The Marmalade Tiger

Once upon a time, there was a little marmalade cat who, finding a make-up box belonging to a little girl with white paint and black paint, decided to paint stripes upon itself so that it looked just like a tiger.

 

And when it had finished and had admired its stripes in the mirror, it decided that it would go out and scare people by roaring.

 

So it went out and, as it was walking down the street, it saw the postman coming the other way so it hid behind a red letter box then, as the postman was filling up his sack, it jumped out and went,

 

“Grrrr!”.

 

Terrified, the postman dropped his sack and ran, the letters from the post box going everywhere.

 

But this only made the naughty cat laugh.

 

“Hee-hee-hee”, it sniggered, “I wonder who else I can frighten”.

 

So then the cat walked down the street a little further until he saw a policeman coming the other way twirling his truncheon.

 

“I know”, he said, “I’ll give him a scare”.

 

Then, just like before, the cat jumped out, this time from behind a garden bush, roaring and growling just like a tiger and, terrified, the policeman turned and ran down the street, shouting,

 

“Help! Help! Tiger. It must have escaped from the zoo”.

 

Seeing the policeman run off, the little cat sniggered again.

 

“Hee-hee”, he said, “This is too much fun”.

 

Just then however, scaring the cat so much it made it leap high in the air, it heard a loud bang and then it saw a bullet go whizzing past its ear only narrowly missing it.

 

“Miaaow!”, squealed the cat, “What was that?”.

 

Then, turning round, to the little cats surprise, out from behind some bushes it saw a hunter emerge, dressed in khaki with a pith helmet on his head and a big rifle in his hands.

 

“Oh no”, said the cat, trembling, “It’s a hunter and he thinks I’m a tiger”.

 

Quickly, turning round, the cat ran as fast as it could down the street away from the hunter, bullets continuing to whizz over its head as it ran.

 

But the Hunter wouldn’t give up, he kept chasing the cat. In fact he chased him down three streets until, by accident, the cat ran down an alley with a dead end.

 

“Oh no”, said the cat again, “What am I going to do now. I’m trapped”.

 

Just then however, the cat saw a deep puddle nearby and, leaping into the puddle it got itself wet all over and started to wash off its tiger makeup.

 

It was difficult getting off all the stripes without soap but scrubbing as hard as it could with its paws the cat managed and just in time too for at that very moment the hunter came down the alleyway pointing his gun.

 

Fortunately, when the hunter saw the little marmalade cat without its make up, he just patted the cat on the head, saying,

 

“Hello, little fellow. Where did you come from? I was hunting a tiger but now I can’t find it anywhere”.

 

“Phew!”, sighed the cat, relieved that the hunter wasn’t going to chase after him anymore.

 

And because of that the cat learned a lesson.

 

“I don’t want to be a Tiger”, he thought, “I’d rather be a cat. It’s much safer”.