In a small town in Japan, there lived a clever mouse and a cat that was always trying to catch it. The cat was chubby but very agile, while the mouse, though tiny, was extremely quick - witted.
Their relationship was very interesting. They were both opposed to and in harmony with each other. It seemed that the cat's daily task was to catch the mouse, but the mouse could always escape skillfully every time. For example, once, the cat hid behind the water tank in the corner, ready to pounce on the mouse as soon as it came out. As for the mouse, it had already noticed the cat's trail. It deliberately lingered in front of the hole and occasionally poked its head out to tease the cat. The cat became impatient and pounced all at once. But the mouse quickly drilled into the small hole beside it. Unable to stop in time, the cat bumped its head against the wall, which made the mouse laugh heartily in the hole.
However, there were also harmonious moments between this cat and mouse. One day, it rained heavily and the mouse's hole was flooded, leaving the mouse with no place to hide. Seeing the pitiful look of the mouse, the cat pushed its small basket, where it usually slept, to a dry place and signaled to the mouse that it could hide inside. After hesitating for a while, the mouse still crawled in. The cat stayed beside it to prevent other animals from disturbing the mouse. Although the cat would still frighten the mouse from time to time, saying that it would catch it when the rain stopped, the mouse knew that the cat actually wouldn't do so.
Another time, the cat got a large piece of dried fish, which was the cat's favorite food. But when the cat saw the mouse beside it with its stomach growling from hunger, it divided the dried fish into two parts, one for itself and one for the mouse. The mouse looked at the cat in surprise, while the cat pretended to be nonchalant and said, "You look pitiful, so I'll give you some. But don't think I'll always be so nice to you." The mouse happily ate the dried fish and said to the cat, "You are such a strange cat." In this way, the cat and the mouse continued their opposed - yet - harmonious life in this small town. Their story has also been spreading in the town and has become one of the children's favorite stories.
