Exciting Reading with Fun Activities

Copyright 2012 Houston Chronicle

The Dog, the Cat and the Mice A Folktale from Romania

As retold by Mike Peterson, ©2012

Illustrated by Marina Tay, ©2012

Years ago, dogs, cats and mice got along quite well.

The cat was in charge of all that happened inside the house, and the dog was in charge of all that

happened outside the house. The mice weren’t in charge of anything, but they went their way and

nobody bothered them.

One day the dog was lying in the dust of the yard, and he felt a drop of rain. He didn’t feel much like

moving, but he knew that it was about to rain even more; not only would he soon become soaking wet,

but, if he did not move, he also would find himself lying in mud.

He got up and trotted over to a spot on the porch. As he sat there with the rain beginning to pour down

harder and a cold wind whipping it up so that it blew under the porch roof to where he was sitting, he

glanced in the window, and there he saw the cat.

The cat was lying on the thick carpet in front of the warm hearth, and as the dog watched, the cat

stretched all four of her legs out, extending her claws and opening her mouth in a wide, pink yawn.

She blinked a few times at nothing in particular, curled her nose under her front paws and went back

to sleep.

As the dog was watching this, he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. A weasel was stealing

around the corner of the barn, headed for the chicken house, and the dog had to jump out into the

driving rain, barking loudly, to chase it back into the forest where it belonged.

By now the dog was cold and wet clear through, and he’d cut his paw on a sharp rock while he was

chasing the weasel. As he limped back onto the porch, he noticed that somebody had put his food bowl

just a little too far out from the edge of the house so that the rain was running from the roof into it,

turning his dinner into cold, soupy mush.

The dog thought about all this through the cold, rainy night, and, when the sun came out the next

morning, he asked the cat a question.

“Why is it,” the dog asked, “that you get to lie around all day in the nice warm house, while I’m out

here in the cold and damp, chasing weasels and fighting with foxes and having my dinner dish getting

filled with rain water and sleeping in the dirt?”

Exciting Reading with Fun Activities

Copyright 2012 Houston Chronicle

“Don’t blame me,” the cat replied. “That was our agreement.”

“I don’t think I agreed to this,” the dog said.

“Oh yes,” the cat insisted. “Cats are supposed to stay indoors and watch the inside of the house, and

dogs are supposed to stay outdoors and watch the outside of the house. It’s all signed, sealed and

proper. Why, we couldn’t change it even if we wanted to.”

“Let’s see about that,” the dog said. “Show me this agreement. I want to see what it says and,

especially, I want to see who signed it for us dogs.”

“Very well,” the cat said. “I’ll go and get it.”

She went into the house and upstairs into the attic to fetch the paper, but when she got there, she

couldn’t find the agreement. She looked in the trunk where it belonged, but all she could find were a

few scraps of paper and a lot of fuzz.

The cat realized what had happened: Mice had gotten into the trunk and had been nibbling on the

agreement, chewing it up and turning it into fuzz for their nests.

She went back down the stairs and out the kitchen door to where the dog was waiting.

“It’s gone,” she said. “But I remember exactly what it said. It said you were to stay outside and watch

the yard and the barn, and I was to stay in the house and watch everything inside.”

“What?” the dog roared, “Do you think I’m a fool? Show me the agreement!”

And with that, he grabbed the cat by the skin on the back of her neck and gave her a good shake.

The cat pulled away in fear and ran off as fast as she could, and just as she was escaping from the dog,

she spied a small mouse watching her.

“You!” she cried. “You mice have done this to me!” She chased after the mouse angrily.

Ever since that day, when a dog meets a new cat, he immediately chases after it, shouting for her to

show him the agreement.

Ever since that day, when a cat sees a mouse, she immediately tries to catch and kill it for having turned

her perfect life upside down.

Exciting Reading with Fun Activities

Copyright 2012 Houston Chronicle

Activities

1. Many fables are colorful and imaginative descriptions of the relationships between animals, and they

tell how those relationships arose. Which relationships are described in this fable? What explanation

of these relationships is given in this fable?

2. Most of this fable is told from the dog’s viewpoint, or perspective. What conclusion does he draw

about his role when compared with the cat’s role? What incidents lead to his conclusion? Look

through the Houston Chronicle Comics section and find a comic strip that shows the world through

the eyes of an animal. Describe the animal’s viewpoint and tell how it would differ from the

viewpoint of a person.