COVER
PAGE
INTRODUCTION
COMMUNITY STANDS UP TO CAT: LOCAL MOUSE'S TAIL RETURNED
COUNCIL LEADS TO NO REAL SOLUTION FOR CAT PROBLEM
INTRODUCTION
COMMUNITY STANDS UP TO CAT: LOCAL MOUSE'S TAIL RETURNED
COUNCIL LEADS TO NO REAL SOLUTION FOR CAT PROBLEM
Missing Mouse Found Alive
Benjamin Rivers, the mouse recently reported missing and presumed
dead, has now been found safe and alive on the surface.
Rivers was found with another mouse, George Folk, huddled in the back of the freezer of Murray's Cheese, a market on the surface that supplies a quarter of the city's food supply. The two had been hiding behind a stack of cheese in the thirty-three degree temperature for five days after a human had entered the freezer while they were eating cheese straight from the freezer.
"We tried to run out twice, but that man kept coming in," Rivers said. "I was too scared to move after that."
Family members of Rivers reported him missing five days ago after he didn't show up for dinner on Saturday.
"He never misses dinner. If he does, he calls. We called his house fourteen times," said Alice Rivers, his mother. "I thought one of the cats had eaten him!"
Rivers had not been eaten. Instead, he was treating George Folk, his out-of-town friend, to an illegal meal on the surface. A fact that District Attorney Joe Nattles does not take lightly. He said he will prosecute Rivers upon his release from the hospital.
"Going to the surface to get food is illegal, not to mention unsafe. Everyone knows that. Only the harvesters are allowed up top. They are trained to do the dangerous job of supplying our city with food without the humans noticing. If mice just started going up there unregulated, the humans would find us out and that would be the end of it! Our city would starve!" he said.
Rivers and Folk owe the harvesters their lives. One of the harvesters found them shivering and nearly suffering from hypothermia.
"I can't think of a better place to be trapped in the cold. They had enough chilled cheese to keep them alive forever. They just needed a blanket and some warm ale," said one harvester.
Rivers' friend, George Folk, will not be prosecuted as he is a country mouse outside of the city's jurisdiction.
"The food ya'll mouses have up 'ere's amazin'. It's wonderful, but I tell ya wut: you can have it. I'd rather bein my plow lands eatin' roots safe and sound than enjoyin' a smorgasbord around some kinda giants!" Folk said.
This was Folk's first visit to the city. He said it was Rivers' promises of a "bountiful feast" that lured him here. He says he didn't know the two mice weren't supposed to be up there. Rivers had never mentioned it.
"Hows I supose ta know somethin like at? I ain't no lawman," he said.
Mice can expect to be without cheese for now. Dan Bailey, president of the grand market and harvester coordinator, said he will not risk his employees' lives in the Murray Cheese freezer.
"Those two ate a big hole in one of those cheese rolls. The humans are going to notice it and when they do they're going to put out traps and poison. Everyone will just have to do without for a while," he said.
Bailey would not say how long it would be before the city would have cheese again. He said he would send a small recognisance team to the freezer in a month.
"Don't blame me. Blame those idiots! Just look what happens when you break the law! That's why we have the law, so we can have plenty and be undiscovered. I'm not going back to living like a vagabond and I don't think anyone else wants to either," Bailey said.
Rivers faces one felony count of surface thievery and will be held on a $500,000 bond.
"I can't believe my baby would do something so stupid. I'm so angry," said Mrs. Rivers.
Author's Note: This story, based on "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse," is one that I was able to hold closer to the original than my second effort. Really, the basic plot is the same. What I added, I only added to fit the world that I have created. The Murray's Cheese I talk about is a real cheese store in Grand Central Station. Grand Central Station has a whole market, as well as many restaurants and bars, so it is feasible that this one famous transportation hub could supply a mice city with enough food and drink to have a standard of living that rivals New York City itself.
The "harvesters" and the prohibition against gathering food for one's self on the surface were added purely out of necessity at first. I needed a big reason for these two to make the newspaper. A "missing person" report started sounding a little thin when I started thinking of a big city that has cat problem and missing mice all the time. After adding these two elements though, I found the story to be a lot more interesting. It also adds depth to the world. The mice know what they have and how fragile it is. Well, everyone but Benjamin Rivers apparently.
