Kiara stood at the window and listened to the wind whistling in the street. The full moon was bright and the night sky was clear, but Kiara felt troubled. Outside she heard the frightened yowls of stray cats as the pest control van sped through the night, catching stray cats to be euthanized. “They deserve it” she thought. Stray cats were always roaming round her neighbourhood. They were such useless things. It was time to go to bed. Kiara turned the lights off and climbed into bed. She tossed and turned for hours but simply couldn’t fall asleep. She heard the clock strike midnight and sighed. It was hopeless, and she was thirsty. She got up to get a drink. Moving towards the door, she sensed something behind her. Turning around, she saw a tiger, floating and surrounded by a soft, glowing light. She opened her mouth to scream, but found a huge furry paw clamped over it. Floating towards the opened window, the tiger beckoned to Kiara. Kiara suddenly found herself floating as well. She sailed out the window and spiraled high in the cold night sky. The tiger stared at her, and she was overcome by a blinding light.
When she opened her eyes, they were hovering above a circus. Floating down, Kiara saw lions, tigers, bears and elephants, all locked into cramped cages. Then, with heavy iron chains round their necks and legs, they were led put and forced to perform dangerous tricks to a jeering crowd. The animals were compelled to leap through rings of fire, stand on top of each other, and jump from tall platforms. When the show was over, they were brought back to their filthy cages, black and blue from the lashings they’d received.
Kiara had watched everything with mounting horror. The tiger gently tapped her shoulder. As she turned around, he faded from sight. In his place there appeared
a black stallion. He motioned for her to climb onto his back. Just as Kiara had mounted him, there was another flash of light. This time Kiara found herself floating above a farm. She held on tight to the horse’s mane as they flew down. Kiara looked around, not believing her eyes. In a corner, a farmer grabbed his sheep, shearing off their wool, not seeming to notice the deep cuts that appeared on their bodies.
The whirr of a machine startled her. Behind her, she was terrified to see hundreds of chickens crammed into a machine, looking thin and beaten. At the bottom of the machine was a crate, collecting the eggs that had been ripped from them. The stallion whinnied sadly as she spotted a group of horses pulling loads that were too heavy for their skinny, famished bodies. Their drivers whipped them if they dared to stop moving.
As the two of them flew back up, Kiara was still reeling from shock. She had had no idea that life for many farm animals was not at all pleasant. She watched as the horse disappeared in a shower of silver sparkles, his black coat fading into the night sky. In his place there was now a Golden Retriever. There was another flash of light. This time they were in a market. Kiara saw hundreds of dirty, ragged cats and rabbits with torn coats locked into cages. One by one, they were marched in a line to a slaughterhouse. After a long, painful wait, a man came out. None of the animals were with him. Instead, he carried a pile of furry coats. Terror-struck, Kiara realized that they were the coats of the poor cats and rabbits-who had been walked to their death. The retriever whined as they sailed once more into the sky. “Animals” he said, in a comforting tone. “They’re not for us to torture or use.” With a final wave, he was gone.
All of a sudden, Kiara found herself enveloped in a warm glow. The next moment, she was back in her bedroom. For a moment she stood still, her mind racing. How wrong she was! There were more creatures suffering in the world than she’d ever considered. She could change things for them! She just needed to look at things from a different point of view: theirs.