I scrubbed and shoveled hard, hauling mound after mound of dung out of the enclosure and scouring the food troughs that hadn’t been cleaned in days. By noon, I’d only finished about seventy percent of the job, but the elephant enclosure already looked worlds better.

I didn’t stop there. I ran to prepare their feed next, only to find the supplies painfully sparse. There were mostly palm fronds and some dry, brittle hay. There weren’t even vegetables, let alone fruit.

“Is this all the elephants eat?” I asked the woman working next to me. “The zoo isn’t short on funds, right?”

“I wouldn’t know. I feed the capybaras. Their food’s worse,” she said hurriedly before rushing off.

I pressed my lips together and grabbed as many bundles of hay and leaves as I could carry back to the elephants. When I returned, the group chat chimed.

Ellie the Elephant: [She worked so hard cleaning that I thought she might be a good human. But as it turns out, she’s just like the others, feeding us dry hay!]

Benny the Elephant: [I’m so hungry. I want papaya. It’s been ages since I had papaya. Boohoo…]

North the Polar Bear: [Stop crying. I ate rotten fish today. At least a pile of hay would’ve been better.]

I hesitated for a second, then dumped the feed into the enclosure. The elephants shuffled over, eating with hollow, weary looks. There was only grief and resentment in their eyes. The old elephant didn’t come near. Instead, it lay down and stared blankly outside the enclosure as if lost in thought.

While they ate, I bolted to my car, drove to the nearest supermarket, and cleared out the produce section. Mangosteens, apples, bananas, papayas, cabbage—I bought as much as I could and had the store deliver the rest to the zoo.

Before long, the feed room was piled high with fresh produce. My coworkers stared in disbelief, but I ignored them, hauled three full baskets of fruit and vegetables, and took them to the elephant enclosure.

When the fresh produce hit the floor, the elephants froze. They had been chewing on dry, tasteless hay and sour leaves. They clearly hadn’t expected anything like this.

“Eat! There’s plenty,” I urged, tossing a mangosteen toward the old elephant.

It didn’t react at first. As the fruit hit the ground and cracked open, white flesh spilling like jelly and smelling sweet, the old elephant stared at it. Then, it slowly curled its trunk around the mangosteen and examined it as if it couldn’t believe such a thing existed. Finally, it looked at me.

“Go on. Try it. It’s sweet,” I encouraged.

Its mouth watered, and in a blur, it scooped the whole mangosteen into its mouth. For the first time, I saw contentment and something like gratitude on an animal’s face. The others went wild, devouring the produce like they’d been starved for years. I ran back and forth three more times with baskets until the chaos subsided.

Meanwhile, the chat exploded.

Ellie the Elephant: [Dad, I got an apple! It’s so sweet. I’m tearing up!]

Benny the Elephant: [Wow, cabbage and papaya. They’re my favorite!]

Pedro the Parrot: [What’s all this yapping? I got slapped by a zookeeper again today. It’s been fifty-six days since I wanted to peck that human’s eyes out!]

Thor the Tiger: [Stupid elephants. Remember, every bit of human kindness hides a hunter’s rifle.]

Kingsley the Monkey: [Hey, what occasion are you guys celebrating? Toss a banana over here!]

I read the message and looked up at the monkey hill. Kingsley the Monkey and a big gang of monkeys were scratching their ears and chattering, all of them staring at the elephant enclosure. Many monkeys stretched out their hands, hoping an elephant would fling a banana their way, but the elephants ignored them and kept eating.

I grabbed a banana and hurled it toward the hill. Kingsley the Monkey leaped up and snatched it midair, already chewing before his feet hit the ground. He looked like he hadn’t eaten in days.

The monkey troop howled and squealed, begging me for more bananas. My hands were only so fast, so I tossed as many as I could. The whole hill rattled with noise like a little festival, and with the commotion from the elephant enclosure, that corner of the zoo suddenly felt alive.

Animals from nearby enclosures crowded to watch, and they filled the air with a nonstop chorus of chirps, squawks, and bleats. Luckily, the zoo was quiet today, with almost no visitors. Otherwise, anyone passing by would have been terrified.

The truth was, Sunnyside Zoo had been quiet for years, and the main reason was the stench. It smelled really bad. The whole place reeked of animal waste, and on top of that, many of the animals looked listless or openly hostile. No wonder people stopped coming.

In fact, only the holiday season drew a trickle of visitors. However, if the animals rioted on Christmas, that would be a disaster. Visitors would be at huge risk, and the animals would likely be shot.

I checked the calendar at that moment, realizing it was seven days until Christmas.

While I worried, conversation filled the group chat.

Ellie the Elephant: [That was delicious! I finally had a proper meal. She’s a good human!]

Kingsley the Monkey: [I agree. The way she tossed that banana is burned into my memory. My butt’s tingling!]