Also, on a small note, a newspaper would never write dialect in quotes, of course, but out of tribute of some of the folkstories we've read this semester, I put that in to show the mouse's personality a little more. Someone let me know if they think that's a little too much.
Original Story: "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" by George Tyler Townsend, from Aesop's Fables (1887). Web Source: Sacred Texts Archive
Image Information: Mice in Cheese. Web Source: Joseph Patterson
Rivers was found with another mouse, George Folk, huddled in the back of the freezer of Murray's Cheese, a market on the surface that supplies a quarter of the city's food supply. The two had been hiding behind a stack of cheese in the thirty-three degree temperature for five days after a human had entered the freezer while they were eating cheese straight from the freezer.
"We tried to run out twice, but that man kept coming in," Rivers said. "I was too scared to move after that."
Family members of Rivers reported him missing five days ago after he didn't show up for dinner on Saturday.
"He never misses dinner. If he does, he calls. We called his house fourteen times," said Alice Rivers, his mother. "I thought one of the cats had eaten him!"
Rivers had not been eaten. Instead, he was treating George Folk, his out-of-town friend, to an illegal meal on the surface. A fact that District Attorney Joe Nattles does not take lightly. He said he will prosecute Rivers upon his release from the hospital.
"Going to the surface to get food is illegal, not to mention unsafe. Everyone knows that. Only the harvesters are allowed up top. They are trained to do the dangerous job of supplying our city with food without the humans noticing. If mice just started going up there unregulated, the humans would find us out and that would be the end of it! Our city would starve!" he said.
Rivers and Folk owe the harvesters their lives. One of the harvesters found them shivering and nearly suffering from hypothermia.
"I can't think of a better place to be trapped in the cold. They had enough chilled cheese to keep them alive forever. They just needed a blanket and some warm ale," said one harvester.
Rivers' friend, George Folk, will not be prosecuted as he is a country mouse outside of the city's jurisdiction.
"The food ya'll mouses have up 'ere's amazin'. It's wonderful, but I tell ya wut: you can have it. I'd rather bein my plow lands eatin' roots safe and sound than enjoyin' a smorgasbord around some kinda giants!" Folk said.
This was Folk's first visit to the city. He said it was Rivers' promises of a "bountiful feast" that lured him here. He says he didn't know the two mice weren't supposed to be up there. Rivers had never mentioned it.
"Hows I supose ta know somethin like at? I ain't no lawman," he said.
Mice can expect to be without cheese for now. Dan Bailey, president of the grand market and harvester coordinator, said he will not risk his employees' lives in the Murray Cheese freezer.
"Those two ate a big hole in one of those cheese rolls. The humans are going to notice it and when they do they're going to put out traps and poison. Everyone will just have to do without for a while," he said.
Bailey would not say how long it would be before the city would have cheese again. He said he would send a small recognisance team to the freezer in a month.
"Don't blame me. Blame those idiots! Just look what happens when you break the law! That's why we have the law, so we can have plenty and be undiscovered. I'm not going back to living like a vagabond and I don't think anyone else wants to either," Bailey said.
Rivers faces one felony count of surface thievery and will be held on a $500,000 bond.
"I can't believe my baby would do something so stupid. I'm so angry," said Mrs. Rivers.
Author's Note: This story, based on "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse," is one that I was able to hold closer to the original than my second effort. Really, the basic plot is the same. What I added, I only added to fit the world that I have created. The Murray's Cheese I talk about is a real cheese store in Grand Central Station. Grand Central Station has a whole market, as well as many restaurants and bars, so it is feasible that this one famous transportation hub could supply a mice city with enough food and drink to have a standard of living that rivals New York City itself.
The "harvesters" and the prohibition against gathering food for one's self on the surface were added purely out of necessity at first. I needed a big reason for these two to make the newspaper. A "missing person" report started sounding a little thin when I started thinking of a big city that has cat problem and missing mice all the time. After adding these two elements though, I found the story to be a lot more interesting. It also adds depth to the world. The mice know what they have and how fragile it is. Well, everyone but Benjamin Rivers apparently.
Also, on a small note, a newspaper would never write dialect in quotes, of course, but out of tribute of some of the folkstories we've read this semester, I put that in to show the mouse's personality a little more. Someone let me know if they think that's a little too much.
Original Story: "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" by George Tyler Townsend, from Aesop's Fables (1887). Web Source: Sacred Texts Archive
Image Information: Mice in Cheese. Web Source: Joseph Patterson