Chapter 6:
I don't own Wild at Heart but I would be ecstatic if I did =)
All but one of the lions had died two days before Leopards Den heard about the return of the Trevanion's and now the last one way dying. Why did this have to happen? Ed thought. He was a vet but not a great one like Danny Trevanion. He could not pick up on early symptoms of diseases like he, or even Alice and Rosie for that matter. All three of them were better vets than he was so now maybe it was time for him to take control of the veterinary side of things to the expects. But Danny did not know about his precious lions, how all but one was gone so Ed decided to radio Dupe instead.
'Dupe. Are you there? And are you alone?' Ed said. He needed to make sure he was alone so that their secret would not get out.
'Yeah Ed?' Dupe questioned. Ed was such a nuisance, what did he want now he thought.
'Dupe we have a problem. The very last lion, it has some symptoms that could just be a normal sickness but it could also be rabies. Loss of appetite, it does not look as if it has eaten in days and it is drooling a lot which can lead to the foaming of the mouth.'
'I don't know Ed I'm not the Vet!' he said. Ed was so thick sometimes. 'I think it is time we told Danny and Alice.' He continued. 'I'll go check the fences and you can come and tell them. Yeah?' he continued. He could not break the news to Danny that his precious lions had died. Yeah they had sent off blood samples and blah blah blah but they had not come back yet? Could that have been rabies too?
'You cheat. We can do it together.' Ed and his words of reason always seemed to drag Dupe into these sorts of situations. 'Oh and I will cull the lion, just in case.' He said before telling dupe to meet him at the house.
…
Danny and Alice were sitting in their rooms with Robbie and Charlotte. After their first night they were deciding what they were going to do on their first few days back. They had a few ideas and were still talking when they heard Dupe calling their names. The distress in his voice made Alice hand Robbie to Charlie and move alongside Danny very quickly.
Once they got outside they saw Dupe and Ed standing in front of Caroline, Nomsa, Liv, Evan, Fatani and Fiona. This was going to be hard. As the co-owner of Leopards Den is was in particular Ed's responsibility, and with Dupe's two fists 'Reasoning' and 'Understanding' Ed was son convinced that he should tell everyone what had happened.
But that would not detract from how hard it was going to be for him to tell the other owner of Leopards Den that the lions that he got from his late father were all dead. There were so many ideas running through his head about how it was going to go down. They now had a lot of endangered species on their land and if the all contracted Rabies it would have to start again. So he decided it would be best if he just came right out and said it.
'I think we have a rabies outbreak.' He said. He winced a little as he saw everyone's faces as they looked at him. 'Danny I am very sorry but all of your lions are dead. They went missing for 2 days just before you told us you were coming home and then we found all but one of them dead. We sent blood off to the Lab but they have been really busy and we have not received an answer yet.' He said. And that was all that he was going to.
It was Danny who responded to this first with and it shocked Ed. 'So you did not think to tell us you aristocratic fool. Rabies is dangerous not only to the animals, but the people too. We need to start vaccinating the animals ASAP; we have a lot of endangered animals to think about.'
'Right so I suggest that we firstly start with vaccinating ourselves and Cassidy.' Alice said. Rabies was dangerous and they needed to make sure that everyone was safe. She knew that she was now in the right place but she could not help but wonder if she had done the right thing.
Leopards Den currently had four qualified Vets but unfortunately Rosie was still in Cape Town and would not be back for two more days. So that left them with 3 vets, Dupe and the now re-employed Mara Rangers. They would be able to make a reasonably start, but they still had to wait and see about the blood test results.
As they moved out they went in groups of two to both Ed and Dupes dismay they were stuck together. Why did this always have to happen?
The day passed on, and it was about lunch time when they heard from the Lab. It was officially confirmed that there was a rabies outbreak at Leopards Den and Mara.
With a short break they got back to work. They had already darted most of their endangered species which were on the Leopards Den side and were moving out now to see if there were any infected animals on Leopards Den. Luckily there were fences separating Leopards Den and Mara so that the endangered animals could re-populate better we up so hopefully it would only be Mara that was infected.
…
At the end of the day they all came back to Leopards Den. They had nearly finished all the animals there and so far could not find any infected animals. With Leopards Den almost in the clear, the inhabitants of Leopards Den and Mara too of course were feeling very pleased with themselves but there was still a brand new day ahead of them and who knew what would happen?
It's interesting how it was Rabies that Brought Alice to Leopards Den and it was there when they got back. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that all is well on our favourite game reserve in Africa hey!
Now got have some fun and be wild at heart =)
musicgirl97…..