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there, right at the front, side by side, stood my little girls. I bent by the bars and reached in.
    “Come here, girls.” They didn’t move. “It’s me … it’s your mommy.”
    Of course, I wasn’t really their mother, but I had been there when they were born. Vladimir had had to deliver one of them, because their mother was having trouble. He was able to help the second of the twins, but the mother hadn’t lived. That was one of the saddest things that I had ever seen in my whole life. Because their mother was dead, we had to wash and feed them. Since it was me who did most of it, the two little deer had decided I was their mother.
    As I watched, one of them walked up to another deer and began suckling! The second one quickly joined the first.
    “They have new mommy to feed,” Vladimir said.
    “That’s great,” I said. “I guess that means they don’t need me. Although I’d hoped they’d at least remember me and —” I stopped as a soft little mouth started to suckle on one of my fingers. Then a second deer grabbed another finger.
    “Nobody ever forgets their mama,” Mr. McCurdy said.
    “Can we take them out?” I asked. “Can we?”
    “They’ll be among the very first animals we take out. But first we have to give ’em all some food and water, and then let them calm down after the trip.”
    “Good plan,” Vladimir said. “After the animals have had food and water, they are easier to handle. Then we move them into new pens.”
    “Well, we have one more step to do before that,” Mr. McCurdy told him.
    Vladimir gave him a questioning look.
    “We still have to build the pens.”

Chapter 4
    I walked slowly up the wooden ramp to the back of the trailer. It slumped slightly under the combined weight of me and the two buckets of water I was carrying. The buckets were full to the brim, and they kept bumping into my legs, spilling water over the edge. The lower part of my pants and my high-top basketball shoes were soaked. With each step my feet squished.
    As soon as I entered the trailer, every eye was on me. The animals surged forward, coming closer to the bars of the pens. This was my twenty-third trip, and each time I’d returned with my full buckets, the water I’d brought on the previous trip had already vanished. I was amazed at how much water they could suck down. Then again, it was a hot day inside a metal trailer and there were a whole lot of rather big animals in here. I was hot, and I was just wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Each of them was wearing a fur coat. Thank goodness Vladimir had moved the trucks into the shade so the sun wasn’t beating directly on them anymore.
    I put one bucket down, and with both hands emptied the second into the trough in the deer’s pen. They all pushed and jostled and bumped one another to get at the water. My poor little babies scrambled underneath everybody else’s feet. Even their adopted mother didn’t seem to be giving them any special care.
    “Be careful!” I yelled. “They’re just babies!”
    They ignored me. The little ones seemed to be doing okay, though. The deer, Samantha and Sarah, both managed to get their noses into the water. They were getting bigger and more able to care for themselves. But even when they were fully grown and bigger than I was, I’d still be worried about them. My mother told me that was what parenthood was all about.
    I reached for the other bucket. It was gone! How could a bucket just disappear? It must be somewhere or —
    “Peanuts!” I yelled. The bucket was beside the elephant’s pen, and he was drinking the water. He must have reached out and pulled the bucket close enough so he could drink. I grabbed for the bucket. It was completely empty. Boy, could elephants drink!
    “Obviously you’re all still thirsty,” I said to the animals.
    Vladimir had told me I was to keep getting water until the trough was full and they turned their noses up when I offered them more. That looked as if it was going to be