The Fat Cat

There was a fat cat,
Who sat on a mat,
And a very fat cat was he.
He had ears on his head,
And jam on his bread,
And always took sugar with tea.

Image by Flickr user stereotyp-0815

Sammy’s Bad Breath

Once upon a time there lived a little cat named Sammy. One day, Sammy had gone on a fishing trip with Papa Cat. They caught three nice salmon and ate them for dinner. Ever since then Sammy loved fish. He would bring tuna sandwiches to eat at cat school for lunch. He would ask if Mama Cat would get a tin of smoked salmon every time they went to the grocery store.

The more fish Sammy ate, the worse his breath got. When Sammy went to school one day he set an apple down on his teacher’s desk. She said, “Thank you, Sammy.” But when he politely said, “You’re welcome,” his breath smelled so badly of fish that she had to plug her nose. When he was talking to his classmates in the cafeteria they shouted, “Your breath stinks, Sammy!”

Sammy didn’t want to bother people with his fishy-smelling breath, but he couldn’t stop eating fish! It was like someone telling the Hamburgler that he couldn’t eat hamburgers anymore! When Sammy bought his lunch at the cafeteria at school, it always had something to do with fish.

There was no way anyone could stop him from eating more and more fish! One day, when Sammy and Mama Cat went to the store, Sammy saw something. Breath mints! Mama Cat said that he should get some for his fishy breath. As soon as they had got home and Sammy had tried a breath mint, he realized that he had brought fish flavored breath mints! Who would have thought they would be fish flavored! Fish flavored breath mints! What would they think of next? So the breath mints didn’t work.

Sammy tried many more times to freshen his breath but nothing worked. Then one day, Sammy was eating a salmon sandwich when he realized he wasn’t as satisfied with the taste as he had been. He ate it anyway but with not as much enthusiasm.

The next day Sammy ate some smoked trout. It didn’t taste that good to him! He only ate a little of it. Then the next day, Sammy had tuna salad. It was dreadful! Sammy had grown sick of fish! He didn’t eat it again and nobody had to suffer from his bad breath anymore.

THE END

By Little Meow, Age 9 – December 2014

Image by Flickr user Ottavia H

Four Cats and an Accordion Christmas

A CHRISTMAS STORY BY LITTLE MEOW

Chapter 1: Bob

Once on a farm there lived four little kittens. There names were Matilda, Max, Martha, and Melvin. Their mother was Mrs. Frisker-whisker and their father was Mr. Frisker-whisker. It was winter and the snow was falling and icicles were hanging from the roofs of the barn, shed, and farm house. Most of the squirrels were hibernating, apart from the Nutcorn family, who said they were going to be up for Christmas. They had been partying quite ferociously all the time and unfortunately they quite frequently drank too much.

Theodore the little rabbit didn’t hibernate, either. He was a pet of the farmer’s wife’s and he was kept warm in the winter by the nice big fire. But all the birds were migrating and most of the mice were hibernating, so outside there wasn’t a single bird or rodent apart from the Nutcorns, who were smashing a squirrel-sized pinata that was hanging from a small tree.

On that particular morning, Mr. Ames, the farmer, was over in the barn milking the cow, Mrs. Ames was inside cooking some potatoes and turkey, Mr. and Mrs. Frisker-whisker were sitting in front of the fire, and Matilda, Max, Martha, and Melivin were all rubbing against Mrs. Ames’s legs, asking for spare turkey.

Soon they had had enough turkey so they went outside to see what the Nutcorns were doing. Snow was covering the window of the Nutcorns cottage so that they couldn’t see inside, but the kittens could very well guess that they were partying as ever. They would never rest till winter was over.

Then the kittens went to the shed to see how the mice were doing. The mice were the kittens’s friends. The kittens had been taught by Mr. and Mrs. Frisker-whisker not to hurt and eat mice unless they were starving. So the mice were quite safe as long as Mrs. Ames provided the cats with enough food. The kittens had just eaten all that spare turkey, so they had no inclination to harm the mice.

Mr. Mousey was sitting on the porch of his mousehole smoking a tiny pipe and observing things with his small beady eyes. He had on a brand new bowler hat and suit jacket. A tiny purple umbrella was leaning on his green folding chair and there was a tiny yellow broom on the other side of his porch. Pleasant smells were coming from his hole, so the kittens knew that Mrs. Mousey must be baking one of her famous cheese pies.

The Mouseys never hiberntated since they didn’t live outside. They lived in a pleasant little shed and their pleasant little house had a big fire lest they should get a little cold.

When Mr. Mousey saw the kittens coming, he stood up, set his pipe down on his chair, and greeted them with a tip of his hat. “You aren’t hungry, I hope?” he said nervously, wringing a plaid handkerchief in his paws.

“No, no,” said the kittens. “We’re not hungry.” So Mr. Mousey set down his hankerchief by his pipe and walked across the porch to a chair closer to the kittens so that they could have a nice conversation.

“How are you doing?” asked Martha.

“I am doing well.” said Mr. Mousey. “Our nice little fire is keeping everybody warm.”

“Good,” said Max. Just then Mrs. Mousey called out that a fresh cheese pie was ready and waiting. The noise of all the Mousey children begging for cheese pie reminded Mr. Mousey that he had better get some cheese pie before the little ones ate it all, as he quickly told the kittens before running into his mouse hole.

