Cherrypie, the kitchen cat, loved to cook. Sizzling cutlets, luscious lasagna, perfect muffins. Scrumptious!

Though, Cherrypie didn`t like a mess and didn`t like cleaning! Sweeping the floor, scrubbing the cooker, washing the dishes. It was very hard work, and very, very boring!

Merry, the kitchen mouse, and her family loved messy kitchens. Jam slops, toasty titbits, cheesy crumbs. But they never found a single scrap in Cherrypie’s kitchen! And they were always very, very hungry!

Until, one day…

Cherrypie was having a party. Having invited all of his friends, he set about cooking an enormous feast! All day he mixed and stirred, he greased and baked. He made a marvelous mess! He was enjoying himself so much that he didn`t notice the time!

Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong!

“Yikes!” cried Cherrypie, “they`ve arrived” He looked around at all the mess, but it was too late. The cleaning would have to wait!

So the party began. Fabulous flans, delicious doughnuts, lip-smacking lollipops… all washed down with lashing of orangeade. Cherrypie and his friends ate… and ate… and ate!

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, the mice couldn`t believe their luck. “All this mess will feed us for a whole week!” squeaked Merry.

The mice hurried around here and there, collecting nibbles and tidbits. They started to sneak it past the partying cats ate.

“Mice!” cried Cherrypie, staggering into his kitchen.

“Cat!” cried Merry, staggering into Cherrypie!

“Please don`t eat us!” she sobbed.

“I will eat you!” he said. “I couldn`t eat another thing! Well, perhaps just only a tender little mouse.”

But luckily for the mice, Cherrypie happened to look around… and found a sparkling clean kitchen!

The floor was swept, the cooker was gleaming, and the dishes were squeaky clean. There wasn’t a scrap mess anywhere!

Cherrypie suddenly had a bright idea!

From that day on, Cherrypie sifted and stirred, mixed and cooked, boiled and baked. He made a truly dreadful mess, but he didn`t care a bit, because… every evening Merry and her family came and gobbled up all the mess! And as a special treat, each Friday Cherrypie baked a great big cheddar cheese pie! And they all ate it happily ever after.