The Cat Basket Tribe by Annie Kosh

Once upon a time there were 11 little kittens. 5 were gray and white, 2 were orange, and 4 were stripped. They all lived together in a litter that they called their "Cat Tribe." Their names were: Cody, Tootsie, Angel, Button, Chi-Chi, Rosita, Thomas, Carly, Pawsy, Chelsea, and Munchkin.

One day, Munchkin was in the garden picking out the weeds. When suddenly, Cody and Thomas crept out of the bushes and pounced on her and the flowers! Munchkin screamed and ran off. Then, as a prank, Thomas and Cody dug up all the flowers and put all the big fat weeds back in the dirt to grow. Then, Tootsie, the oldest kitten, came out with Rosita, Chi-Chi, Angel and Munchkin. Munchkin was whimpering and Tootsie was looking very angry, and the other three cohered next to Munchkin. Thomas scampered away whining because he knew that Tootsie would have some boring and scary lectures about not to mess with Munchkin’s garden. However, Cody did not scamper whining, for he was the third oldest one, and he had no fear of Tootsie. But, he did not like her lectures so he sat down with his ears flopped over his eyes and let out a high-pitched, "Meoooow!" Then, Tootsie sent Rosita to go and get Thomas, while she dealt with Cody. First, Tootsie took Cody by his neck in her mouth and dragged him over to the cat basket. There the rest of the tribe had been sleeping and had not known anything about the flower incident and the fight. "Now go to sleep and have a time-out until I wake you up," Tootsie said to Cody. So Cody lay down with the others, pushed aside a space for himself, and quickly pretended to snore so Tootsie wouldn’t be suspicious. Just at that moment, Rosita arrived with Thomas dragged by his neck in her mouth. Tootsie quickly took Thomas before he could scamper away again and told him that since he was very small and hadn't done a lot of damage, all he had to do was take a 15-minute time-out. Thomas was overjoyed and very grateful because he really wasn’t a bad kitten. And then he told Tootsie what had happened. "Cody said that you wouldn’t give me dinner if I didn’t play with him and mess up Munchkin’s garden. He also said that he would beat me with his claws and teeth and that he would mess up my newly trimmed fur.” Tootsie decided that since it was still very early, she would make Cody sleep and have a time-out for 2 more hours, for he was very bad most of the time. Then Munchkin went back to her garden, Thomas went to the kitchen for his time-out, and everyone else went to sleep except Tootsie, because she had cooking and had to help Munchkin with her garden.

The next morning Cody said sorry and that he would try to behave like a good little kitten from now on, and that he would help Munchkin with her garden and would not threaten Thomas anymore. Thomas apologized to everyone and they all had a nice long cat slumber.

The end.