Guard Cats

“Amber!” Scarlette the black Persian screeched as she ran into the bedroom.

“I hope this is important, because I was taking a nap,” Amber growled not moving from her spot on the bed she was lying on at the time.

“A mouse!”

“Well, did you scare it to death?”

“No,” Scarlette pouted.

“Don’t tell me,” Amber rolled her eyes. “You were afraid of it.”

“No, I wasn’t!” She insisted. “It just so happens that mouse has a message for you.”

“Yeah? And what might that be?”

“He says he is part of the Mouse Gang and they are going to take over our house! He insists there is nothing you can do about!”

“You should have scared him to death,” Amber replied, unimpressed. Then she turned away from Scarlette and tried to go back to sleep.

“We’re going to be over run with mice!” Scarlette mewed loudly.

“Yeah, yeah! Wake me when you’re done having a panic attack and I’ll tell you my plan.”

“Oh, I’m glad you can take this lightly!” Scarlette exclaimed. “You may look like a lion, but you’re not that big! Just think about it! They’ll eat our humans’ food. They’ll eat our food!”

“Will you give it a rest, Scarlette,” Amber hissed as she stood and jumped off the bed. She was taller and longer than Scarlette. Her fur had grey and black stripes, with splotches of orange and white. She spoke with leadership as she informed her fellow house cat, “If you must know now, this is my plan; we’ll take turns guarding the entrance where they come in, and if we see them, we POUNCE!” She announced forcefully with a swipe of her paw. “Got it? Good!”

“But Amber,” Scarlette cried, “I’ve never caught a mouse in my life!”

“So you’ll start now,” Amber shrugged, and then curled into a ball on the floor to finish her nap.

“Oh easy for you to say,” Scarlette moped as she slid under the bed nervously.

“Just do your job and we won’t have any problems. Now take a nap. You’re going to need it for tonight.”

That night, Amber watched the mice’s entrance in the kitchen intently. She was determined not to let any mouse get past her. If one came into the house, she was ready to pounce on it.

A couple hours later, Scarlette raced into the kitchen with excitement, “Did you catch the mouse, Amber? Did you?”

“I didn’t even see a mouse!” Amber growled. “There probably isn’t a mouse and won’t be at all if you don’t top that noise.”

“There was a mouse, Amber,” Scarlette insisted. “I saw him.”

“Well, I didn’t, but it’s your turn to watch. If you see him or his buddies jump ‘im!”

“I will Amber,” Scarlette stated as she took her place for guard duty. “I won’t let him go this time. I promise, Amber.”

“You’d better not,” she said as she walked out of the room and yawned. “I’m going to take a nap with Mama.”

“I love Mama,” Scarlette smiled. “She’s good human.”

“Well, if you gave our other humans a chance, I bet you’d find them to be good humans too. Night.”

“Our human brothers?  Too hyper!” Scarlette mumbled as she shook her head. “Here mousy, mousy, mousy.”

Amber heard and came back into the kitchen, “Scarlette, what are you doing?”

“Trying to catch my first mouse.”

“That’s not how you do it!”

“Well, then what do you suggest?”

“You sit there ready to pounce at a moments notice. That’s it and when you see one, you jump him.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Boring!”

“Yes, but it will be worth it when you get one, because Mama gives you lots of loving. Now I’m going to sleep. Night,” Amber said as she walked out again.

The next morning Amber was upset with Scarlette after a long night of not seeing a single mouse.

“I bet there was no mouse!” Amber hissed.

“I swear, Amber,” Scarlette cried. “There was a mouse and he did say they were going to take over our home!”

“We’ll see, but if there isn’t a single mouse tonight, that’s it! No more watching that hole, because I need my beauty sleep.”

“Oh, goody! Mama’s giving us breakfast!” Scarlette exclaimed as she ran to her feed bowl.

“Eat lightly so we’ll be able to catch those mice tonight,” Amber told her as she followed behind her.

“But I’m hungry,” Scarlette cried.

“I didn’t say not to eat,” Amber insisted as she began eating the food their human set out for them. “I just said eat lightly.”

“OK,” Scarlette sighed. “All this just to catch a few mice.”

Meanwhile the mice gathered outside the house to discuss their plans.

“OK, guys, tonight’s the night. We’ll slip in and get as much food as we possibly can. Then we rush out of the house,” the leader of the mice gang informed them.

“But Frankie, we have two cats to deal with,” Johnnie the Nose told him.

“Not a problem. We just slip in quietly, do the job, and then sneak back out again.”

“Scarlette the Persian is scared of everything, but Amber the Calico is mean, tough and on guard.”

“If we all go together we should be fine. She can’t get us all.”

“I’m wondering if this is worth it,” Big Cheese stated. “I mean, think about our families… If we are killed, what would they do without us? Can’t we choose a different house?”

“No, this is the house.”

“You’re crazy, Frankie Teeth!”

“Maybe, but I’m sure we can make a killing by way of food for our families. Besides, with so many of us, how can she even catch one of us?”

“I don’t know Frankie, she’s quick, but I think we can get past Scarlette,” Johnnie informed them. “I’ve cased the joint and if we time it right, Scarlette will be the one awake and she’s scared of her own shadow. She was shaking when I gave her the message and then she screamed. So, I don’t think there will be any problems.”

“Then we’ll go in when Scarlette is on duty,” Frankie Teeth ordered. “So, who all is with us?”

Most of the mice agreed to the plan. Only a few had some reluctance, but decided to go with the group.

“Then we go in tonight. Everyone understand the plan?”

