Salamander Rescue Read online

  Dr. Kate laughed. “That’s right. The dye won’t last forever, but I like it better than some of the other ways of marking salamanders.”

  “Like what?” Tyler asked. “Couldn’t you just take a picture of each one? I bet you could tell them apart by the stripes down their backs. I think they do that with orcas near Vancouver Island.”

  Dr. Kate nodded. “You’re right. Their stripes are unique, just like an orca’s fin or a human fingerprint, but I would need a computer program to sort that out. Still, that’s better than chopping off one of their toes.”

  Cricket and Tyler gasped.

  “That’s so mean!” Shilo said. She had another salamander cupped in her hands.

  “Some scientists say it doesn’t hurt the salamander, but nature gave them two long toes for a reason. I don’t think we should cut them off.” Dr. Kate finished marking the salamander in Cricket’s hands. “You can put him in the grass now, Cricket.”

  Tyler tried to help, but holding a salamander in his hands gave him the creeps. He wandered down the road, studying the cement curb the construction crew had built a few months before.

  Cricket and Shilo worked steadily, but there seemed to be more salamanders than the night before. Shadows on the road grew longer, and the air cooled.

  “It’s nearly dark, Cricket. I have to go. Are you coming?” Shilo asked.

  Cricket looked at all the salamanders still on the road. “No, I’m going to stay and help.”

  “Okay, see you tomorrow.”

  It was completely dark by the time Dr. Kate and Cricket finished. As Dr. Kate packed up her equipment, Cricket looked around for Tyler. He was crouched at the curb, digging into his pockets.

  Cricket rolled her eyes. “Don’t you have enough rocks, Tyler?”

  “Nope.” He pointed to a small rock ramp that he had built over the curb. “I call it the Salamander Step.” Dr. Kate joined them and watched as a salamander easily climbed the ramp instead of trying to pull itself over the steep curb.

  “That’s brilliant, Tyler!” Dr. Kate said.

  Cricket couldn’t believe it. Tyler had finally found a purpose for all those rocks he carried around.

  Chapter Five

  The next night, all of the stones from the Salamander Step were gone.

  “What happened?” Cricket asked, walking up and down the curb, looking for the ramp Tyler had built the night before.

  “The rain this morning must have washed the rocks away,” Tyler said.

  “Or cars could have scattered them,” Shilo suggested.

  “Well,” Tyler said, shrugging his shoulders, “I guess it wasn’t such a great idea after all.”

  “No, it was a wonderful idea,” said Dr. Kate. “A permanent Salamander Step would be a great solution, but I’m not sure how we could do that.” She handed each of them a recycled bucket from the Pizza Palace.

  “I wish there was something more we could do to help,” Cricket said.

  “We are,” Shilo said, picking up three salamanders at the bottom of the steep, smooth curb. They were too tired to try climbing it anymore.

  “Let’s get these little guys measured and marked as quickly as possible,” Dr. Kate said. “They need to get into the cool grass.”

  It was easy to pick up the tired salamanders because they hardly squirmed at all. But Cricket worried that maybe some of them wouldn’t survive.

  “Long-toed salamanders are pretty sensitive,” said Dr. Kate. “There are all kinds of things that can harm them, not just birds or cars or this new curb.”

  “Like what?” Shilo asked.

  “I bet the salt is bad for them,” Tyler said.

  Dr. Kate nodded. “Only a little salt stays on the road until summer, but it’s enough to irritate a salamander’s moist skin. And there are other chemicals on the road and in the water that are bad too,” she said.

  “I wouldn’t want to swim in a lake full of chemicals!” Shilo said.

  “Neither do you, right, big guy?” Cricket said, holding a tiny salamander up close to her face.

  Everyone laughed. They continued working until it was almost dark and Shilo had to leave.

  “Is your friend not allowed out after dark?” Dr. Kate asked as she watched Shilo pedal away on her bike.

  “She just doesn’t like the dark,” Cricket answered. “Oh, Dr. Kate, look!” Dozens of salamanders were creeping out of the grass.

