“Rats!” I exclaimed.

“What happened?” Foster asked from the top of the computer chair.

“No, ” I replied, “I mean real rats! Come look at this!” Foster jumped down and joined me on the recliner, where Mom had left her laptop. Together we read the article on the screen. “Wow!” Foster was amazed. “Rats are being trained to sniff out illegally smuggled goods in South Africa! That’s awesome!”

I agreed heartily. “Wouldn’t it be fun to meet some of them? “I said, clicking on a picture of a rat on a leash. “We could learn about how they fight crime.”

“Plus, we’ve been to South Africa before,” I added. “Remember when we went to visit Mom’s blogging friend, Chris, from “Luna’s Online”? Foster nodded. “We never did get to see Chris, but it was nice of her cat, Luna, along with her frog and chameleon, to show us around. I don’t remember meeting any rats, though.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “But we did get to meet the hyraxes.” We remembered that they had told us they are also called conies, so we finally know what Proverbs 30:26 means. “The conies are but a feeble folk,” we quoted in unison, “yet they make their houses in the rocks.”

It didn’t take long for us to decide to take another trip to South Africa. We knew it was pretty far, so we decided to take a quick nap before we left. We were going to take our travel tunnel this time, even though last time we had taken the living room carpet.

But before we knew it, we found ourselves spiraling through space! “Oh wow!” Foster exclaimed. “It’s been a while since we’ve done this!” Before I could reply, we had landed in Cape Town, South Africa.

The thing about spiraling through space is that you never know exactly where you are going to land. But we knew we were in Cape Town because we recognized the neighborhood as Bo-Kaap, one of the places Luna had taken us to on our previous visit. “Even the cars are colorful here,” Foster remarked from the top of the car we landed on. It was then that we heard a familiar voice below us.

‘Umm, excuse me? Who is that on top of my car?” We jumped up and looked into the windows. It was our hamster friend from Bariloche! “What are you doing here?” we asked in unison. Our friend replied, “I might ask you the same thing! The last time I saw you, we were in Australia!“

We had a lot to catch up on, since we had been to the Grand Canyon after leaving the hamster in Australia. “So where did you get this car?” Foster asked as the hamster drove us downtown to look for some coffee and a snack. “It’s part of my benefits for my undercover job with the APOPO Foundation,” our friend replied. “I’m here working on a case.”

We stopped at a cute coffee shop with tables outside. While we waited for our order, the hamster told us that he was trying to catch a wildlife poaching ring, along with some giant African pouched rats and their trainers. “The APOPO Foundation is a non-profit organization here in South Africa dedicated to protecting people and animals,” the hamster explained. “They train rats to sniff out poached wildlife, tuberculosis, land mines, and even people in rescue operations.”

“That’s amazing!” I exclaimed when he finished his story. “We read some information about them at https://apopo.org. We came here especially to see if we could meet some of the rats. We want to see how they fight crime.” The hamster offered to take us down to the police station and introduce us to his coworkers. “Let’s go!” we answered in unison. After we finished our snack, we headed back to the car.

“The rats are trained to sniff out things being smuggled out of the country illegally,” the hamster explained as we made our way through town. “Right now, there is a smuggling ring that’s stealing African grey parrots to sell as pets. We’ve almost tracked them down, but they keep getting past us.” Foster and I were shocked. “That is not right!” Foster said indignantly. “That’s like kidnapping!”

“You’re right, it is,” the hamster agreed as we pulled up across the street from the police station. I was surprised to see that the police car parked in front looked familiar. “Does that say SFPD? Isn’t that San Francisco Police Department?” I asked, pointing at the logo on the car door. The hamster laughed genially. “No, look closer,” he said. “It’s SAPD – South Africa Police Department.” Foster and I looked at each other, and Foster started to say something but changed his mind. “Come on,” the hamster continued. “Let’s go inside and I’ll introduce you to my friends!”

“I’m pleased to meet you,” said Andre, the trainer, after the hamster had introduced us. “This is Spike. He’s one of our best detectives. And your hamster friend here is pretty good himself.” We nodded politely. “Oh yes,” Foster volunteered. “We’ve been with him when he has solved several crimes.” The hamster looked down modestly. “I couldn’t have done it without you guys,” he said. “Andre, can we take Foster and Panda to see the rest of the rats?”

“Sure!” Andre replied. “Spike’s going to be in a demonstration of what the rats have learned this week. You can come with us.” At the demonstration, we were amazed to see the rats, with leashes on, sniffing for items the trainers had hidden. “How do they know what to look for?” Foster asked as we watched the demonstration.

“We have them smell the things we are looking for, in this case the tail feathers of an African grey parrot,” Andre explained. “Soon they can find the parrots, even if the smugglers have tried to cover up their smell.”

“The rats have a little ball on their collars,” he continued. “When they find what they are looking for, they pull on the ball and it signals us to give them a reward.” Foster and I were fascinated. “Wow!” I exclaimed. “Do you give them delicious bamboo?”

“No bamboo for them,” Andre said with a chuckle. “We give them a treat from a special syringe. It’s flavored with things rats like to eat.”

