More little animal stories, from the perspective of this girl who helps at her uncle’s veterinary hospital. This volume has three stories- the first is longer and comprises two chapters. It’s also rather unsettling. Yuzu and a friend meet an older woman who keeps cats. They’re admiring some brand-new kittens in her yard, and Yuzu’s friend is excited that her own cat is expecting kittens, even though the vet had advised her to get it spayed. Things happen, the old lady has a fall and can’t live at home anymore. The girls are shocked to learn that the inside of her house is full of cats, and in filthy condition. Animal hoarding. It started out innocently enough- the old lady and her husband (now deceased) had found comfort in their two cats, so didn’t mind when they had kittens- more cats made them feel even more wanted and loved. But the cats kept breeding, and when the woman was older and alone, she couldn’t take care of them properly. This story goes all the way with the subject material- animal control coming to collect the cats, the old lady in despair at loosing them, Yuzu’s friend realizing she shouldn’t have let her own cat have kittens, agreeing to get her spayed after the little ones are born, the girls spreading the word via fliers and online to help the rescued cats find new homes, and the old lady in the end feeling remorseful and begging to keep her two oldest cats again. Whew, the drama! But a good ending.
In the second story, Yuzu meets a high-schooler who owns a parakeet. She’s never seen a bird up close before, so her animal fears come to the front again- she’s alarmed when it lands on her head, and finds it’s “bowing” gesture threatening- is the bird going to attack? She’s surprised to see how intelligent the bird is, and how close the bond with its owner. One day on an errand to return an item to the bird’s owner, she bursts into the apartment because she heard yelling. (I found this very odd because in an earlier story, Yuzu was shocked and appalled when her friend walked onto someone else’s lawn to see a cat. And now she’s just marching into someone’s apartment!). She finds out that the girl is a writer, and the bird is her audience while she’s working. But some of her long hours are disrupting the bird’s natural daily rhythms, to its demise (I didn’t know how essential sunbathing is for birds). After seeing the vet and learning why her parakeet is doing poorly, the writer struggles to adjust her schedule and do things differently to support both of them. Yuzu helps as much as she can.
Final story is about a dog going blind from a disease, and an over-protective mother. The mother is super protective of both her child and the dog. So the girl in the family, although older than Yuzu, seems much younger and is very timid, because she’s hardly ever allowed to do anything. Likewise the dog is going around bumping into things and stumbling over curbs, but the mother refuses to allow it to have training to overcome its growing disability. Instead she wants to keep it shut up in a cage at home, bring it puppy pads to use instead of taking it out on walks, etc. Yuzu’s uncle finally intervenes, showing them how well the dog can learn to navigate its surroundings, still enjoys chasing a ball, etc. That its natural abilities- far better hearing and sense of smell than humans- make this easy for it. When the mother recognizes how her overbearing attitude has held the dog back, she also comes to a sudden realization that she’s overprotected her child all these years, too.
This seems to be a repetitive theme with these stories- girl and pet have a problem, Yuzu and the vet get involved, the family realizes the animal’s issue reflects something the parent is doing wrong, or an ongoing conflict their children have with each other, and suddenly they resolve to change things and do better. I’m sure these parallels are appealing to kids (the series is written for 10-14-year-olds) and make the lessons easier to see, they’re nicely done. But it just feels a bit over the top sometimes, and slightly too obvious for me.
Borrowed from the public library.
Another from the boxed set. I’m almost done with all the 500’s! Same in quality: thin flimsy pieces, some skin irritation (this one felt grimy), ribbon cut with only one piece shape. This one was nice to assemble though, it had enough interesting things going on in the picture. The hardest parts to do were the corn crib and all the grass at the end. I liked the many subtle details. There are ten pheasants in the painting,
