A cat was looking at a King, as permitted by the proverb.  "Well," said the monarch, observing her inspection of the royal  person, "how do you like me?"  "I can imagine a King," said the Cat, "whom I should like better."

"For example?"

"The King of the Mice."

The sovereign was so pleased with the wit of the reply that he gave her permission to scratch his Prime Minister's eyes out.
 

The gods were once disputing whether it was possible for a living being to change its nature.  Jupiter said "Yes," but Venus  said "No."  So, to try the question, Jupiter turned a Cat into a Maiden, and gave her to a young man for a wife.  The wedding was duly performed and the young couple sat down to the wedding-feast. "See," said Jupiter, to Venus, "how becomingly she behaves.  Who could tell that yesterday she was but a Cat?  Surely her nature is changed?"

"Wait a minute," replied Venus, and let loose a mouse into the room.  No sooner did the bride see this than she jumped up from her seat and tried to pounce upon the mouse.  "Ah, you see," said Venus, "Nature will out."

Hearing that the Birds in an aviary were ill, a Cat went to them  and said that he was a physician, and would cure them if they would  let him in.

"To what school of medicine do you belong?" asked the Birds.

"I am a Miaulopathist," said the Cat.

"Did you ever practise Gohomoeopathy?" the Birds inquired, winking faintly.

The Cat took the hint and his leave.
 

An eagle made her nest at the top of a lofty oak; a Cat, having found a convenient hole, moved into the middle of the trunk; and a Wild Sow, with her young, took shelter in a hollow at its foot.  The Cat cunningly resolved to destroy this chance-made colony. To carry out her design, she climbed to the nest of the Eagle, and said, "Destruction is preparing for you, and for me too, unfortunately.  The Wild Sow, whom you see daily digging up the earth, wishes to uproot the oak, so she may on its fall seize our families as food for her young."  Having thus frightened the Eagle out of her senses, she crept down to the cave of the Sow, and said, "Your children are in great danger; for as soon as you go out with your litter to find food, the Eagle is prepared to pounce upon one of your little pigs."  Having instilled these fears into the Sow, she went and pretended to hide herself in the hollow of the tree.  When night came she went forth with silent foot and obtained food for herself and her kittens, but feigning to be afraid, she kept a lookout all through the day.  Meanwhile, the Eagle, full of fear of the Sow, sat still on the branches, and the Sow, terrified by the Eagle, did not dare to go out from her cave. And thus they both, along with their families, perished from hunger, and afforded ample provision for the Cat and her kittens. 
 

Long ago, the mice had a general council to consider what measures they could take to outwit their common enemy, the Cat. Some said this, and some said that; but at last a young mouse got up and said he had a proposal to make, which he thought would meet the case. "You will all agree," said he, "that our chief danger consists in the sly and treacherous manner in which the enemy approaches us. Now, if we could receive some signal of her approach, we could easily escape from her. I venture, therefore, to propose that a small bell be procured, and attached by a ribbon round the neck of the Cat. By this means we should always know when she was about, and could easily retire while she was in the neighbourhood."

This proposal met with general applause, until an old mouse got up and said: "That is all very well, but who is to bell the Cat?"The mice looked at one another and nobody spoke. Then the old mouse said:  "It is easy to propose impossible remedies."
 

A Cat caught a Cock, and pondered how he might find a reasonable excuse for eating him.  He accused him of being a nuisance to men by crowing in the nighttime and not permitting them to sleep. The Cock defended himself by saying that he did this for the benefit of men, that they might rise in time for their labors.  The Cat replied, "Although you abound in specious apologies, I shall not remain supperless"; and he made a meal of him. 
 

A certain house was overrun with Mice.  A Cat, discovering this, made her way into it and began to catch and eat them one by one.  Fearing for their lives, the Mice kept themselves close in their holes.  The Cat was no longer able to get at them and perceived that she must tempt them forth by some device.  For this purpose she jumped upon a peg, and suspending herself from it, pretended to be dead.  One of the Mice, peeping stealthily out, saw her and said, "Ah, my good madam, even though you should turn into a meal-bag, we will not come near you."

He who is once deceived is doubly cautious.
 

A Fox was boasting to a Cat of its clever devices for escaping its enemies. "I have a whole bag of tricks," he said, "which contains a hundred ways of escaping my enemies."

"I have only one," said the Cat; "but I can generally manage with that." Just at that moment they heard the cry of a pack of hounds coming towards them, and the Cat immediately scampered up a tree and hid herself in the boughs. "This is my plan," said the Cat."What are you going to do?" The Fox thought first of one way, then of another, and while he was debating the hounds came nearer and nearer, and at last the Fox in his confusion was caught up by the hounds and soon killed by the huntsmen. Miss Puss, who had been looking on, said:

"Better one safe way than a hundred on which you cannot reckon."