Leila’s friends knocked on her den door.

“Look, Leila, look! We borrowed your paints and look what we did!”

Her friends dragged Leila to the big, grey wall which was no longer grey. It was alive with purple swirls and multi-coloured flowers; with orange clouds and yellow sunshine.

“We will not let the tigers and the cheetahs make us sad! These colours will give us hope and happiness.”

That night, Leila joined hundreds of leopards at the big, colourful wall. They sat under the glittery stars and held candles and prayed that Leila’s father would get better. They prayed that the cheetahs and tigers would attack them no more. Then they heard singing from across the wall, a beautiful melody carried in the calm wind.

“Where is the music coming from?” Leila’s mother asked. “Leila, climb your olive tree and see!”

When Leila reached the top of her tree she saw rows of cheetahs, stretching as far as her eye could see. They were holding paws and their singing became louder and louder as more and more cheetahs came out of nowhere to join the chain. Behind the cheetahs, the tigers were roaring but the singing was so loud that it drowned the tigers’ anger out. Leila spotted Charlie, bang in the middle. And Charlie saw Leila. He dashed to her and shouted up to the tree,

“My friends and I were so angry about how the tigers hurt you all. We don’t want this wall. This wall is silly. Leopards and cheetahs should be friends again. We told all our families and friends at school. And they told all their families and their friends. And here we all are. BREAK DOWN THE WALL!”

“Break down the wall!” all the cheetahs chanted. “We are all cats! We are all equal!”

Leila waved to her leopard friends. “Come up here!” she cried. One by one, the leopards climbed the olive branches and pounced onto the wall. They stood on top of the wall and held their paws together too, joining in the chanting.

“Break down the wall. We are all cats, spotty or stripy, roaring or purring, big or small. Break down the wall.”

They stood together, their voices in harmony, leopards and cheetahs. Eventually, the horrible, police cheetahs crept away. The tigers lost their voices and stopped roaring. The leopards jumped over the wall in their droves, and the cheetahs clapped and cheered in welcome.

Charlie held up his paw and Leila gave him a high five. The tigers crawled away, back to the land they came from. One hundred white doves were set free and they roamed the skies once more. Charlie took Leila on the glass helter-skelter and they swung through the waterfalls. He gave Leila the cuddle he had wanted to give her on her eighth birthday. It was the best party that Leila had ever had.

And so this day became known as the day when the little cats broke down the wall. Though the tigers and evil cheetahs lashed out with ravaging roars and terrifying talons, it was the sheer numbers of small cats with their small voices who made the impossible possible. It was their bravery and their good hearts which finally brought peace to Callipso Island.

The cats destroyed the wall, but one section of rock remained to remind leopards and cheetahs about the time when they were separated and not allowed to be friends. This part of the wall became a mural as a symbol of freedom and kinship. The cats were allowed to draw and paint whatever they wished upon this free space.

They built a bridge across it, and this bridge was like a handshake between the leopards and the cheetahs; a handshake of unity, a handshake of equality, and a handshake for the hope of a happy future on Callipso Island.