Pingoo and Willoo had been living in complete happiness in the little house in the forest for some time now. They were company for each other, even though Willoo slept at least 18-20 hours each day. When he was awake, he was great fun, and he even began to tinker with the old stove in the kitchen of the house, and started to cook now and then. One day, he roasted a fish for Pingoo, who liked it so much, that he began to roast his fish each day before he ate it.
Willoo would also make vegetable soup for himself from time to time. One day he tried to make a pie with the berries he collected. But without flour or sugar, it was not much of a success. It was a Sunday, when Pingoo had come back from his exploration by lunch time and the two of them had had a nice lunch of blueberries and roast fish in the backyard by the pond. Pingoo was sitting by the side of the pond and Willoo was up in a tree in the garden, snoozing. Suddenly, Pingoo noticed a new type of animal walking slowly down the path, just outside the garden. It was a tortoise. As usual, Pingoo being very friendly, waved at the little tortoise and said, “Hello there!” The tortoise replied “Hi” in a shy voice and continued down the path slowly. “Would you like to come in for some water? You look tired!” asked Pingoo.
The tortoise thought a little and then nodded her head. “But I can only stay for a minute. I just passed the bunny with whom I have been racing and he is fast asleep. I should get ahead as much as I can while he sleeps..” said the tortoise. Pingoo wondered what on earth all that was about, but said nothing. The tortoise made her slow way into the garden and took a gulp of water from the pond. Then she turned around to go back but stopped dead. “Oh my! I have forgotten which direction I am supposed to go towards!” she exclaimed. Pingoo was a little taken aback as he had no idea where the little tortoise wanted to go. The tortoise started to cry and wail loudly. Hearing all this noise, Willoo came down off his tree and after listening to what the problem was from Pingoo, said, “We will help you find your way..don’t worry!” The three of them went out and looked this way and that, but the tortoise seemed totally lost and had no clue where she had to go. She was still crying and said “How will I get back home? Where will I live? I don’t know what to do?”
Pingoo and Willoo exchanged a look and then both said together, “You can live with us…”
The tortoise wiped her tears and said, “Thank you! Are you sure you wouldn’t mind?” “We wouldn’t have offered if we did,” replied Willoo. So they brought the tortoise back to the house and learnt that her name was Torty. Torty took one look at the house and started to dust and clean and put everything in order. She was a natural homemaker and Pingoo and Willoo were glad that she took a lot of the chores on herself. She was also a great cook and made some tasty food for all of them.
After a week, on another Sunday, when the three of them were resting in the afternoon in the garden, Torty looked up at the house and said, “We should name this place…” “Good idea, but what should we call it?” replied Willoo who was half asleep.
“I know!” said Pingoo. “Let’s call it 'The Animal Kingdom'! This can be a safe place for all animals who are lost or not wanted or just want to live somewhere not their home…”
“I love it” said Torty. “This is The Animal Kingdom where all animals are welcome and everyone can live as they want to…” said Willoo sleepily.
And so The Animal Kingdom was established with three animals – a penguin, a koala bear, and a tortoise.
Everyone needs a place where they can be themselves and if they are different from what they should be, it is not a bad thing!
Note: All images have been sourced from Google Images.