Even as Larry the Mouse was on the phone with the emergency dispatcher, the receiver comically large compared to his small stature, James and Cheryl could already hear the wail of an ambulance siren with their newly sensitive pointed ears. The group noticed a large ambulance dash past the hospital and then heard a screeching of tires as the driver apparently took a hard U-turn. For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Then, without warning, the sliding glass doors of the hotel suddenly were thrown off their tracks as the ambulance -siren now blaring again- crashed into the lobby and pulled an impressive handbrake turn coming a halt just inches from the front desk. The rear doors of the ambulance burst open to reveal an enormous cartoon hippopotamus in white doctor’s garb accompanied by a much shorter toon zebra wearing a nurses’s cap.
Mr. Gaffer and the teens were dumbstruck. “Nice driving, Bob” complemented the hippo as she hopped out of the back of the ambulance causing the rear suspension to creak. “Thank you, Doctor,” came a slow syrupy voice from inside the cab as a giraffe’s head snaked its way out of the driver’s side window. Without skipping a beat the agile hippo quickly pulled out her stethoscope from a black doctor’s bag which had materialized from behind her back, and was within moments pressing it to Mr. Gaffer. However, instead of his chest the toon doctor had it firmly pressed against his right arm. Continuing her examination the doctor pinched Mr. Gaffer’s black ball of a nose causing his eyes to fully bug out in toon fashion. “Yes, yes, I see. Very serious, very serious indeed,” the hippo spoke to herself under her breath as the zebra nurse took notes beside her in a official looking medical notebook.