Vikki the Vet Examines Esther the Emu

This is Esther the Emu.

Emus are big birds.

They are about as big as birds get.

The only bigger bird is an ostrich.

Emus are birds even though they don’t fly.

What makes a bird a bird is the fact that it has feathers.

Not how high it can fly.

While emus cannot fly, they can really run.

Emus can really run because they have long legs.

And attached to their long legs are their fantastic feet.

And on each fantastic foot, an emu has three terrific toes.

With their long legs, fantastic feet, and terrific toes emus can run as fast as fifty kilometres an hour.

Fifty kilometres an hour is about thirty miles per hour for our imperial friends.

Esther is an exotic emu.

She’s a beautiful bird.

Esther the Emu is from Indonesia.

And Indonesia is on the equator.

The equator marks the middle of the Earth.

It is a man-made line on the map, and it divides the Earth in half.

It divides the Earth into the northern and southern hemispheres.

So it stands to reason that the Earth is a sphere.

And that a hemisphere is one half of that sphere.

Actually, the Earth looks like a lightly squished ball.

But you get the idea.

It gets really hot at the equator.

Emus like it hot.

But Esther the Emu is not hot.

And that is because Esther the Emu is in Virginia.

And it’s hotter at the equator in Indonesia than it is in Virginia.

Esther the Emu is at Vikki the Vet’s because she’s got the shakes.

Esther the Emu is seriously shivering.

“I think Esther the Emu is catching a cold,” said Henry, her handler.

After examining Esther the Emu Vikki the Vet said:

“I do not think Esther the Emu is catching a cold.

I think Esther the Emu IS cold.

I think Esther the Emu is cold because some of her feathers are falling out.”

“Why would her feathers fall out?” asked Henry, her handler.

“Lots of things can cause a bird’s feathers to fall out,” said Vikki the Vet.

“She could be sick, she could be stressed, or she could merely be moulting.”

 

Moulting means shedding old hair, skin, or feathers to make way for new growth.

 

“I think it’s just moulting, but we’ll run some tests to ensure that Esther isn’t sick,” continued Vikki the Vet.

“As long as her feather follicles aren’t permanently damaged her feathers should bounce back fine.”

“In the meantime, we need to warm this bird up.”

So what did Vikki the Vet do?

She sewed Esther the Emu a muumuu.

What’s a muumuu?

Well, it ain’t no tutu!

Nor is it a sheath dress,

a shift dress,

or even a draped dress.

A muumuu is more matronly.

Vikki the Vet made Esther the Emu a merino wool muumuu.

Merino wool is quite a warm wool.

It isn’t as warm as qiviut (pronounced “kiv-ee-ute”)

arguably the world’s warmest wool

but it’s still a warm wool.

So Vikki the Vet kept Esther the Emu overnight at her veterinary clinic, where it was warm, and by morning, she had made a muumuu for Esther the Emu.

In the morning Henry and Vikki put the muumuu on the aforementioned emu.

“I think we’ve got a winner!” said Henry the Handler.

“I think this will work,” agreed Vikki the Vet.

“Thank you so much for all your hard work,” said a grateful Henry the Handler.

               – epilogue –

Vikki the Vet ran some tests on Esther the Emu and the results confirmed what Vikki the Vet had hypothesized:

Esther the Emu wasn’t sick; she was merely moulting.

So, Vikki the Vet called Henry the Handler and gave him the good news.