Page 36 of A New Family at Puddleduck Farm (Puddleduck Farm #6)

‘He knows you’re here,’ Connie said. ‘Please don’t move until I’ve caught him.’ She crouched and held out a piece of orange carrot. ‘It’s OK, my lad. They’re here to help. Come and get your carrot now.’

The rabbit barely hesitated before he hopped closer and began to take more pieces of carrot from her hands.

Phoebe had never seen anything like it in her life. It was heartwarming how much trust the little fellow had in a human.

Then Connie, still moving very slowly, bent down and picked the rabbit up. ‘Where would you like him?’

‘Just where you’ve got him is perfect,’ Phoebe said. ‘I’ll be as gentle and quick as I can.’

She unlatched her vet bag, took out the ready-prepared vaccine and went slowly across the grass. The rabbit barely flinched as she gave him the necessary dose while Connie continued calming him gently with her voice.

To her relief, there weren’t any obvious fleas, so hopefully they were in time with the preventative vaccine.

Phoebe stepped back again, giving Connie a few more moments with the rabbit before she released him.

They all watched as he ignored the other pieces of carrot on the grass and shot away swiftly through the hole in the hedge, and back to the safety of the field beyond.

For a few moments no one spoke.

The sun had just come out, bathing the garden in a wash of afternoon light, and Phoebe wondered if Marcus felt, as she did, that they had just witnessed something very special in that winter garden.

She cleared her throat. ‘I really hope this doesn’t affect your relationship with him in the future.’

‘I hope so too,’ said the old lady. ‘But to be honest, it’s more important to me that he’s safe.

It’s not a good disease to get. Manmade too.

I guess you vets know that. We humans introduced it to keep down the population.

And it’s decimated them.’ She paused. ‘As if we don’t do enough harm to our wildlife.

Flattening them on our roads, shooting them in their own environment, taking their habitat.

’ She gestured towards the field. ‘That will all be houses soon. They’ve just got the planning passed for Phase Two. ’

There was sadness in her voice.

‘Not all humans are anti-wildlife,’ Marcus said gently. ‘Look at what you’ve done today.’

Connie glanced at him and her blue eyes were very bright before she blinked rapidly.

‘It was a very small thing to do.’

‘You remind me of my grandmother,’ Phoebe said. ‘She’s been a voice for animals for as long as I can remember.’

‘What’s her name?’

‘Maggie Crowther – Crowther-May now. She started an animal sanctuary. You two would get on well.’

‘Is that Puddleduck Pets – the same place you came from?’

‘Yes, it is. We’re always looking for volunteers. If you ever had any spare time.’

‘I’ll think about it. You’d better come back in. I need to wash my hands. And pay you.’

They went back in and Connie and Phoebe washed their hands in turn, but Phoebe refused to take any payment.

‘Make a donation to Puddleduck Pets if you want to.’

Marcus got out one of the Voice for Wildlife posters he’d brought with him and handed it to Connie. ‘We started a campaign last year – to warn people of the pitfalls of keeping wildlife as pets.’

‘And is that what you thought I was doing, young man?’

‘No.’ Marcus blushed and backtracked. ‘OK, yes. You’re right. I did at first. But that was before I met you. You’d be a great person to head up our campaign. It needs someone like you.’

‘Someone like me being…?’ She looked at him keenly.

‘Someone who’s passionate. Someone who really cares.

Someone knowledgeable.’ His face was the colour of beetroot now, but he wasn’t stopping.

He was on a roll. He nodded vigorously. ‘And someone who maybe has a bit more time on their hands. Everyone at Puddleduck Pets is snowed under with looking after the animals, and the paperwork side of it all just gets pushed to one side. We need someone like you. Please say you’ll think about it. ’

Gosh, how far he’s come, Phoebe thought as she watched this little exchange. Marcus would never have been so forward when she’d first met him and now he was clearly hell-bent on co-opting Connie Samuels to head up the Voice for Wildlife campaign.

She was about to tactfully remind him that Connie might not appreciate this full-on sales pitch when she realised the old lady was nodding.

‘Do you know what? I think you might be right. It sounds like a great project. Can I get some more details? How much time would it take?’

In the end they didn’t leave for another hour. By which time Connie had confided she’d been a poet in her youth and had often written funny poems about animals.

‘I used to read them out at local pubs sometimes. Back in the days when Pam Ayres had just started up and everyone wanted to be a performance poet.’

‘Wow. So you don’t mind public speaking?’ Marcus exclaimed in delight.

‘Not if it’s in a good cause. No.’ Connie’s eyes shone. ‘And I can’t think of a better one than animals.’

She showed them some of her poems, which ranged from mildly humorous to sweetly poignant, and she promised to come over to Puddleduck Pets and talk to Maggie.

‘We can firm up the arrangements, once you’ve had a chance to think about it all,’ Phoebe told her. ‘I don’t want you to feel pressurised.’

‘I don’t,’ Connie assured her. ‘I feel inspired. Thanks again.’

Marcus was jubilant as they began the journey back to Puddleduck Farm. ‘I wasn’t being too pushy, was I? She was keen to do it, I could tell.’

‘She was.’ Phoebe navigated their way out through the maze of roads that made up the housing estate. ‘Although I am glad we gave her a cooling-off period, so to speak.’

‘Yes. But it just goes to show. You never can tell about people. You were right about the fact we shouldn’t jump to conclusions.’

‘Hmmm.’

Marcus cleared his throat. ‘Although there is one thing that’s still bothering me.’

‘Oh? What’s that?’

‘When we were talking earlier about prices. I think you might have got the wrong end of the stick.’

‘Go on…’

‘Yeah. I was kind of recommending you put your prices up, rather than give up charging anything at all.’ His eyes glinted with humour but he said it with such a straight face that Phoebe snorted with laughter.

And then they were both laughing so much that she had to pull over for a few moments to recover.