The Clever Mouse Meets his Match

This morning, I was sitting on my balcony and sipping tea. I could see my cat Lipi in the garden below.

It had been raining since last night. The garden was wet and muddy.

Lipi was trying to catch a mouse. The mouse was very clever. As soon as Lipi came near him, it would hide in the bushes. There was a big puddle in front of the bushes. The mouse was safe because Lipi was afraid of the puddle.

Silly Lipi, I said to myself.  She was willing to get wet in the rain, but not in the puddle.

I was watching Lipi carefully. I saw her taking a few steps back towards the house. She then sprinted and leaped over the puddle and into the bushes. That was the end of the clever mouse.

She wasn’t a silly cat, after all!  My Lipi was as clever as the clever mouse, if not more!

Note: This story was written initially as a translation exercise for older students. It made a good reading activity for primary school students learning to read English using phonics because it has only 2 words that are irregular (bushes, since). It also has several words that can help revise phonics rules (leaped, sprinted, afraid, clever etc). And mostly because it is short! 

Upon reading it again, I realise that it can highlight the point about jumping to conclusions (pun unintended).