This is a fairytale of a revolution in a little zoo in the country of Ahgon called the Coksensdale Zoo. Too many things, too bad for my liking, have happened there. But I see it as my duty to tell them to you, for they are too important to ignore.
It was a special night at Cleopatra the Hippo's marsh where the animals, hungry and restless, stood for a meeting. “Animals of Coksensdale!” announced the old camel Washington the First with a fervor in his voice. “I had a dream. A rather weird, but nonetheless very important dream.” The words resonated heavily around the large, dark enclosure, the warmth of many attentive bodies trapping the words. “Many striking *cough* images flashed in front of my eyes, which only now that I have them *cough* contemplated in this emergency status, may I announce the fate of our pointless endeavors. Well, they are, for one, pointless.  No human comes here anymore. Our zoo is a lost cause.” The giraffes and flamingos and frogs started to mutter in shock. “This, the misery of our pointless endeavors, is due to the tyranny of the Cokses, the irresponsible owners of this zoo, the cause of our starving and suffering, who deem it just to celebrate all the earnings that they steal from us, even when there are almost none at all.”
“Down with the Cokses!” “Kill these bastards!” shouted the porcupines and apes in support. “SILENCE.” ordered Washington the First in an authoritative voice. “This was not the most striking thing. Something ancient, *cough* golden, came back to the confinements of my memories.” “It was an old English book. About… a Revolution. It is unfortunate, but necessary, that a revolution must occur here. The tyrants of this farm must be overthrown, and a new social order *cough* where all animals have equal rights must be established!” Everyone gasped in surprise again. “Dear Washington the First, we cannot do this! If Mrs Coks sees us doing something wrong -”started Jitsy the porcupine. “We are much mightier than her!” interrupted Cleopatra the Hippo. “To Freedom!” shouted Alexander the Ape. “To Freedom!” all the animals repeated. “To Freedom! To Freedom! To Freedom! To Freedom!”
That night went on intensely. The animals were eager for change and worked restlessly until dawn to devise their plans for a revolution. When the following night was set to arrive, they would invade the Cokse`s house and drive them out.
I must tell you, with a sincere note of approval, that they did so, and in no more than 20 minutes had the Cokses woken up from their ambushed house and run like quarreling ducks away as possible from the lions, rhinos and apes, led by Cleopatra the Hippo. At the sight of victory, the animals shouted with all pride and glory: "To Freedom!", but stood at their defensive position against more humans invasions, for at least a couple of days.
The frogs, for being swift and agile, were the scouts. But their small brains could not decide exactly what made a human, so whatever looked similar they would shout "Coks!" from the bushes and the defense squad would burst with action. And in fact, the Cokses did seem to come with other Cokses during the middle of the night, but it was nothing the animals could not defeat without casualties.
While many animals were busy with defense, Cleopatra gathered some of the most intellectual and influential members of the community to establish the new zoo. "First," she explained, "We must have a new identity". It was then decided, with the help of Currie the Bonobo, Alexander the Ape and Washingtons the First and Second, that Coksensdale Zoo would turn into Animal Zoo, and that three commandments on the name of all animals would be written on the mural by the entrance:
All animals must be free
No animal must be disrespected
No animal must go hungry
Once these were set, Cleopatra announced wearily, "Now we must find a way to sustain ourselves". The objects of the Cokse's house would be sold in exchange for food, but no one knew exactly what would be done after that in order to sustain Animal Zoo. Cleopatra stated that not everything from the Coks was bad and that the animals should copy some of their practices so they could have a reliable food source. But Alexander the Ape contested that freedom meant distancing themselves from almost everything from humans. At this point, the meeting broke into an enormous fight with Currie the intellectual bonobo supporting Cleopatra (the water animals had been there for a longer time after all, and knew better how things at the zoo worked) while Alexander defended, saying that they should distinguish the animalhood from the Coks the most possible. The meeting ended with Cleopatra and Alexander deciding that what most of the animals chose would be the direction they would take. "Don't worry," told Currie the Bonobo to Cleopatra, "Alexander has spent years in rehab, no one will trust him".
