Clementine Goes Home: Tenses for Time and Order

Clementine Goes Home

1My aunt Rosa has cared for injured and orphaned wild animals for twelve years. She is a wildlife rehabilitator, which means she has special training and a permit to help wild animals that cannot survive on their own. Every spring, her garage turns into a small hospital for baby birds, rabbits, and squirrels. This year, though, her most unusual patient was an opossum.

2It all started on a rainy evening in April. Rosa was washing the dinner dishes when the phone rang. A neighbor had found a tiny opossum alone on her porch steps, and its mother was nowhere in sight. Rosa grabbed a towel and a small box and hurried next door.

3By the time I arrived the next morning, Rosa had already weighed the baby opossum and tucked it into a warm nest of soft cloths. It was about the size of a mouse, and its pink nose twitched while it slept. "If she drinks her formula and stays warm, she will grow quickly," Rosa told me. I decided to call her Clementine.

4For the next six weeks, I visited Clementine every day after school. At first, she was so weak that she slept almost all the time. Soon, however, she was climbing the sides of her box and gripping my finger with her long, bare tail. Rosa explained that an opossum's tail helps it hold on while it climbs.

5Now Clementine is almost ready to go home. She is much bigger than she was in April, and she has learned to find beetles and berries in Rosa's outdoor pen. Next week, we will carry her to the woods behind the house and open the door of her carrier. If everything goes as planned, she will have found a safe den by the time the leaves turn orange.

6I often think about that rainy night. If I were an opossum, I would want someone like Rosa to find me. Someday, I hope, I will help wild animals the way she does.