In ancient times, a man surnamed Dong in the State of Wei was interested in nothing but keeping cats.

 

He kept over 100 cats in his home, which caught and ate all the rats in the house.

 

Later, as there were no more rats, the cats were so hungry that they meowed all the time. Dong had to buy meat from the market every day to feed them.

 

Day after day, year after year, the cats multiplied. As they ate meat every day, they even didn't know there were rats in the world which could be caught and eaten. They meowed whenever they were hungry, and whenever they meowed, they were fed with meat. After they ate their fill, they were happy and carefree, lazy and sluggish¹, and had nothing to do all day.

 

In the south of the city, one house was plagued with rats. The rats ran amuck² in swarms³. Once it so happened that a rat fell into a jar. The master of the house hastened to Dong's home to borrow a cat to catch the rat.

 

The cat from the Dong family saw the rat in the jar stick up its pointed⁴ ears, stare with a pair of pitch-black eyes, shake its red whiskers and squeak⁵. The cat didn't know what a freak the rat was. It only followed the rat moving around on the mouth of the jar, and dared not get into it.

 

The master was furious at this and pushed the cat down into the jar. At this moment, the cat was panic-stricken and howled loudly at the rat. After a while, the rat eventually found that this cat had no other tricks, so it bit the cat's foot. The Dong's cat was so frightened that it exerted all its strength and made one jump out of the jar and ran away.

 

古代，卫国有个姓东的人，对世界上的万事万物都不感兴趣，唯独爱好养猫。

 

东某家里养了一百多只猫，老鼠被捕食得一干二净。

 

后来，因为猫再也捕食不到老鼠而饿得咪咪直叫。东某只好每天从市场上买肉回来喂养它们。

 

日复一日，年复一年，猫儿传宗接代，由于天天吃肉，竟然不知道世上还有老鼠可以捕食。它们饿了就叫，一叫就有肉吃，吃饱之后，一副悠闲快活的样子，终日懒懒散散，无所事事。

 

城南，有一户人家闹鼠患，老鼠成群结队，到处横行。一次，有一只老鼠忽然掉人瓮中。这家主人急忙跑到东家，借猫捕鼠。

 

东家的猫看到瓮中的老鼠，竖着两只尖尖的耳朵，瞪着一双漆黑的眼睛，抖动着红红的胡须，吱吱吱乱叫。猫以为是什么怪物，只是在瓮口上跟着老鼠转来转去，竟然不敢下去。

 

主人看了十分恼火，便一把将猫推了下去。这时候，只见猫惊恐万状，对着老鼠大声嚎叫。时间一长，老鼠终于发觉这只猫没有什么别的本事，就来咬它的脚。东家的猫急得使劲儿一跃，便从瓮里逃了出来。

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