The following day, many important things happened. The saddest one was the death of old Washington the First. His son, Washington the Second, was the most devastated and quickly promised to fulfill the dream of freedom by becoming Alexander's personal advisor. The second thing, dear reader, was that two parties were formed: The Animal Liberal Democratic Party (ALDP) led by Cleopatra, to show how seriously she was taking things, and the Freedom Party led by Alexander the Ape. The Cokse's house was entirely raided and all animals were distributed plentiful food. But soon enough, the zoo was clearly divided into two parties, and mysteries and accusations of food being stolen from others quickly began to unfold. Worse than that, ancient rivalries were awakened (apparently some lion had eaten 3 deer in two days) and soon enough half of the animals seemed to be running away from each other. Most of the water animals were for ALDP, while most land animals quickly struck with their more ideological view. They had a slogan which was, Bread and Beer, the Path to Freedom! that turned out to be unexpectedly effective.
Interestingly enough, Larry the Eagle (latest supporter of Alexander) came with news from the outside world: "They heard what has happened and want to help us. The WPA, or World People's Association, has already organized a page (in the internet) for us and precisely 12,789 NGOs want to help us. They see we do not have enough food and are fighting amongst ourselves. They offer humanitarian aid to both parties based on neutral values. What do I tell them?". Alexander rubbed his chin and replied, "Alright, let them help, on the condition that we impose an 8% tax rate to their imports and that they change the name to egalitarian aid."
Soon enough, food and help from the outside world poured into Animal Zoo, and of course the Freedom Party was profiting much more than Cleopatra's ALDP. This difference in earnings made many animals convert to the Freedom Party, and Cleopatra was outraged at Alexander's tactics, who in turn had disturbing dreams of her revenge. "Justice is progressing together" she would say, helping out the giraffes and flamingoes. But unfortunately, most of the animals could not understand completely what she meant by these words. So she decided, with much conviction, to talk to Alexander the Ape personally. "When the NGOs realize how their help is being badly used, they will leave us here starving to death. We need a proper society, a proper order." she rationalized. "We will be fine. We are now free, so we have many more ways to survive. Just look how great things are going.” "Alexander, this food store will end." "What they don't want to know, they don't need to know, right? Laughed Alexander. At that moment Washington the Second came from a little cabin from behind with two beer bottles and the loud sound of glass rolling around the floor. "I thought you could only store one beer per day?" Asked Cleopatra. "Oh, it's one of the general stores." Answered Alexander. "Then why does it have a lock?" "With humans all around, it's too dangerous." When Cleopatra left, Alexander had a frown on his face and twitched his callous fingers anxiously.
On an attempt to jeopardize Cleopatra the Hippo and the ALDP, and out of sheer survival necessity, Alexander ordered the Frog Scouts and other animals to build a large hole on Cleopatra's marsh where she could fall and become trapped. The digging took about three long evenings because the frogs had found something unexpected on their wake: oil, and it was very hard to go on digging with something like oil.
"OIL???" asked Alexander during one of the Freedom Party night meetings when he discovered about it. "It has to be ours. I want her on that hole by tonight." The animals were shocked and unsure about what they should do. "Do you want the Coks to come back?" threatened Alexander "because that is what Cleopatra is planning to do. We must trap her. To Freedom! To Freedom! To Freedom!” and the animals followed, “To Freedom!”
It was perhaps because of his sassiness or his present power conditions that Ursula the Lioness came to Alexander in a flirtatious manner, and the ape, filled with alcohol, quickly accepted the invitation. It did not bother Alexander at all that she was drinking more than half his beer, or having some little gorilla kids groom her everyday in front of his office. Indeed, it was actually more of a pleasure. What did bother Alexander the Ape, though, were the WPA's inspections for useless things such as atomic energy and arms ownership and sanitation standards.
Just as he was contemplating this, a small frog ran into the office and shouted: "Alexander the Ape!"There was a pause for him to catch his breath "You- you need to see this!". Quickly they made their way to Cleopatra's marsh where the hole with the oil pool seemed to be moving. "Who is it?" demanded Alexander. "It's no one less than Cleopatra herself, sir!" Informed the frogs, panicking. "Right" vocalized the ape. "By tomorrow what Animal Zoo must know is that Cleopatra disappeared". "Bbut that is nnot tttrue!" exclaimed his followers. "Do you want the Coks to come back?" At the mention of this all animals shivered and stood in silence. "Now," started Alexander. "Anyone that dares say anything about Cleopatra will be punished. But don't worry, because I am sure that no one here will do this, right?” all animals stood in silence, petrified. “Oil is a very lucrative resource. We should start extracting it at once and we will receive all that we could have ever  asked for. So why don’t you start?”. The frogs looked down at the pool, and saw that it was not moving anymore.