The Lost Friendship of the Cat and the Rat African Folklore... The first rain of the season fell on the village. It rained all day without stopping. It came down in sheets and buckets. The storm had started the night before. The children couldn't remember ever having seen such lightning bolts shoot across the sky. And the thunder! It crashed and roared over the village all night. In the morning, the villagers had to clean out the mud that had oozed into their huts. Others went out to round up the cattle that had broken out of the corrals in terror of the thunder and lightning. By nightfall, the rain dwindled to a steady, gently drizzle, perfect weather for story telling. The children sat inside the warm cocoon of their blankets and listened while their mother spoke to them softly. "Did you know that cats and Rats used to be friends?" she said. "They were, you know! What made them stop being friends was a great flood. The rivers overflowed their banks, and everything was washed away." It seems that in those days, the Cat and the Rat were cultivating more than friendship. They were out tending a field of cassava together when suddenly it begin to rain. How it rained, that day! The two friends were lucky to reach high ground before the river overflowed and left them stranded on a hilltop that had suddenly become an island. "How are we going to get back to the village?" the Cat wondered aloud. "Maybe we could make a boat out of cassava," the Rat suggested. "What a good idea! Let's try it!" It took some doing, but they finally had a craft that would float, and they paddled off for all they were worth . . .  but carefully! The water was rolling and the current was swift. After a time, the Rat began to get tired and hungry. "Do you think I could just nibble off these cassava leaves at the rim of our boat?" she said to the Cat. "I've worked up quite an appetite." "Are you out of your mind? Forget eating until we get ashore! Paddle, my friend! Paddle for your life!" Might fell. The Cat, worn out from fighting the angry water, paused to rest. All at once, before she knew it, she had fallen asleep in the bottom of the boat. "Now's my chance!" thought the Rat. "I'll just munch a few of these leaves and my friend the Cat will never know." So she ate a leaf tip here and a stem there. Her appetite grew - the boat got smaller. Suddenly, it began to leak. In a matter of moments, even before the Cat was fully awake, the boat had sunk and both animals were swimming. By good luck they were near another hilltop, the very hilltop where they lived. After a frantic effort, they were able to scramble up onto solid ground, wet, muddy and bedraggled, but alive and safe. The Cat shook herself and looked at the Rat with eyes that burned like embers in a fire. "Hungry, were you? she growled. "I feel like a snack, myself. I think I'll eat . . . you!" "Eat me?" exclaimed the Rat, looking down at herself. "All muddy like this? You'll get grit in your teeth! Let me go clean up first!" Leaving the Cat staring after her in startled fury, the Rat whisked right down her own hole which was not more than five jumps away. She didn't come out again, either . . . not until the Cat had given up waiting for her. Or maybe the Rat was able to change herself into a dog or a lion and walk right under the nose of her former friend . . . because the Cat still keeps a sharp eye on every rat hole she comes across!