~Alex Signorovitch, Class of 2025 

Dear Walter (cat), 

I hope you are doing well. I know living on a farm can be tough. Here at my farm we have recently revolted against our farmer, and we have now gained our own freedom. I did not do much in the fight as I am a cat, but I did my best biting and clawing at people’s feet. Sadly, in the process, I lost another one of my lives. Now that we have gotten rid of our farmers we get to eat as much as we want, work for our own produce and not be starved nearly to death. With no human to take what is rightfully ours, life on our farm is better than ever. It all started when the oldest pig on our farm, Old Major, gave a speech about how we have the power to overthrow the farmers. He also told us that we could gain our freedom if, and only if, we fought back instead of obeying the farmers.  The part of this speech that impacted my small cat brain the most was the part about having food in plenty. Eventually, Old Major died and a little while later we started planning our revolt; we knew it wouldn’t be long until we had our freedom. In no time at all, we were fighting. Although we did not have the skill or strength to kill, we did our best to fight off the humans and their guns, and succeeded. Sadly, even though we had gained our freedom we had lost some loyal animals to the humans and their guns. Later, us animals remembered this battle as the Battle of the Cowshed.

After the humans were banished from the farm, life got so much better. There was food in plenty, no animals being slaughtered, and most importantly no humans controlling our lives. We also together created a list of 7 commandments: “1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy… 7, All animals are equal” (24). Soon after we came up with these rules, our leaders in ideas, the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, started thinking of creating new machines to help us in all sorts of ways. The main idea was a windmill that would generate electricity for all the animals to have warm beds to sleep in, and other unimportant things to us cats. Snowball and Napoleon were always in disagreement and no matter what the idea was the other would be opposed to it. When building of the windmill was put to a vote, it was obvious that it would be passed. Then, Napoleon, who did not want the windmill, called 9 dogs to his side and chased away the other pig Snowball. Later, Napoleon sent out a younger pig called Squealer to tell all the animals that the windmill was to be built, and that the idea had originally been Napoleon’s, but it had been stolen by Snowball. I distinctly remember, “Squealer explained privately to the other animals that Napoleon had never in reality been opposed to the windmill” (57) because I knew that Snowball had created the plans, as I watched him make them as I slept in the rafters. Overall, the revolution was a success in my opinion, and all I care about is my endless supply of food and nice warm bed every night.

 You should try to come over sometime or start a revolution at your farm, then maybe you will have a better life as well. I know us cats are not listened to that much, but I am sure if you meow enough, and loudly, you can get your point across to your fellow farm animals.  Soon I think everything is going to be amazing with heated beds, less work because of electric machinery, and more food than we could ever need. In a bit I am sure that there will be no necessary work for me to do, so I can just eat and sleep, and eat and sleep. I am not going to petition for more work, and I plan to always be seen when I am not needed but nowhere when there is need for me. I am enclosing some food with this letter as we have plenty, and I think you will really like this salmon and milk. Once again I hope you are doing well and are not being mistreated.

Best whiskers,

Your friend Milo