It was the following day, and Zoe had rushed back from school as quickly as she could, desperate to visit Shadow again. She had managed to persuade Meep to come along too, even though her lemur friend was still nervous about playing with the wild little wolf. All the way to the enclosure, they’d heard Shadow howling noisily, just like yesterday. But when they arrived and Shadow saw them both, he started barking happily and wagging his little tail. Zoe went straight over to him and knelt down, and Shadow gave her hand lots of excited licks.
Ethan said, “He looks very pleased to see you! You know, he hasn’t started to calm down yet. I’ve hardly been able to keep up with him today – I’m exhausted! He’s really keen to play-fight, like he would with other wolves in his pack.” Ethan showed her a few scratches on his hands and arms from where Shadow had got overexcited. “I brought him a new ball, but he chewed it up straightaway!” he added with a tired smile, nodding at a few shredded bits of blue plastic on the ground.
As soon as Meep heard this, he leaped straight on to Zoe’s shoulder. “I’m staying up here today!” the little lemur said firmly. “What if Shadow thinks I’m a bouncy ball too?”
“Don’t be such a scaredy-lemur,” Zoe whispered back when Ethan disappeared into a store cupboard to fetch something. “Shadow won’t hurt you!”
Ethan came back with a long, smooth plastic sheet and a tray of ice cubes. “But I have found something Shadow loves – watch!” he told Zoe.
He spread the plastic sheet out on the ground and shook the ice cubes into the palm of his hand. Shadow watched, his head cocked to one side and his tail wagging. Then Ethan slid the ice cubes along the piece of plastic – and with a yelp of excitement Shadow pounced after them! Zoe giggled as the funny little pup chased the ice cubes around the plastic, nudging them forward with his nose so that they shot away from him, and then sliding and skidding along behind them.
Finally, when they started to melt more, he crunched the cubes up noisily with his tiny teeth.
“That was so cute!” Zoe said, still laughing. “What other games have you been playing with him, Ethan?”
Ethan pointed to a black rubber bicycle tyre. It was full of holes and bite-marks. “I tried to teach Shadow how to fetch this tyre,” he said, “but he was more interested in chewing it to pieces than bringing it back for me to roll again. Do you want to have a go, Zoe?”
Zoe took the tyre from Ethan and held it next to her. Shadow pricked his ears up expectantly, watching her. As soon as Zoe rolled the tyre along the ground, he raced after it, his tail wagging. When he caught up with it he grabbed it in his mouth.
Then he started shaking it from side to side, making playful growling noises and chewing even more holes through the rubber.
“Shadow’s already bitten through three tyres today,” Ethan told Zoe. “Mr Pinch walked past earlier and was really cross about all the mess! I’ll have to go shopping for more toys tomorrow – although I bet Shadow will chew straight through whatever I give him to play with!”
“He really is pretty wild, isn’t he?” said Zoe.
Ethan nodded. “I think it might be to do with him being separated from his family,” he said. “It must have been really difficult for him. He’ll have been used to playing and wrestling with the other wolves in his pack.”
“Well, I’ve got some exciting news about that!” said a voice from behind them.
Zoe and Ethan turned round just as Great-Uncle Horace stepped into the enclosure. “What do you mean?” asked Zoe.
Great-Uncle Horace beamed. “We’ve found the rest of Shadow’s pack!” he explained. “They ran away from the fire that destroyed their home and took shelter several miles away. They have a few minor injuries, but with treatment they’ll be fine.”
“That’s really good news!” exclaimed Ethan.
“Yes, and now that they’ve been located, Shadow should be reunited with them,” added Great-Uncle Horace. “And because their territory was destroyed by fire, the best thing seems to be for them all to come to live at the Rescue Zoo.”
“That’s what you were being so mysterious about the other day, when you said you had a plan but you couldn’t tell us what it was!” Zoe realised.
Great-Uncle Horace nodded. “I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, my dear,” he explained. “I knew the fire rescue team in Alaska were searching for the pack, but we couldn’t be sure they would find them.”
Zoe looked carefully at Great-Uncle Horace. Even though he was telling them such a good piece of news, she realised that he was frowning anxiously. “What’s wrong, Great-Uncle Horace?” she asked. “You look worried.”
Great-Uncle Horace sighed. “Well, I’m afraid there’s a bit of a problem too,” he said. “You see, even though there were only four other wolves in the pack – Shadow’s mother, an older brother and two babies – and we have plenty of space for them to live here at the zoo, flying them over will be very expensive. We’re going to have to find some extra money from somewhere if we’re going to be able to reunite the pack with Shadow and treat them for their injuries here.”