  “This is exciting. I think we’re getting pretty close to the peak of the migration,” Dr. Kate said.

  Chapter Six

  All night long Cricket tossed and turned. Her dreams were filled with salamanders. They piled up at the curb while she and Shilo scooped them up with their bare hands.

  In the morning Cricket was almost too tired to eat breakfast.

  “How’s the salamander project going?” her mom asked as she buttered a stack of toast.

  “Great, except for that new curb.”

  Warden McKay frowned. “Is there something wrong with it?”

  “It’s a good curb for the road and the cars, but not for salamanders. It’s too steep for them to climb,” Cricket explained. “Tyler used rocks to build a ramp that worked for one night, but we need something more permanent. If we had enough money to buy some cement, maybe we could build a proper ramp before the big migration.”

  Cricket held her breath. She knew that in Waterton, the park wardens made a lot of important decisions. If her dad said no, they would have to think of another idea.

  “We know where they like to cross the road,” she said. “So we could build the Salamander Step in that exact spot.”

  “Well, it sounds like a good project, if it doesn’t cause problems for cars. But how will you raise enough money?”

  “You could sell lemonade,” her mom suggested. “Remember last summer when you and Shilo had a lemonade stand? You made a lot of money—almost twenty dollars.”

  Cricket nodded slowly. It had taken them the whole summer to make that much money. Could they do it in just one day?

  An hour later the girls had a plan. Cricket would set up a small table and chairs at the park across from Pat’s Garage. Shilo would bring the lemonade and cups and a couple of sandwiches for their lunch.

  “How much should we charge for a cup of lemonade?” Shilo asked. “We need to make a bunch of money.”

  “But if we charge too much, we won’t sell any,” Cricket said.

  “How about twenty-five cents a cup? We’ll need to sell a hundred cups to make twenty-five dollars. Do you think we can sell that much in a day?”

  “I sure hope so. The salamanders need that ramp right away.”

  Chapter Seven

  The girls set up the lemonade stand in a cool spot in the shade of a big tree. They sold six cups of lemonade right away. But after that, nothing.

  “How’s business?” Tyler asked, crossing the street from Pat’s Garage. The parking lot bustled with tourists waiting to rent mopeds and bikes.

  “Terrible,” Cricket moaned. “Nobody even sees us over here. There’s no way we’ll make enough money to buy the cement today.”

  “Hmm. I’ll be right back,” Tyler said, turning around and going back across the street. “Just don’t go anywhere. The stand is perfect right where it is.”

  Shilo looked at Cricket and shrugged.

  “Come back with some money for lemonade!” Cricket yelled.

  “I’ll come back with something even better!” Tyler said as he disappeared into Pat’s Garage.

  A half hour passed, and the girls still hadn’t sold any more lemonade. Then Tyler and Will came out of Pat’s. They were grinning and carrying big posters.

  “This should help you make some money,” said Tyler, turning his poster so the girls could see it.

  SAVE OUR SALAMANDERS was painted in big green letters. Underneath that was a goofy-looking salamander with a yellow stripe down his back. He was drinking a cup of lemonade.

  “Look at mine,” Will said. His poste
r was decorated with two long-toed salamanders juggling bright-yellow lemons. Underneath them it said LEMONADE 25¢ A GLASS.

  “That’s great, you guys,” Shilo said.

  “And my dad said you could borrow this.” Will handed Cricket a giant bear-bell.

  She shook it, and it made a loud, musical sound. A few of the tourists across the street turned and looked at the kids.

  “It works!” Cricket said, ringing the bell loudly while the boys put up their signs.

  Immediately a group of tourists walked across the street to see what was going on. Soon the table was surrounded by hot and thirsty customers who were all curious about the salamanders.

  “I didn’t know Waterton had salamanders. What kind of salamanders are they?”

  “What are you going to use the money for?”

  “Why do the salamanders need saving?”

  “Do the salamanders really have long toes?”

  Cricket and Shilo tried to remember everything they had learned from Dr. Kate as they answered questions and served lemonade. Tyler looked after the money. Will refilled the jugs and got more cups.

