Looking like an overweight tennis player, swinging a net instead of a tennis racket, the officer had chased the raccoon from one end of the court to the other. The raccoon stayed just out of reach as it quickly changed direction. The whole class had broken into laughter when the raccoon turned and darted between the officer’s legs. About 10 minutes into the chase, Mr. Peterson had entered the basketball court. Closing the gate behind him, he had tried to help the officer. Thinking that the sides had become unfair and Officer Z now had the advantage, Buddy's class started cheering for the raccoon. The girls named the raccoon “Ringtail.” The students chanted, "Go Ringtail. Go Ringtail!" Finally, with Mr. Peterson's help, Officer Z had managed to snare the raccoon along the edge of the fence. Actually, it looked more like the raccoon had accidentally run into the net while running away from Mr. Peterson, because Officer Z had been standing against the fence, breathing heavily, with the net resting on the ground (although that's not how Officer Z would retell the story later). After the raccoon had been placed safely in a cage in the back of the Pennsylvania Game Commission truck, Officer Z had come into the classroom to talk to Mr. Cruise. Buddy and the rest of the students had listened as Officer Z and Mr. Cruise talked quietly next to Mr. Cruise's desk. There was not another sound in the room. The kids were allowed to talk softly to one another when a visitor came into the room, but that time they wanted to hear what was being said. "Jim, this was a tough assignment. It took a lot of skill to capture that dangerous creature," Officer Z had said still breathing heavily and out of breath. He hadn’t realized that Mr. Cruise and the class had watched the whole comical adventure from their window. “Yes, I can imagine it was very difficult,” Mr. Cruise had responded with a smile, winking at his students. Officer Z had turned toward the students. "You can't imagine what I have just been through. There was a large raccoon on your basketball court. I spent a long time capturing the dangerous animal, but I have carefully placed it securely in a transfer cage on the back of my truck. “Girls and boys, never, let me repeat, never approach a wild animal, even if it appears to be tame. It may be very dangerous. If you see an animal showing unusual behavior or notice a nocturnal animal wandering about during the day, be sure to call me or one of my deputies." He continued, "My motto is, big or small, don’t stall, give Officer Z a call!” That's when his cell phone started to ring. “It's probably someone who needs me to capture another dangerous animal. As he turned around to wave goodbye to the class and moved toward the door he bumped directly into Ms. Kingcaid, Buddy’s language-arts teacher. She had been standing at the door with her hands on her hips. When she regained her composure, she snarled in a sharp tone, “Mr. Cruise, do you realize that your students are two minutes late for my language arts class?” “Grab your reading workbooks and library books,” Mr. Cruise had shouted. “We can’t keep Ms. Kingcaid waiting.” Officer Z had excused himself as he squeezed past Ms. Kingcaid in the doorway. They certainly were not built like skinny fashion models. Smiling at the memory of Officer Z and Ms. Kingcaid, Buddy was startled back to the present as the strange sounds suddenly became louder and closer. The weeds just a few feet away from him were moving indicating that something was approaching. Buddy’s first thought was to run, but his curiosity to see what would happen was stronger than his fear. Moving back several steps, he spread his legs apart. He placed his right hand on his hip while holding the walking stick/ski pole outward in his left hand like a sword fighter. He watched as the wave passing through the weeds reached the edge of the field. Whatever it was, it was coming closer and closer to Buddy. He felt his heart pounding, and he shivered uncontrollably. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up—in fact, all the hairs on his body seemed to be standing at attention. Buddy’s thoughts raced. He thought of the scary movie, the possibility of disappearing into thin air, and of running as fast as he could in the opposite direction. The best part of his athletic ability was running fast. He was near panic when a little ball of fur emerged from the weeds. At first glance, it looked like a groundhog. But Buddy knew most groundhogs were still hibernating in mid-February, despite the popular Pennsylvania German story of groundhogs emerging to see their shadow on February second. Only the groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil--who was used in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to predict the rest of the winter’s weather--was out in these frigid temperatures, and that was only because his handlers aroused him from his long winter's nap to attend the weather-predicting ceremony at Gobblers Knob. According to legend, if Phil the Groundhog sees his shadow on February second, there will be six more weeks of winter. If he does not see his shadow, the weather will become milder. Looking carefully at the critter, Buddy realized that its paws matched those of the tracks in the snow. He studied the tracks again, but he could not recognize them as any he studied, and they definitely weren’t groundhog tracks. The little ball of fur looked up at Buddy, making the same, but much softer sounds as had echoed down to the stream. "Oh no!” he thought. “Maybe this is the baby, but its mother or father made the sounds I heard before. Oh great, I know you should never come between a baby animal and its mother. What should I do?"
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