The ostriches carry pails around the zoo, speaking with the human patrons. This is all the animal union was able to accomplish. They’d had such lofty dreams: lions at the ice cream cart, shrews attending bathrooms, mongoose taking tickets at the reptile house. Only sloth and elephant declined assignment. The ostriches are dutiful. They do not rile at the litter the humans created, their feathers don’t ruffle when the renegade ducks fly overhead. No one else is so calm at the treachery of ducks. They sold us out for a piece of sky, say the marmosets. Though the ducks have been gone eight months, they are the subject of at least a half-hour’s griping at all union meetings. Unless one of the humans comes to the zoo with a guide dog and the guide dog is curt. They all agree that guide dogs have no more privilege for haughtiness; their own display is also a service.