One dark day on Christmas Eve Tim the cat was extremely hungry, so he set off on a mission to find a mouse.

He had walked for a long time, when suddenly he came across a person building a snowman. The man looked like he was engrossed in the snowman, but he was really staring at Tim. The snow was very deep, so he took a long time to take as many as three steps.

Around ten minutes later the sun came up and melted the snowman, so Tim could go on his way.

He entered the ancient forest that was very dark. In the gloom he thought he saw Santa flying through the sky. But he wasn’t interested in Santa, he was hungry. Far into the forest Tim came across a deep river. He puzzled how he could cross it.

Nearby, a tree had fallen down, making a bridge across the river. Tim stepped lightly across the fallen tree and said, “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” It started raining hard, so Tim had to run fast.

Further, further into the wood he found some mouse droppings, but just when he stopped to sniff the dung a big bad bear jumped from behind a tree and scared tim out of his guts. The bear spotted Tim and pelted towards him at a terrific pace. He was inches away from Tim’s head, in a nearby tree a bird had just landed on a branch. The bear spotted it and thought that it would be easier prey, and leapt after it, missing Tim. Tim padded on his way, feeling very lucky.

It was night fall and Tim settled down to sleep. When he was half asleep he heard a noise by his left ear. It said, “A little cat is asleep in a tree trunk.” I’m not in a tree trunk, I’m on the grass, Tim thought, but when he opened one eye he found himself inside a broken down tree that was hollow.

“Can we take it home?” asked the noise, and Tim saw it was a little girl and her moher. “Are you OK kitty?” asked the mother. Tim didn’t know what that meant, so he didn’t answer. “My name is Jaky,” whispered the little girl. Tim meowed.

“He looks hungry,” exclaimed the mum, who was called Deryn. “Let’s take him or her home.” Tim didn’t like being called her, so he hissed with spit flying everywhere. Jaky swirled up and ran away with tears pouring down her face. Deryn sprinted after her. “This has been a night. I’ll go back to sleep,” said Tim.

In the morning he carried on his long walk to find a mouse. Around one hour later Tim got so hungry that he found himself bouncing up and down calling, “Mousy, mousy. Show yourself.” Mouse didn’t come, but an angry bird did. He sprang up into the air, just missing the bird’s tail. Not knowing that a little mouse was right under his feet, or, as some people say, paws.

Tim landed with an unpleasant bump. He carried on his walk feeling very hungry and disappointed. “I nearly caught it!” he grumbled as he walked. “I wish I saw a mouse!!”

Just then something rustled in the grass. It was a squirrel looking for nuts. “Ha ha,” he thought. “If I creep up on it, it won’t see me or hear me coming and it will be easy prey for me.” When Tim took a step forward the grass moved beneath his feet and he went down, down and down into a hole and he spied a little mouse. “Ha,” he whispered under his breath. “I’ve got you now@” Tim hunched his back up and ran. He ran up passages and down passages. Until finally he caught the mouse.

He was hungry and out of breath, so he ate the mouse, burped and slept.