Mouse was upset that he had been foolish enough to believe Cat's false stories. He should have known that Cat was leaving the house to eat all the food they had stored up for the winter. Cat wasn't even his real friend, now that he had tried to eat Mouse. Not only did Mouse not have any food for the winter, he was basically almost dead! He was lucky that Cat had swallowed him in a hurry instead of taking the time to properly chew him up. Now he had to find a way out before the digestive juices in Cat's stomach located him and tried to break him down! There was surely no way to combat the acid without suffering severe burns. He decided the only way out was to continue moving downstream through Cat's digestive system. Down Mouse went, through the stomach to the small and large intestines, and finally near the bladder where he knew he could exit.
In the bladder, Mouse was met with another rotten smell. This time he knew exactly what it smelled like even though he tried his hardest not to think about it. All he knew was that he had to escape before Cat's body did something to him that would lead to a slow, painful death. He plunged into Cat's bladder and made quite some progress before he was met with a dead-end.
"Now what?" thought Mouse as he became more and more exasperated. He had to find a genius way to escape from the depths of Cat's digestive system, but the only thing he could think of was to chew his way out from inside Cat's body. He was a mouse after all, and mice are fortunate to have sharp teeth that can gnaw their way through many different things. It was a long shot, but he had to try: his life depended on it. So Mouse did the only thing he could: he bit into the insides of Cat and started to gnaw his way through to the outside. It wasn't an easy or clean task (I'll save you all the gory details), but with a little time and patience, Mouse burst through Cat and landed outside, back in the real world.
At the same time, Cat felt a sudden sharp pain in his lower stomach as Mouse burst out and fell to the ground. Cat was astonished! He had never seen anything like this. But Cat didn't have time to be surprised. He had a hole in his stomach and was bleeding out!
"Help me!" Cat yelled to Mouse in obvious pain.
Mouse took one quick glance at Cat and sped off. Who did Cat think he was to take advantage of Mouse, steal their food, and eat him with the intent to kill and then still try and ask for help? Mouse chuckled and went off to search for food and shelter in order to survive the winter season.
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| Tom and Jerry; Flickr |
Author's Note
The original story, called Cat and Mouse in Partnership, is about a cat and mouse who decide to live with each other through the winter season. Together, they round up some food to save for winter and then store it inside a church so that no one dares to steal it. The next day, Cat makes up an excuse that he is to be a godfather and has to leave the house all day. In reality, Cat actually sneaks off to the church and eats the pot of fat that they foraged for and stored for the winter. When winter finally arrives and they're no longer able to find food outside, they head to the church to retrieve the pot of fat. Of course, Cat has eaten it all and Mouse becomes extremely angry when he pieces it together and realizes what had happened. However, before Mouse can say anything, it's already too late: Cat leans down and swallows Mouse whole. This is where the story leaves off in the original text. I wanted to write about what happens after to the Mouse. I didn't think it was sufficient for the Mouse to die so pathetically, so I decided to add an epic escape from inside Cat. I also wanted karma to come around and get Cat for being cruel, so that's why I decided to have Mouse just take off after he escaped. The original story also reminds me of the show Tom and Jerry, so that's why I included the image that I did.
Bibliography
Brothers Grimm from Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales by Dan Ashliman
