Alexis and the Lake Tahoe Tumult - Erica Rodgers [8]
“What’s this building?” asked Alexis.
“This is the building where we start your documentary!” said Lisa. She jumped out of the jeep and trotted off through the snow. “C’mon! Follow me!”
Bailey grabbed the video equipment off the seat next to her and followed Alexis out of the car. The snow was knee deep, and Bailey had a hard time keeping up with the two taller and older girls.
“You want me to carry something else?” called Alexis.
“No thanks!” said Bailey. “I’m almost there!”
Lisa was waiting for them at the door to the barn. When they got close, she put her finger to her lips to signal them to be quiet. She opened the door and ushered Alexis and Bailey inside.
The room was dark, and the only noises were a small series of squeaks coming from the farthest corner of the barn. Lisa flipped a light switch, and a few lightbulbs flickered to life above their heads. The barn was warmer than Alexis had expected it to be.
There must be heaters in here, she thought.
Lisa peeled off her coat, and Alexis and Bailey did the same. After hanging them on pegs near the door, Alexis and Bailey walked quietly over to the corner where Lisa was. It was the same corner the squeaks were coming from.
“What are those things?” asked Bailey. “Baby mice?”
Tiny brown bodies huddled together in the bottom of the cage. The only body parts Alexis could really see in the pile of fluff were a bunch of round, pink ears. Maybe Bailey was right. They sure did look like mice.
“No, they’re not mice.” Lisa laughed. “They’re baby bats.”
“What?” whispered Alexis.
“That’s so cool!” Bailey said.
“Yeah,” said Lisa. “We’ve been taking care of these for a while now. Eventually, when it gets warmer and they get bigger, we’ll be able to let them go. But right now they don’t have any parents, so they don’t have a way to get food.”
Lisa opened the cage and took out one of the little creatures.
“Wait!” said Alexis. “Let me get out the camera!” She took the bag from Bailey’s shoulder and pulled out the camera. It was fully charged and had a new disk in it already. “Ready, Bailey?”
“Ready!” Bailey said. They had decided that Alexis would run the camera and that Bailey would do most of the on-camera work. Alexis loved movies and usually did her own commentaries when filming. But she knew how much Bailey longed to be a star. She knew that giving the younger girl the turn in front of the camera would be a gift that would make Bailey happy. And since Bailey was younger, Alexis figured it would make her feel more confident and sure of herself around the other Camp Club Girls.
“This is a baby California Myotis bat,” said Lisa. She brought the small animal closer to the camera and stretched out one of its wings. With the wings expanded, the bat was much bigger than Alexis had expected it to be.
“At first we fed them on milk,” said Lisa. “We twisted the corners of small rags, dipped them in warm milk, and let the baby bats suck the milk out of the rags. Now they’re big enough to eat bugs.”
She placed the bat back in its cage and pulled a jar from a nearby shelf. Using a spoon, she scooped what looked like maggots out of the jar and sprinkled them into the bottom of the cage, which looked like it was covered with a fine mesh.
“The mesh allows their little claws to grab hold,” said Lisa.
“So they can crawl to get the food, right?” Bailey asked.
“Yup! Look!”
Sure enough, the baby bats had detached themselves from their pile and were crawling toward the wiggling food. Alexis had never seen anything so gross and so cool at the same time. She taped the feeding. Then she put the camera on a tripod so it would tape while she and Bailey helped Lisa clean out the owl cages.
Baby great horned owls sat above them on branches, watching curiously. They were big, even for babies. Each one was about eighteen inches tall, and their fluffy baby feathers made them look even bigger.
“I don’t know why on TV owls are always shown as spooky or around scary places,” Alexis said. “They don