L-1: Old Woman and Her Mice

An old woman lived in a terrace house. She was a vegan and she loved all kinds of animals. She believed that it was a bad thing to kill an animal.

One day, she saw a mouse in her kitchen. But because she loved animals, she didn’t want to kill it.

On the next day, the mouse came again. She looked at the woman. The woman didn’t shout at it. She didn’t try to catch it. But after a while the mouse ran away.

But on the next day, the mouse came again. The woman came into the kitchen. The mouse looked at her, but it didn’t run away. The mouse waited and thought ‘what will the woman do now?’

The woman went to the cupboard and took out some biscuits. She broke the biscuits into small pieces and put them on the floor. The mouse came closer and ate the biscuits.

The old woman was very happy. She had a new friend now. And she knew that her new friend would come and visit her again on the following day.

And she was right. The little mouse came again. And the woman gave her some bread crumbs to eat. The mouse was happy. The woman was happy. They were really good friends now.

A few days later, the woman was waiting for her friend. She had the biscuits ready for it. She also prepared a little bit of ham and cheese. But this time, the mouse didn’t come alone. It came with some friends. Now there were eight or ten mice in the kitchen. The woman had to take more biscuits from the cupboard. She had to take out more ham and cheese from the fridge. But she was happy. She had many friends now.

The mice very happy, too. Next day, there were fifteen mice in the kitchen. Few days later there were about thirty. And they didn’t go away now. They started to live in the woman’s house.

The woman was happy. She baked for her friends. She bought a lot of food for them and fed them every day.

Soon the mice had little babies. Now there were hundreds of mice in the woman’s house. And they didn’t stay only in the kitchen. They were everywhere.

But the woman didn’t mind. They were her mice. She took care of them. She thought: ‘These are my mice. I feed them, they like it here. They will not go to other houses. My neighbours will never know that the mice live here with me.’

But she was wrong…