Climbing out.

The little cat walked along the narrow path throught the forest. Then she saw a long wide hole in her way. She crept slowly to the edge of the hole and looked in. It was so deep and dangerous!

The little cat said, “It’s such a deep hole, but there’s no way round it!” So she stepped carefully onto a long pole that stretched from her side of the deep hole, to the other side.

Very slowly and carefully, the little cat crept along the pole.

Suddenly, the pole twisted and she clung on to it with her front paws, with her legs dangling there in space!

“Oh no! Oh no! I’m going to fall, I’m going to fall,” she cried. Then her front paws slipped on the wet pole and she tumbled into the deep hole, sliding down it's muddy side.

Dazed and bruised, she stood up and tried to jump out of the hole. The top of the hole was too high; the sides of the hole were too slippery; and she finally lay panting, tired out at the bottom of the hole.

A little while later, another little cat walked along the same path up to the same deep hole. She also tried to walk across on the slippery pole. She also fell in!

“Are you OK?” asked the first cat.

“I think so,” said the second cat. “I’ll walk around a bit and see how I feel.”

She walked around in the mud of the deep hole and said, “I’m a bit bruised, but I’m OK, thanks.”

“I’ve tried and tried to jump out. I’ve tried and tried to climb up the sides; but I just can’t do it!” said the first little cat.

They both lay there in the cold mud and felt so very sorry for themselves.

The first cat had a great idea! “If I jump up to that root that’s growing out of the side…and you jump onto my back…then you can jump out of the hole!”

“That’s a great idea,” said the second cat.

They tried it out and it worked! The second cat jumped out of the hole then lay down and reached her paw down. The first cat jumped up, grabbed hold of the paw and pulled herself out of the deep dark hole.

Bruised and sore, they walked together down the path.

“When we helped each other, we found a way out,” they said and felt much happier.