The tale of the animals who went under covers

One hot, summery day, a long long LONG time ago, the animals on Earth - silly, loopy creatures that they were - decided to take a leaf out of Adam & Eve's book, and clothe themselves in garments.

So they did.

After the last animal had been clothed and dressed, they went about the savannah doing exactly what they did every, single day. As if nothing was amiss! They sun-bathed in the muddy murky river, grazed lazily on the grassy plains, stretched out their legs for a run, and kept an eye out for easy prey. They did EVERYTHING with clothes on!

They were rather pleased with their new looks and some animals, I have to admit, looked rather stylish.

Giraffe - looked stately in her poncho

Elephant - preferred to keep things under wraps

even Gorilla sported white, sexy underpants!

Then one day, a young zebra, who'd braved rocky terrain, arrived at the savannah. He was not from those parts and had walked a great distance. He was a handsome beast with shiny black and white stripes and a mohawk-like mane. He knew nothing of the clothing madness that had taken over the savannah.

The animals were aghast when they saw him. Nervous whispers buzzed around the animal community - Who was this zebra? Where did he come from? But more importantly, why was he NAKED?!!

The female creatures felt faint with embarrassment. The males went hot under the collar appalled by the young zebra's lack of decorum. They marched up to him in unison - while trying hard not to trip over their long gowns - and demanded an explanation.

(Suddenly, a hunter with gigantic binoculars appeared from nowhere! The hunter was kind and did not seek to harm the animals, merely to observe them. Imagine her surprise when she found she'd stumbled on a rather peculiar scene. As you'd expect, she could hardly contain her excitement so she whipped out her binos to take a closer look. But let's not dwell on this insipid character since she's not critical to the story, shall we?)

So where were we? Ah yes, the affronted animals and the 'naked' zebra.

They marched up to the bewildered zebra.

'How dare you enter our grounds without any clothes on! Have you no shame?' they bellowed.

'Clothes? What need have I for threads when God has blessed me with a handsome black and white coat?' the zebra replied, quizzically.

He continued, 'Why should all of you be clothed in garments when God has given you gorgeous feathers, silky hair, thick luscious fur, cool scales and hides of different wonderful prints & patterns? Why do you hide your natural beauty under uncomfortable clothes? Shouldn't you be proud of what God's given you, and be comfortable in your own skin?'

Startled by this revelation, the animals suddenly felt silly and very ashamed. Slowly, one by one, they took off their ridiculous garments and... began preening themselves rather furiously, worried that the clothes might have inflicted damage on their God-given skin!

Later that night, everyone threw their clothes into a heap and burned the lot. (Well, not quite everybody. Gorilla, kept his pants on because he suffered from incontinence.)

When the flames died down, all the animals gathered at the savannah square and feasted on a gigantic lemon because, ahem, it happened to be lying around.

THE END (thank God!)