Week 1 Storytelling: (Not) Belling the Cat

In a house upon a hill lived many mice. The mice had lived there for years, enjoying all the milk and cheese they could handle, until one day a cat came to live in the house. The cat, growing weary of travelling and scavenging for food thought maybe she could find a new start in the house upon the hill.

Upon entering the house the cat found a kitchen filled with enough milk to last the cat a lifetime. Next to the milk were a couple mice enjoying a chunk of aged cheddar. The cat, as if she were shot out of a cannon, pounced on the unsuspecting mice and ate them in a single gulp. She then continued into the living room where she ate five more before devouring another five in the bedroom. 

(Image Information: A Cat in the Kitchen;
a personal photo from June 2014)

By nightfall, the mice were beginning to worry that this new cat may completely annihilate them. Realizing they did not have another second to waste, the remaining mice gathered to discuss what should be done about their new enemy.

“Maybe we should find a new home by the sea or in a city,” one mouse suggested. “Maybe the cat is lonely and actually only wants a friend,” another voice considered. Finally, one bright young mouse suggested they simply put a belled-collar on the cat. The young cat said if the cat wore a bell, then they would always be able to hear the cat coming.

Murmurs turned to shouts, and the once hush crowd grew louder and louder. As the noise grew, so did their confidence. Unfortunately, they grew too confident and the cat, napping after his meal, overheard them.

The cat crept from the bedroom to where the meeting of the mice was taking place. Taking the unprepared mice by surprise, the cat proceeded to eat every last mouse in the house upon the hill.

Author's Note

This story is based on Aesop's fable, "Belling the Cat". In the story, the mice need to find a way to save themselves from the cat, so a young mouse suggests they put a bell on the cat so that they will always be able to hear the cat when it is near. Then, an older mouse applauds the younger's idea but asks, "Who will bell the cat?". The moral of this fable is, "It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it".

Bibliography

"Belling the Cat" from Aesop for Children, by anonymous, with pictures by Milo Winter (1919) Web Source: The Project Gutenberg