“I’ve tried it before,” the hamster added. “It actually tastes pretty good.” Foster and I exchanged glances. “Bleah!” we said in unison. Then we added, “No offense though.” The hamster laughed. “None taken,” he replied. “Andre, can we see the demonstration results?”

“Okay,” Andre replied. “I’ll go ask if they are in yet.” Andre returned from the judging booth with good news. Spike had found more feathers than any of the other rats! “Good job, Spike!” we said, as we all gave him high fives. “Thanks, guys,” Spike replied. Then he asked, “Andre, can we take them to see the warehouse?”

We followed Spike and Andre to a big warehouse where they had a lot of boxes piled up. Andre put Spike on his leash and let him lead the way. “We’ve hidden parrot feathers in and around the boxes,” he explained. “Spike will sniff everything until he finds them. Would you like to help him?”

“Yes!” we replied in unison. Andre let Foster hold Spike’s leash while the hamster and I helped inspect the boxes. It wasn’t long before Spike had found the feathers. “Good job, guys!” said Andre enthusiastically. “I think you’re ready to look for the real thing!”

We watched with interest as Andre strapped a small camera onto Spike’s back. “This is so we can see where he is, and it also has sound so we can communicate,” he explained. “We’re going to send you guys into some pretty inaccessible places. Rats are better at this than dogs, because they can fit into much smaller areas.” We were impressed. “Does this mean we get to help Spike find the parrots?” I asked, to which Andre replied “Yep! Are you ready?”

“Ready!” we all exclaimed. “Let’s go!” One of the first places we checked was a nearby warehouse where some rats had picked up the scent of parrot feathers recently. We looked everywhere but to no avail. “I’m not picking up a parrot scent,” Spike said. “But somebody was eating a fillet of fish from McDonald’s in here earlier.”

Next we went to the park, where we found an African grey parrot near some bird cages. “I live here in the park,” the parrot told us in answer to our questions. “I haven’t been poached, and neither have these guys.” He indicated the birds in the cages. Then he jumped up onto one of the cages and eyed us cautiously. “But we know some parrots who have been. Are you guys with the FBI?”

“No,” replied the hamster. “We’re on a special case with the APOPO Foundation. Have you heard of them?” Just then Spike came up and sniffed the cages. Once he had decided they weren’t what we were looking for, he addressed the parrot. “Where did you last see your friends who’ve been poached?” he asked gravely. The parrot thought for a moment. “Well,” he began, “the last time I saw them, they were being packed up into an orange van along with a lot of other birds. I followed the van to a warehouse, but when I got there, they were nowhere to be seen.”

At the mention of the orange van, Foster and I exchanged glances with the hamster. “Can you take us to see the warehouse?” Spike asked. Then, turning to the hamster, he said. “Is your car nearby? I’ll drive, since I know the city better than you do.” It wasn’t long before we had all piled into the hamster’s blue car and started toward the warehouse.

“This is it,” said the parrot as we entered the warehouse. No one was there, and the place, though clean and tidy, looked completely deserted. “This is where they brought my friends,” the parrot said. “But as you can see, they’re not here anymore.” Meanwhile, I climbed up onto a railing to inspect the signs more carefully. Just as I’d thought…MIOJ! “Do you think there’s another room to this warehouse?” I asked. “Maybe a hidden doorway or something?”

After a brief search we found a door that led into another part of the warehouse. We could hear a lot of birds chirping and squawking in the distance. “This must be where they put my friends!” the parrot exclaimed. “Come on, guys,” the hamster said. “I think we’re getting close to finding them!” Spike sniffed the air thoughtfully. “I think you’re right,” he replied. “Let’s go!”

We decided to split up so we could cover more ground. I went with Spike and the parrot, and it wasn’t long before we found some shelves with birdcages on them. Spike went up and sniffed them carefully. “Yep, these guys have been poached, all right” he announced. “I’ll text Andre to bring the police.”

Just then I got a text from Foster saying he and the hamster had found an entire room filled with all kinds of tropical birds! “Tell them we’ll be right there,” Spike instructed. “Andre and the police are on their way.”

When we got to where Foster and the hamster were waiting, Spike climbed up onto one of the birdhouses along the wall. “Hey guys!” he whispered. “We’re here to rescue you. Everybody be really quiet. We’ll have you out of here in no time.” The birds were overjoyed. “Yay!” they said, as quietly as they could. “We knew APOPO wouldn’t let us down!”

“Great job, fellas!” Andre said when we all met back at the APOPO headquarters that evening. “All the stolen tropical birds have been released into the wild. If it hadn’t been for all of you working as a team, we would never have caught those MIOJ guys.” We beamed with satisfaction. It felt great to know we had worked as a team with our new friends Spike and Andre. And once again, the men in orange jackets were safely locked up in jail.

A note from Foster, Panda, and Mom: We would like to thank the APOPO Foundation for giving us permission to use photos from their site for this story. APOPO is a non-profit organization that trains rats to sniff out land mines, poached wildlife, and tuberculosis, and they are even training to find people in search and rescue efforts. For more information about these amazing HeroRats and the people who train them, you can go to their website, APOPO.org. For this story we also used photos from Unsplash.com, a royalty-free photography site.