"How are we going to get inside?" Asked Craig. "We have no money, and they won't let us in without paying."
"We're going to sneak in." Said Wildernessa. "I have a plan. Cheesesticks, when you see a person walking into the zoo, make sure to follow him as if he owned you. Okay?" The large dog nodded his head in agreement. "Everyone else, follow me!" Craig, Kelsey, JP, and Mortimer followed Wildernessa to behind a tree, and Cheesesticks started following a man heading for the zoo entrance.
"Stop!" Said the gatekeeper. "No pets allowed."
"What pet?" Asked the patron.
"That huge dog behind you!" Said the gatekeeper. The patron turned around and saw a Tibetan Mastiff behind him.
"He's not my dog." Said the patron, but then, Cheesesticks licked him with 'happiness'.
"He's not, eh?" Asked the gatekeeper.
"Why, certainly not." Said the patron.
"Then why did he lick you?"
"I don't know, sir. I didn't even know he was there!"
"We don't allow pets in our zoo for a reason, mister. Suppose your cat, dog, or rodent was carrying fleas or ticks? They could jump or walk off of their hosts and suck blood from our chinchillas, Addra's gazelles, lemurs, and okapis! And suppose your fish jumps into our pond? It could spread ich among our newts, salamanders, and Panamanian golden frog, which is practically extinct in the wild!" While the two men were arguing, Craig, Kelsey, JP, Mortimer (hiding in Kelsey's hair), and Wildernessa snuck through the gate, and Cheesesticks followed.
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Once the gang got inside, JP decided to ask what to do next.
"What should we do now?" He asked.
"Next," Wildernessa answered. "We need to get the keys. Once we have the keys, we can go in any building we want."
"Mortimer can do this!" Said Kelsey, as the bird emerged out of Kelsey's hair. "He is the last thing a zookeeper would expect to steal keys. Up for the job, Mortimer?" Mortimer tweeted in agreement.
"Great!" Said Craig, grabbing a map. "We'll meet you at the Animal Ambassadors building. It's at the right of the Polar Bear Watch, but at the left of the Maryland Wilderness. You can get there, right?"
"Of course he can, Craig!" Said Kelsey. "He can fly from the stump back at the Creek to the Splintery Butt within three minutes! You can do it, right, Mortimer?" Mortimer nodded his head yes and flew off to find some keys, while the kids and dog headed to the Animal Ambassadors building.
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After flying for a few minutes, Mortimer spotted a zookeeper cleaning up the elephant area. In his pockets, something shiny was poking out. It must be the keys!
"This is so embarrassing." He thought to himself out loud. Suddenly, he saw a green parakeet flying in front of his face.
"I don't remember having a parakeet at the zoo." He said. "But you would make a nice meal for our bobcat!" Mortimer quickly flew behind the zookeeper and headed for his pockets. He pulled a keychain out, to his surprise, and flew off.
"I need a different job." The zookeeper said to himself.
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Meanwhile, the kids and Cheesesticks made it to the Animal Ambassadors building, and they were waiting for Mortimer.
"He should be here any minute." Said Kelsey. As luck would have it, Mortimer arrived with the keychain in his tiny clutches.
"Great!" Said Wildernessa, grabbing the keys from the parakeet. "Cheesesticks, you go find Mark. Got it?" The Tibetan Mastiff tilted his head, meaning he didn't know.
"I know how he can find him!" Said Craig, pulling out a dust bunny from his sack. It weirded the other kids out, though. "What? It's from his car, and dogs have a great sense of smell! Can you sniff this out, boy?" Craig gave the dust bunny to Cheesesticks, letting him smell it. He immediately recognized the smell and ran out of the zoo to find Mark.
"I just hope he won't get hit by a car." Said Kelsey.
"He won't." Assured Wildernessa. "He's a smart dog. Now, let's go inside." Wildernessa carefully unlocked the door and slowly opened the door. Inside was a classroom that would be held daily to teach kids and adults about exotic animals from around the world. Thankfully, there was no one inside. When the kids and Mortimer made it inside, JP noticed an 'Employees Only' door next to a chalkboard.
"I think I know where the animals are, guys." Said JP, pointing to the door. Craig, Kelsey, Mortimer, Wildernessa, and JP were about to walk into the secret room, but then, they heard squawking. It was Echo, the zoo's African Grey Parrot.
"Squawk!" He said. "Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Squawk!" Kelsey took out her foam sword and was ready to fight, but was stopped by Wildernessa.
"What's the matter with you?" She said. "He's an Endangered Species! Besides, he would bite through your sword with his strong beak."
"Then how do you stop him?" Asked JP.
"Squawk!" Said Echo. "Leave right now, or Echo will report to you."
"How about if we gave you a cracker?" Asked Craig.
