WHILE YOU'RE WAITING FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER OF THE BOOK...

Once, in the old shed by the river bank, there lived a family 4 black cats and one tabby cat. The black cats were mother and father cat and their sons, Matt and Nat, and then, of course, their other son Freddy the tabby.

But there were more differences between Freddy and his family than just their fur color. For example, Freddy was the only one who disagreed with his father during their kitty-schooling lessons. He was also the only one to take his bath in the river instead of using the tongue-fur technique like most cats do. Matt and Nat were friends with each other not with Freddy. When they thought he wasn’t listening they laughed and said mean things about him. Freddy heard, and felt lonely. He was an outcast from his family (except for his mom, because mothers always love all of their children) and his father was overjoyed when it was time to get rid of him. One thing that bugged him about Freddy was that Freddy love mice. Every mouse that came by the shed would become Freddy’s friend. Father cat was a normal cat in every way so he hated mice like any normal cat should. The mice were just another reason that Freddy had to go.

When it was time for Matt, Nat and Freddy to finish their kitty schooling and leave their parents and their shed by the riverbank to become real cats with real cat jobs, father cat gathered all his kitty-sons up to say goodbye.

“Matt, Nat, my 2 good little kitty-sons, what are you going to do now that you’re leaving your family and your home by the river bank?” said father cat. Matt and Nat, who liked to live the basic cat lifestyle, answered “we are going to become mousers, the best one ever!” “Good kitties” said father cat before giving them not a small kitty hug, but a big cat hug, to send them on their way.

Father cat turned his head to face Freddy and said “now you, my bad little kitty-son, what are you going to do now that you’re finally leaving us?”

Freddy took a deep breath before answering. “I’m not sure. I think I’ll just look around for the right job.”

“I give you my luck” said father cat before sending him off with nothing more than a cold glare to remember him by.

Matt and Nat worked for months at a cheese factory as mousers, keeping the mice from taking the cheese. They had very little success because the mice were so quick and smart. They caught only small, scrawny mice and earned very little food from cheese factory owners. They were beginning to lose hope when they spotted a big, slow, frightened mouse trying to sneak by a cheese pile. Matt and Nat caught him easily and were praised and rewarded by the owners.

The mice, however, were not very happy about losing their leader to the cats. Panicking, they held a meeting.

“What will we do?!” squeaked one mouse.

“He was the oldest and wisest of our colony! We’ll never survive without him!” squeaked another.

“I have an idea!” squeaked the third. “Let’s go find our old friend Freddy.”

The mice all thought that that was a good idea so they went into town to look for Freddy. They found him looking around for some sort of cat-job he could do, now that he was a cat.

“Freddy, Freddy!” They squeaked. “Your brothers have eaten our leader! He was the wisest of the mice! We’ll all be eaten up in a second if we stay at the cheese factory without him! What should we do? We need a new home!”

Freddy smiled. “This is great! We can live together. And I know the perfect place.”

So Freddy and the mice walked along the riverbank until they came to a shed, a lot like Freddy’s old one, only bigger and beautiful. Inside was a big room where Freddy would live and all around it were mouse holds, enough so that every little mouse family had a place to sleep. They were all very happy to live with Freddy, and Freddy was very happy to live with them, so they all lived happily ever after.

But the story isn’t over yet.

When all the mice left, the cheese factory owner decided they didn’t need matt and Nat anymore so they kicked them out. Matt and Nat searched for weeks for a new cat-job, but they were all taken. They had nowhere to sleep, even on cold, rainy nights. One night it was raining so hard that the only thing wetter than the rain was the river, and the only place Matt and Nat could find to keep dry was under a very big leaf.

On that same night, Freddy and the mice were sitting in big blue armchairs next to a big warm fire in their shed. They were all laughing and having a good time when there was a knock at the door. Freddy opened it, and there was Matt and Nat.

“When all the mice left we were kicked out of the cheese factory” said Matt.

“Can we stay here?” asked Nat.

Freddy answered. “Of course you can stay here! But I must warn you, the mice live here too, so no matter how much you hate mice, you must be nice to them. When you are nice to mice and give them homes they are nice to you and tell you jokes and give you cheese. But when you are mean to mice, they leave cheese factories and get you fired. It’s much better to be nice to mice and give them homes,” said Freddy. “That is why I have become a mouse real estate agent.”

The End