Ruby Rescue

• Cecilia Jepsen, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2021

Somewhere, covered with sunshine and flowers, lived a girl called Emma. She had bright red hair. Emma lay down on the grass, surrounded by birds, holding her little pet finch which she called “Finchy”. Emma loved her finch so much, she was her best friend.
Today, Emma is going to visit her Grandma but Finchy had to stay at home because her Grandma has a dog that would frighten Finchy. Emma’s best friend Emilio stayed home to look after Finchy. After Emma left to visit Grandma, Emilio accidentally opened the cage. Suddenly, a great big Labrador dog barked and the finch was frightened and flew away. “Oh no,” Emilio cried.
Finchy flew to a nice house where she looked for a person. Inside the house lived Cecilia, her sister Audrey and her parents.
Dad was taking out the rubbish and suddenly a bird came to the front doorstep.
“It is so cute,” squealed Cecilia.
“What kind of bird is this Cecilia?” asked Dad.
Cecilia looked in her bird book and found it was a painted finch. She learned that they were not common and not found in the wild where she lived.
‘’We should give her some food and a cosy bed,” said Audrey.
“I would like to call her Ruby because she is beautiful and red,” suggested Cecilia.
While the girls were talking, Ruby flew away to her neighbour’s front yard. Ruby became scared and called out to Cecilia, “Chip, chip, chip” chirped Ruby.
Cecilia was very good with birds and she managed to encourage Ruby to come into a little box house she had made for her. She managed to bring Ruby safely back into the garage.
“Chip, chip, chip!” Ruby was very noisy and she loved flying around and around the garage. Cecilia left Ruby to rest for the night.
The next morning Cecilia and Audrey gave Ruby some lovely birdseed for breakfast. They played with her, and then started work on a poster. ‘LOST BIRD – PAINTED FINCH’, the poster said. They coloured the poster with lots of red crayons and their Dad wrote their phone number at the bottom.
“Let’s put it up at the shops,” Cecilia said.
Cecilia and Audrey walked to the shops and put the poster up. Then they bought some more seed for Finchy and some lollies. While they were shopping Emilio spotted the poster. He felt very sad that he had lost Finchy and had been looking for her all morning. He was happy to have found Finchy and quickly ran to tell Emma.
While Cecilia and Audrey walked home, Emilio and Emma went to their house to collect Finchy. Emma was so happy when she saw Finchy at Cecilia and Audrey’s house. She put Finchy in her special cage and gave her a pat. Emilio said how sorry he was. Emma then saw Cecilia and Audrey.
“Thank you for finding Finchy! You can visit her anytime!” Emma said.
“Bye Ruby, we love you so much and will miss you,” said Cecilia.