‘Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house
Coco was stirring,
in search of a mouse.
Patiently he crouched
by the refrigerator with care,
In hopes that the mouse
would come out from under there.
Carole was nestled
all snug in her bed,
With nary a vision of mice
frolicking in her head;
And Charlie in his pajamas
a right, jolly old chap
Had just settled down
for a long winter’s nap –
When suddenly, from behind the frig
there rose such a clatter,
I jumped to attention
to see what was the matter.
Away from the frig
Coco flew like a flash,
Paws thrust forward, tail pounding
on the floor with a splash!
The moon on the crest
with the valley below,
Gave the night sky and landscape
an illuminated glow.
When, what to Coco’s wandering eyes
should appear,
But a miniature mouse
with eight tiny whiskers!
With a teeny tiny body
so lively and quick,
Coco knew in a moment
he must not be tricked!
More rapid than hummingbirds
the tiny mouse came,
As Coco howled, and yowled
and took aim –
Coco dashed and danced
and pranced after the vixen
Like a comet, the cute mouse slipped by
like Donder and Blitzen!
Around the kitchen cabinets
and down the main hall
Coco and the mouse dashed away,
dashed away all!
All around the house
like a hurricane they fly,
Avoiding obstacles with expertise
as they whiz by.
Through the living room
and dining room they flew,
Into the bedrooms, bathrooms –
and Carole’s office, too!
And, then in a blink
Coco made a tactical goof
And the mouse disappeared
in an instant – poof!
As Coco bobbed his head
and was turning around
The mouse had disappeared,
nowhere to be found!
Coco’s fur suddenly bristled
from his head to his foot,
As he circled around sniffing,
the mouse silently shouted “woot, woot!”
A bundle of nerves
his fur bristled on his back,
Coco hissed and spit
as he planned his attack.
His eyes how they twinkled!
His whiskers how scary!
His mouth curled upward,
as he contemplated his next hail mary.
His droll little mouth
was drawn up like a bow,
And the whiskers on his chin
were as white as the snow!
Stumped, Coco sat down
and bared his teeth
Soon a Cheshire cat’s grin encircled
his face like a wreath.
He had a beautiful face
and a little round belly,
That shook when he cried
like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump –
a right jolly old fat cat,
And I laughed when I saw him,
in spite of all that.
A wink of his eye
and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know
I had something to dread.
He mewed not a word,
but went straight to his work,
Hunting here, there and everywhere
then turned with a jerk,
And laying his ears forward
aside of his nose,
And giving a nod of his head,
from a crouch he arose.
He sprang to attention,
to the frig gave a hiss
Then flew down the hall towards the bedroom;
what did I miss?
But I swear I heard him exclaim
as he bolted out of sight,
“Merry Christmas, Mr. Mouse,
and to all a Good Night!”
Editor’s note:
We have a mouse in the house. A cute, tiny little field mouse, who peeks out from behind something making his presence known. Coco has been standing guard, trying to catch him for weeks. Right now he seems to be making his home under our refrigerator and Coco camps in front of it hour after hour. As you can tell by the photos in this post, Coco doesn’t try very hard {grin}!
Guess we’d better look into buying a few mouse traps, because Coco is a failure as a “mouser”!
Written in 1822 by Clement Clarke Moore, “The Night Before Christmas” is a well-loved classic holiday poem. Thanks, Mr. Moore, for inspiring me and children everywhere! And thanks to Coco, my beautiful Snowshoe Siamese, who inspires me daily with his lackadaisical view of life!
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other children’s stories)
Call of the Whinny: Yet Another Story from the Farm
(other posts about Coco)
What a happy, creative surprise to read this poem about Coco. I had read two newer posts first that were about family and friends at Christmas time, so I was surprised to #1 see the creative poem and #2 read about Coco and a little mouse. And then to realize that you “whipped it out” in under a day amazes me. You are such a creative soul, which is why I love these kinds of posts. Keep up the good work Carole.
Thanks, Dawn. It actually came to me in a dream, so I was sleeping before I actually wrote it! Crazy, huh? Sometimes “the magic” just comes. Thanks for the kind words.