Mr Cat from Catville

Once upon a time, there lived an old farmer and his tiger tomcat in a house by the woods. The older the cat got, the lazier he was. Soon he became so lazy, he would do nothing but lie on the oven and snore all day. And it was loud ‘ZZZZzzzz! ZZZZzzz!’ It drove the farmer crazy.

The farmer couldn’t even remember the last time the cat had caught a single mouse. One day, he thought, “What good is an old lazy cat lying about on the oven to me? I’ll take him out to the woods and leave him. He can go wherever he wants and take care of himself, for once.”

The farmer grabbed the cat, who yowled at being woken up, and he took him far into the forest, and left him there.

The cat was very unsettled. He’d been asleep, but suddenly he was travelling and now he was all alone in the woods! He took a second to gather his wits about him, looked around, and noticed a sleek red fox.

“Who are you?” asked the vixen.

“I’m Mr Cat, from Catville,” the cat said.

“You know what?” said the fox. “I like you! If you have nowhere to go, come with me. You could be my husband and I could be your wife.”

Mr Cat liked the sound of being someone’s husband, so the fox took him to her cottage. It was cute made of a little straw and wood with some sturdy stones.

A week later, the fox was walking through the woods when she chanced upon her friend the hare. The hare was a light tan, with long droopy ears.

“Oh, my friend Mrs Fox,” he said, “it’s been so long since I last paid you a visit!…