So the little kittens decided that they would go take a walk and see if the lake was all frozen. They walked along, looking happily at the trees from which snow clung, until Melvin and Matilda saw something. They didn’t know what it was, so they pointed it out to Max and Martha, who didn’t know either.

It had brown sides with a green springy thing in between it. It seemed to have yellow buttons on its brown sides. It also had black straps. The kittens started to run away, but looking back they noticed that the thing had not moved. They started tiptoeing closer and closer. Finally, they were only a few inches away. Martha batted at it with her paw. “It doesn’t seem to be alive,” she announced. Then Matilda, who was very curious about it, slid her paw under the strap and pulled. It stretched the green thing and made a loud, echoing sound. They all jumped back in surprise.

The thing still didn’t move, so they edged closer and Matilda pulled at the strap again. It made the same loud noise, but it still didn’t move. “Hey!” said Max. “This is an accordian! A musical instrument! Remember when we saw one a peddler was trying to sell?”

Matilda, Melvin, and Martha were amazed at Max’s memory. But as he described it they, too, started to remember the peddler and his accordian. Then Matilda started playing it as best she could and the kittens excitedly hopped around.

When some time had passed, the kittens decided they had to go back.   So they all grabbed part of the strap and pulled the accordian behind them. As they walked, they planned on hiding the accordian where Mr. or Mrs. Ames wouldn’t find it and take it, not knowing that it was the kittens.

They also decided to name it Bob for some reason.

Chapter 2: Christmas Coming

The kittens were realizing that it was getting colder! So cold that they did not go outside very much apart from checking on the Nutcorns and the Mouseys. The kittens couldn’t wait for Santa Cat to bring presents to all the good little kittens in his magic sleigh pulled by flying reindeer.

Mr. and Mrs. Frisker-whisker were excited about Santa Cat coming too. When Mr. Ames wasn’t looking, Mr. Frisker-whisker dipped his paw in a bucket of paint and wrote: “Welcome Santa Cat” in cat language on the lawn, but this didn’t mean anything to Mr. Ames who didn’t understand cat language. Mrs. Frisker-whisker had stolen some cookie dough and made her own cookies, which she slipped into the oven with Mrs. Ames’s. When they were done, she took out her cookies without Mrs. Ames’s noticing. Then she, the kittens, and Mr. Frisker-whisker ate them happily.

Whenever the kittens went outside they played with Bob the accordion until they had to go home. The kittens told Mr. and Mrs. Frisker-whisker about the accordion and they were very much amazed at the kittens’ finding.

Chapter 3: The Idea

One day, Max, Martha, Matilda, and Melvin were all sitting around Bob and thinking. Suddenly, Melvin said, “I have an idea! We probably should let Mr. and Mrs. Ames know about Bob sometime. But we need them to let us keep him. Why don’t we learn to play this accordion and sing carols in human language so that on Christmas we can play the accordion for Mr. and Mrs. Ames! If we do really well, we will probably be able to keep the accordion so we can play it each Christmas!”

“Yes, yes!” agreed the other kittens!

So the kittens started listening to the children who came to sing carols and they started learning the songs. They learned to play the accordion. They didn’t tell anyone about what they were doing. They wanted it to be a surprise on Christmas. They might even be able to play it for Santa Cat if they were able to catch him before he left.

So the kittens were learning and learning until they were really quite good at it. And they got better and better.

Chapter 4: Christmas with Santa Cat

It was nighttime on Christmas Eve! The kittens didn’t go to bed. They were mostly nocturnal anyway. The squirrels were outside looking for Santa. The kittens were outside by the squirrels, holding their accordion. Mr. and Mrs. Ames were looking out the window. The Mousey family was sitting by the squirrels and cats, too.

Suddenly, there was a jingling sound. Everybody looked up, including Mr. and Mrs. Ames. There was Santa Cat with his magic reindeer, flying down to give presents. He landed with a thump in the snow, got out, and lay down on his back for a while looking up at everybody and shouting, “Ho, ho, ho!”

Then he was silent and the kittens started playing Bob and singing carols! Mr. and Mrs. Ames were amazed! When the kittens had finished singing and playing, Santa Cat started clapping his approval. He gave Max a toy truck, he gave Martha a bag of catnip treats, he gave Melvin a box of cat grass, and he gave Matilda a little silver bell. Then he handed the numerous Mousey children different things, such as tiny balloons, cheese chunks, and bits of chocolate. Then he gave the excited squirrels some acorns, mistletoe, and craft books. Then he walked up to the window of the farm house and handed Mrs. Ames a new tea cozy and Mr. Ames some tobacco for his pipe. Then he gave everyone some Santa Cat hats.

He patted the kittens on their heads with his fluffy paws, asked them to play their fabulous accordion next time he came, and with that, he climbed back into his sleigh. Then he let everybody including Mr. and Mrs. Ames come up and pet his reindeer, which, he reassured, were friendly. He waved his paw cheerfully and told everyone he had to go.

And as he flew out of sight,

He cried “Meowy Christmas to all,

And to all a good night!”

THE END

 

By Little Meow, Age 9
Finished on November 29, 2014, Saturday