  Even local people stopped to see what the fuss was all about. Everyone was interested, and everyone wanted to help.

  Chapter Eight

  By late afternoon all the lemonade was gone.

  “I think we sold a cup of lemonade to every person in the village,” Tyler said.

  “Uh-uh,” Shilo said, shaking her head. “More! I sold three cups to Mr. Tanaka.”

  “So did I!” Will said. “He must really like our lemonade.”

  Cricket opened up the money box and organized the coins into stacks, filling the whole table.

  “Sixteen,” Cricket said, counting carefully. “Is that right?”

  Shilo recounted the stacks of coins. “Yup. Sixteen dollars. That’s almost as much as we made all last summer,” she said in amazement.

  Tyler and Will high-fived.

  “Let’s see how much cement we can buy,” Cricket said.

  They piled everything in Shilo’s wagon and crossed the street to Pat’s Garage.

  “Well, how was business today, kids?” Pat Watson’s voice boomed from the back of the store. “Did you make enough money to rescue our salamanders?”

  “We sure hope so, Mr. Watson,” Cricket said. “It depends on how much cement costs.”

  Four bags of cement lay on the floor in the back corner of the store, between jugs of motor oil and a dusty old boat anchor.

  “Ten dollars a bag,” Mr. Watson said.

  “Oh.” Cricket’s smile faded. “I guess we can only afford one bag.”

  “Well, how much money did you make?”

  “Sixteen dollars,” Shilo said.

  “Well, you’re in luck, because there’s a discount for the Salamander Rescue Society. Two bags for sixteen dollars,” Mr. Watson said.

  “There’s only one problem, Dad,” Will said. “We have to pay you with sixty-four quarters.”

  Pat laughed and packed the cement into the wagon, along with a few buckets and a shovel. He handed Cricket a pair of thick rubber gloves, a mask and safety goggles. “Be sure to read the instructions carefully,” he said. “And good luck!”

  The kids took turns pulling Shilo’s wagon with the cement and supplies all the way to Salamander Hill. But Dr. Kate wasn’t there.

  “Hey, we beat her here,” Tyler said.

  “Well, we’re pretty early,” Cricket said. “The salamanders don’t start to cross the road until it’s nearly dark.”

  Tyler and Will unloaded the cement.

  “If we build the ramp now,” Cricket said, “do you think it will be ready for the salamanders to use tonight?”

  “I hope so.” Tyler picked up two of the smaller buckets. “We’ll go get some water from the lake while you open the bags.”

  Warden McKay stopped by as Cricket and Shilo were studying the instructions on the bags. He placed bright-orange pylons on the road to alert drivers of the construction project.

  Shilo giggled as Cricket pulled the safety goggles down over her eyes. “You look like a mad scientist,” she said. “Do you really need to wear all that stuff?”

  “Absolutely,” Warden McKay said. “Cement is corrosive, which means it could irritate or burn your skin and eyes. And you really don’t want to breathe it in either.” He put on gloves and a mask and helped Cricket dump the bags into the buckets. Then his radio crackled with news about a porcupine at the post office, and he headed back to his truck.

  “Thanks, Dad,” Cricket said. She stirred the heavy, gritty mixture while Tyler added water.

  “How do we know when it’s ready?” Shilo asked.

  Tyler looked at the instructions on the bag. “It’s supposed to look like thick oatmeal.”

  “Great. I haven’t had oatmeal in a long time.” Shilo stepped back. “Does that look about right?”

  “It looks good to me,” Tyler said.

  “Me too.” Cricket dug into the cement with a small shovel. “Let’s start building.”

  Traffic drove slowly past the kids as they worked. Curious tourists watched them through their car windows. Many people smiled and waved. Warden McKay checked on their progress again as he drove back into the village.

  In an hour the ramp was finished, and the kids went home for dinner. Cricket could hardly eat. What if the cement didn’t harden in time? What if Dr. Kate was wrong, and they had missed the big migration?

