Chapter Five

The Supreme Council of the Angry and Talkmuch Dolittle’s sad miscalculations

Ten years before Talkmuch Dolittle conducted his historic test of loyalty, some disgruntled animals had taken up arms in a bid to forcefully overthrow the fabled king and drive him out of Smiling Forest. The animals, who called themselves the Supreme Council of the Angry, actually succeeded in taking over power in Smiling Forest. Talkmuch Dolittle had gone on a long journey overseas to attend a wedding ceremony in the court of one of his fellow kings and to play golf. It was while he was there that the Supreme Council of the Angry declared that they had seized power and that Talkmuch Dolittle should never step foot in Smiling Forest again. It was a tragic event that left many animals dead and traumatized many others.

The Supreme Council of the Angry, little schooled in the art of politics and professing great revolutionary zeal, angrily grabbed any former official of the Talkmuch Dolittle administration they could lay hands on and threw them into jail. They also threw wide open the gates of all the major jails in Smiling Forest and declared an amnesty to all who were imprisoned under the overthrown disposition. Not only that, they indiscriminately dished out arms and ammunition to any former convict who wanted to fight on the side of the revolution against the pockets of loyalist foxes who tried to defend the crown. The result was that the Supreme Council of the Angry lost total control of the situation and Smiling Forest became one great sea of bloody anarchy. Thus armed with guns, angry convicts, criminals and other aggrieved parties embarked on bloody personal vendettas. Jilted lovers went for their former wives and girlfriends and shot them dead; angry convicts went for lawyers and judges and police officers, while other folks saw the anarchy as an opportunity to go for their enemies. Looting was rampant in Smiling Forest and a state of anarchy prevailed. Within the space of a few days, the streets of Smiling Forest were lined with rotting corpses and food had grown scarce. Rampant raping, looting and killing became the order of the day in what was once a serene and peaceful forest.

However, after one week of bloody anarchy, foxes from the neighboring forest of Sunulep, whose king was afraid the uprising could spread to his own territory, backed by the powerful foxes of the red forests, who feared that the great plague of ‘munism, which the Supreme Council of the Angry openly professed, would take root in Smiling Forest and spread into their spheres of influence in the region, succeeded in re-installing Talkmuch Dolittle. He was smuggled into Smiling Forest wrapped in dry fox skins that made him an object of a buzzing colony of curious flies. Fox skins or no fox skins, flies or no flies, Talkmuch Dolittle was happy to be back in power. Ten years later, many animals felt that his historic test of loyalty invited yet another version of the Supreme Council of the Angry. And they were right.

As soon as he was back in power, Talkmuch Dolittle entered into a quasi-union with Sunulep forest to forestall any future uprisings in Smiling Forest. This union required that Smiling Forest, which hitherto had only a quasi form of armed foxes, now form its own corps of professional armed foxes, which Talkmuch Dolittle promptly hastened to do. In the absence of his own professional armed foxes, Talkmuch Dolittle could not possibly hold the title of king of the new union and commander in chief of the joint armed foxes of Sunulep and Smiling Forest. Sadly, after he created the armed foxes and when the time came for him to assume kingship of the union, the Sunulep animals would not have a word of it. How could such a puny little fellow like Talkmuch Dolittle assume the grand title of commander in chief of the great Sunulep armed foxes? So, without so much as a nice word, the great king of Sunulep forest promptly recalled his armed foxes and Talkmuch Dolittle was left to his own devices.

While this union lasted, Talkmuch Dolittle had Sunulep foxes as his personal bodyguards because he did not trust his own Smiling foxes. When the Sunulep foxes suddenly left after the collapse of the union, Talkmuch Dolittle promptly imported more foreign foxes from the neighboring forest of Nigiri to serve as his personal bodyguards. These foxes –mostly hardened and unscrupulous - were given the best positions among the security foxes and enjoyed all the best service conditions. They were paid fat salaries, drove around in flashy cars, had the most beautiful women, enjoyed the choicest wines and generally treated the Smiling Forest foxes with contempt and condescension. It was thus that by the time Loony joined the Smiling security foxes, discontent was running very high among them. Rumors were also rife that Cockerel Sir Messiah, the elusive leader of the Supreme Council of the Angry, who mysteriously flew out of Smiling Forest, was on the verge of coming back with a huge army.

In addition to this grievance, and especially after his historic test of loyalty, the number of corruption scandals involving senior officials of the Talkmuch Dolittle administration increased at an alarming rate while the monarch continued turning a blind eye to repeated public outcries. Officials found guilty of fraud were simply asked to go on temporary leave and soon thereafter given other highly lucrative positions particularly in the diplomatic corps. The baffled animals of Smiling Forest could not understand what had happened to Talkmuch Dolittle. Many whispered that the aging monarch was under the powerful spells of these corrupt officials. His mouth and free will, the animals said, were tied, so that he could neither say nor do anything. Others felt that Talkmuch Dolittle was trying to eat his cake and have it as well, by appearing to punish corrupt officials while appeasing them so he could be seen as a kind and forgiving fellow.

The great bombshell exploded when one Talkmuch Dolittle’s new employees Jumbo the peacock, notoriously dishonest and crafty, was accused of massive fraud by one of the lower animals. Jumbo had flown into a blew rage and not only plunged into a stinking pool of dirt, but flew madly around Smiling Forest, bumping into trees and bushes, plucking out his feathers and throwing them this way and that to indicate his rage, swearing that he would deal with the impudent little brat that accused him of fraud. Angrily puffing, panting and ranting, Jumbo took legal action against the impudent bloke. Unfortunately, the evidence against him was overwhelming and a disgraced Jumbo was declared guilty of fraud by one of the higher courts of Smiling Forest.

All the animals believed that Jumbo the peacock would be sacked and even charged with fraud by Talkmuch Dolittle’s administration. They were to be sorely disappointed for, contrary to all expectations and to their utter dismay, Talkmuch Dolittle instead promoted Jumbo the peacock to the second highest office in the land: the office of Possible Successor To The Throne. The deafening public outcry that greeted this incomprehensible royal action fell on deaf ears. It was simply inconceivable that an animal found guilty of theft in a public court of law could be named Possible Successor To The Throne. Talkmuch Dolittle seemed, by this action, to be expressing utmost scorn for the opinions of the great majority of the animals of Smiling Forest. But well, what was royal prerogative all about anyway? Many animals now greatly doubted the principle of nii mang koo keh koo tayla because some of those who koo keh something really bad did not suffer for their crimes as long as they were in the good books of Talkmuch Dolittle.