The Cat and the Mouse

Oct.-Dec. 1996
Today, I would like to tell you a folk story from my country, a story about the cat and the mice.
   A long time ago, the cat and the mouse were friends.  One day, all of the animals went to meet an angel to report about the animals' arrival.  After that, the angel decided to make up a calendar according to all the animals' age and size, in order of who arrived first.  The angel would make up twelve different selections of animals' names.  At that time one of the animals was the cat.  The cat was very lazy and always slept.  One day, the cat asked the mouse to help him wake up, but the mouse was a crafty and clever animals.  The mouse didn't wake up the cat.  The mouse let the cat sleep for a long time, then, when the cat had woken up, the meeting was over, and the cat was very angry at the mouse.
   Henceforth, the cat and mouse were enemies.  The cat worked hard in the evening and never slept.  The cat tried to find the mouse to eat.  Of the twelve different parts of the Chinese calendar, the cat does not appear in any.  The mouse is the first ranked animal.
   The Chinese calendar has mouse, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock and pig.
 
   -Fong