Making Dilemmonade out of a Dilemma (Pt.2 of 7)

One of the most attractive things about this was that when What, the bald eagle who looked after all the forest animals and was their elected Governor, had first set up the Helping Paw charity, all the animals contributed what they could to help it start up, and then had made annual contributions to keep it going. In the meantime, What hired Fleur LeBruin to manage this little nonprofit, and two things had happened. First, Fleur started drawing a regular paycheck, and that had meant that she was sporting a new wardrobe and a new attitude of self-esteem that was very noticeable compared to her normally dour appearance and antagonistic effrontery. That change had been a relief for all, and had demonstrated how animal lives could be changed by regular income and something concrete to accomplish.

At the same time, Fleur had accomplished some remarkable objectives in helping the various forest animals with their problems. She provided counseling, helped fix them up after accidents and assisted them in locating new shelters and homes after storms. She had even set up a first-aid station where Preston Penguin was often very helpful in relieving the pains and headaches of the animals. So everyone was so much better off physically than before.

Apparently the lesson What had set out to teach had been well learned. Starting up a nonprofit for the benefit of the animal community brought the animals together with a welcome expression of mutual caring that strengthened community bonds. It had achieved a lot of good for many individual animals, and had produced some larger public goods like better health and animal well-being, along with a sense of unity and group capability that had never existed before. The result had been that all the forest animals were feeling pretty good about themselves and their animal community.

But, as sometimes happens with forest animals, the lesson had been learned too well. Within six months of What’s initial effort with Helping Paw, Gerry the camel had set up a nonprofit for relief of desert itch, just in case any of the other animals came down with that. Another couple months went by and Toby the platypus started a group called “Underground Underwater Well-Being” so all the moles, badgers, seals and similar folks could have special aid packages of their own. Then another group had been formed called “Four-Leggeds On the Run” to aid in the spiritual and physical development of some of the deer, horses, goats and unicorns. They now had regular weekly meetings that made them feel so much faster and more deeply in tune with the universe.

And that still was not the end of it. A mutual self-help agency was set up by Who, a distant owl cousin of Howie’s, that he called "We Help Our Neighbors." Then Big Red, the bear, and the only other resident besides Dr. Greyson Bear to have a college education, set up a research nonprofit called "Animal R & D." This group specialized in gathering information about forest animal life and published periodical papers on living conditions in the forest. Then there was the retirement benefits and aid society that had been set up by Mrs. Greyson Bear and Big Bird called "Why Work When the Weather’s Nice."

It wasn’t long before Gully the seagull, along with Loonie the loon and Leaky the Canadian goose had combined to start up "Animals in Flight," the mission of which was to help their feathered friends get more out of their flying abilities by using them to help transport the more earthbound species from one location to another. That brought immeasurable thrills and chills and allowed many residents to move around the forest more quickly. So that was seven new nonprofits within the span of five years in a forest where there had never been anything other than a local poker or bridge group organized before. The place was growing wild with nonprofits.