In June I posted the follwoing:
"Last
month, after I heard a mouse escaping from a trap we had set, I posted a
Facebook comment about it. Beginning
below is the resulting story. It is a
rough draft, not finished yet. But for those who helped me write the story by
commenting on my post, I present this as is.
Please let me know what you think.
How can I make it better? If you
who commented before do not see your piece of the story, it is coming next
time."
This is next time!
A Tale of a Mouse’s Foot (Part 2)
Above their heads, the Cats, Comet and
Shadow were planning a party to which they texted a message to their friend
Quandary who lived far away: “Dinner Party – Informal Dress – Menu: Mouse Pate”
Quandary texted back: “Mouse Pate? Drool… I’ll be there even if I have to drag
L along!”
Part 2
 |
| Shadow and Comet |
But before the Cats, Comet and Shadow,
could even finish looking for Mouse Pate recipes in the cookbooks scattered
across the floor there was a snap in the drawer! “Another one!” purred Shadow.
“Murow,” replied Comet flicking his
tongue across his lips. “Start texting
again.”
The collection of mice had grown
fairly large. The Cats were keeping them
on ice so as not to stink up the house.
They did not want to live outside and knew when they had it made. Finally they located a recipe in an obscure
little cookbook that was shaped like a mouse.
“After boiling for 10 minutes, skin,
debone and mash 12 mice,” the recipe stated.
The Cats started banging pots and pans about in order to find just the
right one. “Do we have enough mice?”
Comet asked.
“Let me check,” Shadow said as she
climbed into the freezer and started counting. “One, two, three, four, five,
six… NO.”
“Maybe we could supplement with
fish. There are fish in there too, aren’t
there?”
“Or we could serve two dishes. First Course: Mouse Pate; Second Course: Fried
Fish; with ice cream for dessert!
Yummmmmm!”
“Let’s set a date and see if Quandary can
make it,” suggested Comet. “Maybe by
that time we’ll have gotten some more mice.”
Looking at the calendar hanging on the
side of the fridge, the Cats chose two possible dates in mid fall and texted Q. To which he replied, “The earlier the better,
drool : b”
 |
| Quandary |
But as the late summer leaves began to
change color and the evenings had a decided chill in the air, no more mice
ventured into the drawer. “Where’d they
all go?” the Cats asked one another.
One evening while perched on the chair
reading over the Two-legged’s shoulder, Shadow discovered where all the mice
had gotten themselves off to. That night
she explained to Comet, “Those fool mice hitched-hiked all the way to New York
state!”
“How do you know?”
“They found their way to Bear’s
house. And were caught sleeping in her
bed! I saw it on Facebook.”
“Then of course it’s true,” stated
Comet matter-of-factly. “We’ll have to
make do with the six we already have.
Too bad because both Q and I love to eat.”
Quandary and L finally made the pilgrimage
south and the three Cats had a fine dinner of Mouse Pate, Fried Fish and Ice
Cream for dessert while the Two-leggeds went off to enjoy stories at the TaosStorytelling Festival.
One of the earliest
stories I remember is Millions of Cats
written and illustrated by Wanda Gág. So
it wasn’t surprising to me that I learned to tell Millions of Cats early on in my storytelling career. I was teaching second grade and used my
storytelling skills to enhance my teaching and to keep the children engaged
while we had to wait – for lunch, for P.E., for recess, for library. Right away they learned the refrain,
“Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of
cats.” And chanted with me each time I
used the refrain. Sometimes we enacted
the story with the children being the cats trailing behind me as we “went over
the sunny hills and through the cool valleys.”
For a Summer Reading program, where a craft was expected to go along
with the stories, I came up with the idea of paper bag cat puppets. The story has grown and changed through the
years, but it is still one of my favorites to tell.
