She also ran after the ducks that quacked as they waddled away.

Silky heard some funny noises coming from behind a stone wall. She wandered over to the wall and was just tall enough to peep over. She saw a big pink lump with a nose and floppy ears lying on the stone floor and twelve little pink balls all cuddled against the big pink one. Pigs, she thought, all getting nice warm milk from their mommy.

As she wandered around, silky got closer and closer to the gate of the big Zoo. She peeped around the corner and it looked so interesting. She decided to have a look. Her Mommy was busy chatting with a friend that had come with them from the farm and hadn't noticed Silky wondering off.

Silky ran through the gate and found herself on a wide path. To her left were big wire cages and monkeys jumped from pole to pole and swung on ropes, chattering away in their monkey language. To her right a big black gorilla glared at her as though he might eat her for supper. Silky skipped along on her little hooves. Far away she could hear deep rumbles. She was curious and trotted along towards the noise.

Suddenly a big grey elephant came thudding down the path with a little clown on his back. He swayed his great bulk from left to right from right to left. Silky just managed to skip between his chunky grey legs and carried on up the path.

The cages began to change. Instead of wire cages in which the monkeys and birds were, the cages now had thick iron bars. Silky started to feel a bit scared but decided to carry on anyway.

Then a great big roar sounded in her right ear. A huge hairy lion was barring his teeth at her and pawing at the bars. One big paw studded with claws came through the bars and nearly scratched Silky's back leg. It hurt badly and Silky jumped to the left. Another blood curdling roar blasted in Silky's left ear. It was a big panther that remembered well how sweet lambs tasted.

Silky panicked and began running wildly. She sped along the path between the legs and feet of people walking along. She ran and was even too scared to call her Mom. Suddenly the path came to a dead end in a circle surrounded with cages.

Oh, horrors - wolves! White wolves, grey wolves, bat-eared wolves and all kinds of wolves that Silky had only had nightmares about. Silky's heart was pounding wildly. She felt like she couldn't breathe. She was stuck. She had the choice of staying here surrounded by panting wolves panting their hot breaths all over her, or running back through the roaring and growling big lions and panthers. She started bleating softly.

She cried for her Mommy and for the warm safe arms of her shepherd. But they didn't know where she was! Suddenly Silky saw a pair of sandals on the ground in front of her. She recognized those feet. Strong arms picked her up off the ground and lifted her to a strong chest. It was her shepherd!

"How did you know where to find me?" Silky sobbed. The shepherd gave her a kiss between her wooly ears. "I followed you all the way from the farm. I kept out of sight so that I wouldn't spoil your fun, but I knew that I had to keep an eye on you. You are my naughty sheep and you often don't listen. But I love you very much, and you keep my heart warm at night, so I had to make sure that you would be OK."

The shepherd started walking back to the farm animals to find Silky's Mom. When they got there, he just put her down next to her Mommy and walked off quietly to sit on a distant bench. Silky watched and saw that the shepherd never took his eyes off her. Mom hadn't noticed anything. She was still talking to her friend. Silky was glad. Then Mommy said that it was time to go back to their farm and the shepherd. Silky didn't say anything, but she thought: "We've been with him all the time! He never leaves us! Silky promised herself that she would spend an extra long time on the shepherd's lap that evening and really warm him for a long time!

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