“I still say my plan to do another house is better, Frankie Teeth.”

“Well, Big Cheese, if I go down tonight, you can lead the group.”

“Fine with me. I ain’t got no problem with that.”

“Glad to hear it. Now let’s all get ready to raid tonight.”

The day went by quickly as the two cats slept. Amber took the second watch that night. She waited by the hole where the mice were expected to enter, but as the hours past no one came through the hole and now it was well past three in the morning.

“Humph!” Amber stated with irritation as she left her post to wake Scarlette.

She entered their human’s room and jumped on the bed, “Wake up, Scarlette.”

“HISS!”

“Hey, it’s me!”

“Oh, sorry Amber,” Scarlette apologized. “You scared me.”

“That’s alright; I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to tell you it’s your turn again.”

“OK,” Scarlette yawned and stretched. “No mice yet?”

"No and I’m beginning to wonder if you dreamed it.”

“I didn’t dream it!”

“Alright, just go watch for them.”

“OK,” Scarlette agreed as she hopped off the bed and sauntered into the kitchen.

Once she arrived, she stopped in her tracks and her eyes got big, “AMBER!” She screamed and began jumping and trying to catch a mouse, but there were just too many of them. “AMBER! HELP! THERE’S TOO MANY OF THEM!”

“What…” Amber started to ask as she walked into the kitchen and then started running after the mice. “Come on, Scarlette you can catch one! Get ‘em!”

While Scarlette slapped one mouse around, Amber was trying to shake another she had caught.

“How dare you come in my house,” Amber growled as she dropped the mouse that was in her mouth and began chasing another.

“Hey, where there’s kids, there good food,” Frankie Teeth insisted as he ran toward the exit.

“Not in this house you don’t!” Amber growled as she tried to jump on Frankie.

“Hey, I remember you!” Scarlette exclaimed as she prepared to pounce one of the mice as Amber instructed.

“Johnnie the nose at your service,” he bowed. “Now, if you don’t mind, I must take my leave.”

“Oh, no you don’t! Drop that food!”

“Um… What food? I don’t see no food,” he mumbled as he tried to hide what he had stolen.

“The food you’re carrying in you mouth,” Scarlette insisted.

“Oh, that,” Johnnie replied as he dropped it nervously. “It’s nothing.”

WHACK! Scarlette suddenly smacked him across the room and he slammed against wall.

“It worked! I got him!” Scarlette excitedly jumped up and down, feeling proud of her accomplishment.

“Good! Now go get another!” Amber mumbled as she held Frankie in her mouth.

Scarlette ran after another mouse. As she chased it into the next room she knocked a vase off a table with a loud crash.

“Don’t eat me! Don’t eat me!” Frankie squeaked loudly.

“Oh, I’m not going to eat you,” Amber told him. She had an evil spark in her eyes as she spoke.

“Then put me down!”

From another room they heard a loud yawn and feet coming towards the kitchen.

“No, I’m taking you to Mama as a gift!” Amber informed him happily as she went to meet her human part of the way.

“Another cat! No one said anything about a third cat!”

“No, Human,” Amber mewed as she walked into the living room.

“MAN!”

Amber laughs, “No woman!”

Just as Frankie Teeth passed out from fear, Amber dropped him at her human mama’s feet. She began meowing as she rubbed against Mama’s leg.

“Look what I caught for you, Mama,” Amber mewed.

“I got one too!” Scarlette scampered into living room and dropped her gift in front of Mama. “See Mama? I caught one!”

“What happened, Mom?” One of the human children asked as they stumbled into the room.

“Amber and Scarlette caught a couple mice,” Mama said happily as she reached down to pet her two girls. “What lovely presents! You two are good girls! Thank you.”

“She likes our gifts!” Scarlette exclaimed.

“Yes, and she’ll be going on about it for a while too,” Amber happily told her.

“Ooo!” The younger child said as he looked down on the floor to see the mice. “There’s two of them!”

“Ok, that’s enough attention,” Amber stated as she walked out of the room. “I’m going to get some sleep.”

“Me too,” Scarlette agreed.

“Alright boys, you know what to do with them,” Mama said.

“But Mom, its 5:00 in the morning!” One of the boys whined.

“What are they going to do with them?” Scarlette asked Amber.

“I don’t know, but as long as they give me some loving for catching the mice, I don’t care.”

“Same here!”

“So, you’ll have an early morning,” Mama told the boys. “You have to be up soon anyway.”

“Alright, let me get something so I don’t have to touch him,” the older one groaned.

Frankie Teeth and Johnnie the Nose woke up an hour later in strange surroundings.

“Hey, Frankie, where are we?”

“Oh my head,” Frankie groaned. Without opening his eyes, he replied, “I don’t know, but it smells like the sewers of New York.”

“I don’t know about the New York sewers, but this looks like one big enclosed garbage dump.”

Frankie opened his eyes, “You’re close, Johnnie. It’s a dumpster.”

“How do we get out?”

“I don’t know, but we’d better figure it out soon. Hear that?”

“That loud roaring sound?” Johnnie asked as he shook with fear.

“Yeah, that roar belongs to a big mean truck with huge teeth. It has bad breath because it eats everything that’s in here.”

“OH NO! We’re being lifted into the air!” Johnnie screamed.

“JUMP!”

The two mice manage to escape being eaten by the roaring truck. They ran back to their hide out only to discover Big Cheese was now the leader of the gang and all the mice had abandon the plans to raid the house with the cats.

© Mriana July 2005

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