The Animal Thief

 

The Animal Thief

Comprehension strategy 1 – INFERRING Using clues from the surrounding words, work out what words are missing. (the story below.)

Comprehension strategy 2 – SUMMARISING  Summarise the story in 20 words , including Who, where, when and the 3 most important whats. There’s an animal thief in town. Zoe finds the animals, calls the police Zoe keeps a budgie. (3 words left)

Comprehension strategy 3 – MAKING CONNECTIONS Personal connection. Relate this story to something that has happened to you or people you know in your own life; or what other book or film is it similar to. How is it the same, how is it different? It’s like when my rabbit went missing because we put up lost posters. It’s different because nobody stole her.

Comprehension strategy 4 - Rereading for comprehension Where does the main character do volunteer work? The vet

Comprehension strategy 5 - Developing vocabulary Find the meanings or synonyms for 5 of the words below. Remember some words have more than one meaning. You must choose the meaning that fits the word as it is used in the text. Tip - in Google type in “synonym for ______”  Frantic delicately injured familiar anxiously cautiously Delicately - lightly - softly - precisely - gracefully.  Injured- hurt- wounded- sore- harmed- damaged- bruised. Swung- sway- flutter- flap-vibrate- rock- wag-wave- dangle. Thief- robber- shoplifter- pickpocket- stealer- mugger. Frosty- freezing- ice-cold-bitter- crisp.

Comprehension strategy 6 - Visualisation Imagine you are the main character in  the final part of the story when she  is sneaking into the thief’s house. Complete these sentences: I can see cages, animals and a damp room. I can see  cobwebs, a small window and photos. Physically, I can feel wobbly, like a ballerina (leaping out of a window)and frozen. My emotions include  scared, excited and nervous.

The Animal Thief

By Zoe

Splat! Lily looked up to see something small and blue slide limply down the frosty window and off  the windowsill with a  thump. In a flash of  orange Lily’s kitten Maizy  sped over to the little blue bird. Quickly Lily dove at her cat and scooped her up holding her close, “That poor bird’s not for you”. Lily  carefully put Maizy down and ran through the snow to the small bird. holding it delicately in her hand she rolled it over onto its back.

One of its blue wings was bent on a weird angle and it had a small cut under one of its small black eyes. It tried to move its head but the effort made it lay back down, closing its eyes. “Mum!” Lily called “Muuum! Come have a look at this!”Mum walked over, frowning.

“No yelling please Lily, what’s wrong?”

 “There’s an injured budgie over here, I saw it fly into our window!”

Lily lay the bird down and found an empty shoebox in the garage and lined it with newspaper and then a soft, fluffy blanket. She carried it over to the budgie and carefully lay him inside it. Mum came over and peered into the box tipping her head to one side “I think he needs to go to the vet” she said, “Fast.”

Lily quickly lifted up the shoebox and carried it over to the door while Mum grabbed the keys and hurried after her. After a short drive they reached the vet, the same one they took Maizy to and they walked into the waiting room. Lily breathed in the lovely smell of the animals and looked around at the familiar room. She came here quite often because she volunteered here after school some days. Lily walked up to the counter and told Mary the receptionist what had happened. She gently passed over the box “You may leave but I’ll call if we find anything.” Mary carried the budgie and it’s box into a small room at the end of the hallway and shouldered open a heavy white door which swung closed behind her.

Lily and Mum slowly walked out to the car, Mum grasped my hand and squeezed it, “He’ll be alright.” When they got home Lily walked slowly up the stairs and into her bedroom and dropped onto her bed. “I wonder why that bird was loose?” she thought. “ You wouldn’t just let a bird like that loose. Maybe it just escaped.” Lily decided to make up some lost posters for the budgie and she walked around the small town hanging them on lampposts and in shop windows.

When hanging the last poster up in the library she saw a lot of other posters and fliers and most of them were animals gone missing and there was also a wanted poster for an animal thief. “Now I’m getting somewhere,” thought Lily, pulling the poster off the window, tucking it into her pocket, and running home.

She only stopped when she reached her bedroom and sat down at her messy desk. After pushing her other stuff onto the floor she laid out the poster. He must have had the Budgie. Just then the phone rang, it was probably the vet! Lily ran downstairs and over to the phone but her mum had got there first. Lily cuddled Maisy nervously trying to listen to the conversation. Mum walked into another room and closed the door, I slowly walked up to my bedroom.

I grab my Ipad and googled animal thief, immediately it comes up with photos of the same person on the poster. I looked deeper into the web and found that he has been known to hang around this neighbourhood. That was probably why there were so many other lost animal posters around.

Lily picks up Maizy who had been pawing anxiously at her chair and places her on her lap. Just then her Dad stuck his head around the side of the door “Dad!” cried Lily “Do you have the newspaper?”

“Yes, why?” said Dad, surprised.

“Can you go get it?” pleaded Lily.

“Ok” said Dad confused.

When Dad returned with the newspaper Lily ripped it open and turned to the crime section. Right in the middle of the page was an article about an animal thief! Lily read on and found out that last night he had been seen on cameras at the local pet shop with a sack. Not bothering to grab a coat Lily put on her shoes and ran out the door. Soon she was at the pet shop.  She stepped into the shop and gasped,  the cages were all hanging open and papers were scattered all over the floor with the frantic shop keeper in the middle of it on her knees.

“Did the animal thief do this?” stuttered Lily.

“Yes he came and destroyed everything and took all the animals!” cried the shop keeper desperately.

“Hmm” said Lily wandering around the shop. “Why didn’t I think of that!” yelled Lily excitedly “There will be footprints in the snow!”

She ran outside and scanned round “Great, big large footprints!” thought Lily and she sprinted down the road. After 10 minutes she slowed down to a walk. After an hour she started to feel quite hungry and tired, she had walked to the edge of the city and the footprints were turning into an alleyway and they stopped at the door of an old apartment.

Walking around to the other side of the house she peeped through a frosty window. There they were, cages and cages of animals all with photos and names on them! She pulled on the edge of the window and it gradually opened. Lily clambered through and dropped cautiously into the damp room she tiptoed over to the nearest cage. Brushing away some cobwebs she pulled on the catch, it was locked. Suddenly she heard footsteps! Lily ran and dived out the window pushing it closed behind her. Crouching down she grabbed her phone and informed her parents and the police what had happened.

Soon some police cars came whizzing down the alleyway and Lily waved gratefully at them, glad she was not alone. A few minutes later her Mum arrived looking very worried and pale. Lily ran into Mum’s arms and squeezed her tight. “Good news!” said Mum “ the budgie is all right!” Mum drove Lily home but on the way they picked up the budgie. The budgie was still in the shoebox but he had a bandage around his wing. Then they got a call from the police saying that the thief was in jail.

“Where will all the animals go?” asked Lily, anxiously. “Well,” said Mum, smiling “All the animals went back to where they came from. All except for one… the budgie! Do you want to keep him?”