Near a dark forest, there stood a small cottage. A grandfather and a grandmother lived in it. Each holiday, their granddaughter Anette came to visit them. A little girl with brown hair as straight as nails and an enchanting smile. She spent every free day at her grandmother’s and grandfather’s cottage. But one holiday, something happened that Anette would never forget.
It was springtime. Anette had a week of spring break from school. And from the very first day, she spent it at her grandmother and grandfather’s cottage by the forest. She loved going on walks in the forest and sitting by a small stream which ran through the forest. She watched the frogs that hopped around the stream, she observed the salamanders as they chased each other around, hiding behind pebbles, and she listened to the chitter-chatter of the birds. But during that spring break, she also heard a strange noise in the forest. It was a sound that she didn’t know. It was coming from a bush that grew by the stream. Anette was curious, so she went to see what or who was making the sound.
As she approached the bush, she saw a little baby otter in it. It lay there, looking weak and hungry. Anette looked around, trying to spot the little otter’s parents, but there were no other otters around. Without hesitation, she scooped up the little otter in her sweatshirt and ran towards her grandmother’s and grandfather’s cottage with it. They would surely know what to do. As she approached the house, she called from a distance: “Grandma, grandpa, help me!”
When the grandparents heard their granddaughter’s call for help, they ran out of the cottage. When they saw what Anette was carrying in her sweatshirt, a life-saving operation immediately began. Grandpa called an animal rescue station. Within minutes, a vet who took care of stranded animals arrived. He took the baby otter with him to the station and praised Anette for saving the baby animal’s life.
As time passed, the little otter grew and thrived at the rescue station. Now Anette wasn’t visiting just her grandma and grandpa during holidays, but she also regularly went to see her small otter friend. But once the otter was back to full health and old enough to live in the wild, they couldn’t release it. That’s because it was afraid of water. And otters in the wild love water. That’s where they catch their fish. But this otter didn’t like water at all. She was used to getting her food from humans and didn’t want to even dip a paw in water. Even though tasty fish live in it.
But Anette was a clever and patient girl and so she arranged with the caretakers that whenever she would come for a holiday at her grandmother’s and grandfather’s, she would teach the otter to get used to water. If the little otter learned that, it could be released at least into a nature reserve. That’s something like wild nature, but people still supervise it. And so whenever Anette arrived for a holiday, she would go see the otter. She kept on trying to figure out how to teach the otter to go into the water. And then she had an idea. Anette dressed in a brown swimsuit so that she wouldn’t scare the otter very much. She entered a small lake which they had at the rescue station and showed the tastiest fish to the otter. The otter stretched forward, but it couldn’t reach the fish. But it smelled so good that the otter did take a few steps into the water after all. It quickly grabbed the fish and then immediately leapt back onto the bank. And that’s what Annie did every day. But she kept going further and further into the water. So that the otter would have to venture further in as well.
It took several weeks, but finally the otter realized that water wouldn’t do it any harm. On the contrary: it felt pleasant and you could play in it and swim and find tasty treats. Anette was happy. Not only had she saved the otter when it was a baby, but she had also taught it to live in the water. Today, Anette is all grown. But she still likes visiting her grandmother and grandfather at their cottage and she also likes stopping by the nature reserve where her friend the otter lives a happy life.
