Kinzman's latest literary work

Boots and the Mouse

I am a mouse who lives in an old barn. My particular room in this old barn is the largest room in the barn. It is the hayloft. There is only one window looking out of the hayloft, and from there I can see hills and pastures. It is very beautiful. In fact, my whole life is beautiful except for one thing. That one thing is a cat.

That cat makes me nervous. Her name, according to her owners who call her to dinner twice each day, is Boots. Boots is gray in color, but her feet are white. She is a fast runner and a very good hunter. I don’t know why she hunts. Her owners feed her. She seems well fed. I am sure that she is hunting me.

How do I know this? Every day I see her entering the barn through the big doors below my window. She stealthily moves, looking into each of the horse stalls, occasionally catching one of my cousins. She eats them. She usually eats the head first. Like I said before, she makes me feel nervous.

Sometimes I dream about catching Boots and eating her. When I wake up, though, I realize that it was just a dream. Maybe one of the horses will kick her! That would teach her not to come into the barn anymore. I just wish she would hunt somewhere other than my barn.

This morning the sun is shining and the temperature is just perfect. I’m looking out the window of the hayloft and I see Boots coming this way. Once again I feel nervous. This time she’s doing something different. She’s not looking into the stalls! She’s climbing up into my hayloft! I’d better get out of h . . .