Wendy the Capybara: [Hey, guys. Last week, I found a rotten orange that was tasty, but it just crossed my mind to share the joy today.]

Thor the Tiger: [Interesting. That human really knows how to win beasts over. When I go out, I’ll be the first to kill her!]

Wait. Tiger, are you serious? That wasn’t right.

Then, a different voice spoke up in the chat, a voice I didn’t expect.

Benny the Elephant: [Thor the Tiger, that human is truly kind. Don’t hurt her.]

Thor the Tiger: [Kid, you’ll learn when you’re my age that human kindness often hides a loaded gun.]

Wendy the Capybara: [All these messages are making me sleepy. I’m going to take a nap.]

Kingsley the Monkey: [I think we should keep observing. Thor the Tiger, don’t be impulsive.]

Thor the Tiger: [Hmph.]

It was like a tiger’s roar echoed through the group, and the chat went quiet.

I shook my head and kept working. Normally, we could take a lunch break, but there was too much to do in the elephant enclosure. The urgent task was to restore running water. Without it, bacteria would breed, and the elephants would fall ill.

I spent two hours tracking down the person in charge and slipped him two hundred dollars. Finally, he opened the water valve for the elephant enclosure. From the fake-rock cave, a clear stream began to rush, water from the tap gushed down the rocks into the creek, and the flow swept toward the pool. In a few hours, the dirty water would drain away, and the elephants’ lives would be a little better.

The enclosure erupted. Excited calves raised their trunks and trumpeted, while bold elephants jumped into the stream without hesitation, splashing even though the water was cold.

On the monkey hill, Kingsley the Monkey craned his neck and shouted, “Oh-ho! Oh-ho!”

I didn’t understand what it was saying, so I opened the group chat again to check.

Kingsley the Monkey: [Oh-ho! Oh-ho…]

The Egrets’ Shared Account: [What’s that silly monkey going on about? He almost made us fall when we passed by!]

Kingsley the Monkey: [I’m sorry. I got too excited. I’m saying the human gave the elephant enclosure water!]

George the Gorilla: [I heard it too. It sounds so familiar. That human really is… a good human.]

Animals kept popping into the chat, arguing and commenting. I even saw a panda send a GIF with its paws together, like it was thanking someone. For some reason, my chest felt warm, and a small smile tugged at my lips.

Then, the tiger showed up again.

Thor the Tiger: [How naive! Food and water are ours by right. Those humans dangle a little treat and expect us to forget everything? If she dares show herself, I’ll rip her apart!]

The chat went quiet for a long moment.

After a while, Kingsley the Monkey asked, [What if she gives you your favorite—a big drumstick?]

Thor the Tiger: [Hmph! I wouldn’t eat it. I’d rather starve, bash my head on the cage, and die than take a bite of her food!]

With that, I set off for the supermarket again. This time, I focused on meat, packing top-quality cuts of chicken, duck, goose, pork, beef, and lamb into bag after bag. Lucky for me, I had a little money saved. Otherwise, this kind of spending would’ve been brutal.

By the time I got back to the zoo, it was already afternoon. The animals had had their lunches, but nearly none of them were full, especially the big carnivores like the tiger.

I carried two huge bags of meat over to the tiger enclosure, which was basically a massive iron cage with a grimy metal shed. Because the shed was so cold, the tiger usually lounged in the outer pen to soak up whatever sun there was.

As expected, the tiger lay in the outer pen, head down, chewing at a pile of scabby offal that flies swarmed around. It kept gagging between bites. Its thin chest rose and fell, rib outlines visible beneath the fur. It was so skinny. Even though it was tall, there was almost no fat or muscle, making it look fragile.

This was “Thor the Tiger”? He’d be the one to get taken down by a single hit.

The group chat pinged again.

Africana the Lion: [Thor the Tiger, why are you gagging? I was sleeping next door. Can you keep it down?]

Leo the Leopard: [I heard it too. Thor, don’t eat it. You might as well eat excrement at this point.]

Callum the Coyote: [You don’t get it. Thor needs to force the cage open. If he doesn’t eat, he won’t have the strength.]

A chorus of sighs filled the chat.

Thor the Tiger ignored them and kept eating with his head down. However, after a while, the smell must have gotten to him because he rose to drink.

The moment he stood, he noticed me. I was carrying the two bags of meat and staring at him when our eyes met. He narrowed his lids, nostrils flaring. Then, he fixed his gaze on the bags in my hands.

I pulled out a steak and tossed it inside the enclosure. They were fresh and still streaked with blood. The bone and flesh were fused together like it had just been carved off an animal.

Thor the Tiger froze. He let out a low growl and stalked around the steak twice. After that, his mouth was full of saliva. His thin body trembled, and his eyes reddened.

A hungry beast was finally going to have a proper piece of meat. However, he didn’t lunge. He held himself back.