"Keep talking." Said Echo.
"We're on a mission to free some animals from this zoo so we can release them back in the wild." Said Craig.
"Animals are better in captivity. Squawk!"
"But what about animals like lions, tigers, bears, elephants, crocodiles, and eagles? They belong in the wild, not some prison. If you want to rat out on us and send us back to Herkleston, then fine. All your feathered friends will eventually die here instead of experience life on the wild side." Echo let that sink in for a moment: He was one of the smartest non-primate animals in the whole zoo, and he has managed to open his cage numerous times and visit other exhibits. His friends like the blue-bellied roller, the Von Der Decken hornbill, the hadada ibis, and the fulvous whistling duck never had the chance to be, as humans say it, free as birds. He may have been a parrot, but he also had a conscious.
"Echo agrees to your terms. Squawk!" Replied Echo. "Only release seven from this building back in the wild. The rest is all up to you, but first, Echo still needs a cracker. Squawk!" Craig took the keys from Wildernessa and saw a cupboard that said 'Employees Only'. Craig opened it and saw packages of Eco-friendly coffee, a cage of crickets, some fruits, and a box of crackers. Craig opened a box up, pulled a cracker out, and gave it to Echo, who ate it all up.
"You may enter the secret room." Replied Echo, as he went back in his cage. "Squawk!" The gang then entered the door to the secret room, and then they saw four separate doors, each marked with different words: Mammals, Birds, Large Reptiles, and Misc.
"I call dibs on Large Reptiles!" Said JP.
"Mortimer and I will go in the Bird Room!" Said Kelsey.
"I'll go free some mammals." Said Wildernessa.
"Guess I'm going in the 'misk' room." Said Craig, in which he meant to say 'misc'. When Craig went inside, he saw some very exotic animals, including a monkey-tailed skink, an Egyptian tortoise, some Madagascar hissing cockroaches, a Mexican red-knee tarantula, and an Iranian eyelid gecko. When Craig looked at the reptile, he was reminded of his deceased pet: 88 Legs. He was an African giant millipede that Craig got when he was 8 years old. He was an easy pet to care for, as he was basically a giant caterpillar who would never become a butterfly. Rather than being given meat like your average cat or dog, 88 Legs was a herbivore, eating healthy leafy greens. But one day, while pretending to reenact a kaiju movie, the millipede was let out of his tank. However, he wandered off and entered Jessica's room. Jessica, being only four at the time, screamed at the sight of 88 Legs and crushed him with jumbo PEGO blocks. As the flashback ended, Craig felt a tear form in his eye.
"I'll never forget you, 88 Legs." He said out loud. Blink, the zoo's resident gecko, was watching with curiosity and confusion. Craig rubbed the tears away from his eye and looked at the lizard.
"Hi, there." Craig began slowly. "My name is Craig Williams. I am from Herkleston, Maryland. Would you like to come home with me?" Blink didn't understand what Craig was saying, but if it meant more than being trapped in a tank all day and only being let out to be held by these strange furless monkey-like creatures that populate the planet, then maybe it was worth it. Blink used his feet to walk on the walls of the tank to reach under the top of the lid. Craig pulled out the tank from his sack, opened up both tanks, grabbed Blink, and placed him inside the smaller tank. Craig grabbed the tank and exited the room.
"You'll love your new home." He told the gecko, placing the lizard his sack and returning to the classroom.
Author's Notes: The scene in which Cheesesticks tricks two men into arguing with each other is influenced by a similar scene in Lady and the Tramp, in which Tramp tricks a gentleman into getting into a fight with a police officer so he and Lady could get inside the zoo.
PEGO blocks, a spoof of the world-famous LEGO brand, were featured in the Clarence episode 'Detention'. At one point in that episode, Jeff, who looks like a Net User from Ralph Breaks the Internet, makes a likeness of himself out of PEGO blocks.
PEGO blocks, a spoof of the world-famous LEGO brand, were featured in the Clarence episode 'Detention'. At one point in that episode, Jeff, who looks like a Net User from Ralph Breaks the Internet, makes a likeness of himself out of PEGO blocks.
All the zoo animals you see in this story are actual animals at the Maryland Zoo. Echo the African Grey Parrot and Blink the Gecko can both be seen as Animal Embassadors in the Creature Encounters building. This is Echo...
And this is Blink.
A complete list of animals at the Maryland Zoo can be viewed here.https://www.marylandzoo.org/animals/meet-our-animals/
For a long time, I was going to have Craig free a tarantula to keep as a pet, but when the episode 'Alone Quest' aired, it revealed that Craig was actually afraid of spiders, so I had to change it to a gecko.
For those zoologists out there, I know that chimpanzees are prone to fleas and ticks as well, but they simply eat them off each other's back.
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