  Chapter Nine

  A cool, misty rain was falling as Cricket and Tyler pedaled back up the road. They had finished dinner quickly, and Cricket had thrown a few special supplies into her backpack before they raced out the door.

  Dr. Kate wasn’t there yet, and neither were Shilo and Will. But the salamanders sure were.

  “Wow, Cricket,” Tyler said, jamming on his brakes and skidding to a stop. “Look at all of them!”

  Salamanders scurried across the wet road. Salamanders crawled from the grass by the lake. Salamanders scrambled up the new ramp.

  “It works, Tyler! Your Salamander Step works!”

  Cricket and Tyler parked their bikes under a tree to keep dry. Dusk was falling quickly. More and more salamanders darted across the road and used the ramp to get over the curb.

  “Wow!” Dr. Kate said when she hiked up the hill and saw the ramp. “Did you kids do this?”

  “We sure did,” Shilo said, riding up with Will.

  “Well, it’s fantastic!”

  Cricket opened her backpack and gave everyone a flashlight. “And this is for you,” she said, handing Shilo a light with a strap to fit over her hat. “You turn it on here,” she said, clicking a switch.

  Shilo’s headlamp lit up the wet road. “Look!” she said.

  The road was alive! It quivered and wiggled as hundreds of salamanders scurried toward the mountain.

  “The rain must have triggered the migration,” Dr. Kate said. “Good thing I brought extra buckets. Look at all the babies!”

  All different sizes of salamanders scurried at their feet. There were big ones as thick as Cricket’s thumb and skinny ones smaller than her baby finger.

  The kids stood beside Dr. Kate and watched the migration. There was no way they could trap, measure and mark every salamander—there were just too many! Some salamanders had missed the ramp and were stuck, piling up on each other as they tried to scramble over the curb.

  “Come on, everyone. Let’s give them a lift,” Dr. Kate said as she gently scooped some salamanders up and over the curb with her hands.

  Suddenly the rumble of a truck engine shook the air. It was a deep rumble that Cricket could feel vibrating in her chest. It must be a big truck! Salamanders covered the road. There was no room for a big truck to drive around them. They had to do something quickly before the truck killed hundreds of salamanders.

  Chapter Ten

  “Shilo, can you get those pylons back onto the road?” Cricket grabbed her flashlight. “We have to stop that
truck.” She ran up the side of the road and waved her flashlight back and forth to get the driver’s attention as he came around the corner. Shilo and Will carried Warden McKay’s bright-orange pylons out to block the road.

  The truck slowed down quickly. It stopped four houses away and rumbled like a bear. Its headlights shone on Cricket like a giant spotlight. It was the big rig that delivered ice cream and milk to the businesses in the village.

  “Hey!” The driver stuck his head out of the truck’s window. “What’s going on here? What’s that all over the road?”

  “Hi, Mr. Dharwa,” Will called. “It’s the salamander migration. We could use your help.” Will offered Mr. Dharwa a bucket as he climbed out of his truck. The big rig blocked the road, and soon a line of cars was parked behind it. People got out of their cars to help.

  Cricket wasn’t surprised to see the flashing orange lights of her dad’s Park Warden truck.

  “This is quite a big job, Cricket,” her dad said.

  “It is,” Cricket said. “Dad, I want you to meet Dr. Kate.”

  “These kids have been a great help,” Dr. Kate said, shaking hands with Cricket’s dad. “They built the Salamander Step just in time too.”

  The ramp was covered with salamanders. Nearby, a bucket brigade of people helped lift more salamanders over the curb and take them to the grass.

  “The Salamander Step works, but it’s not wide enough,” Cricket said. “You know what we really need, Dad?”

  Warden McKay shook his head.

  “A tunnel. If the salamanders could go under the road, they would be protected from cars and birds and salt.”

  “A tunnel would solve all the problems,” Shilo nodded.

  Warden McKay looked from the mountain to the lake. “That’s a really big project,” he said.

  “But a great idea,” Dr. Kate added.

  “I guess we would need to raise lots more money,” Shilo said.