Li'l Miggle and the Scavenger Hunt

One day Li'l Miggle and Li'l Tiggle were playing in the back yard. Momma Cat poked her head out and asked, "Li'l Miggle, Li'l Tiggle, can you run some errands for me?"

"In a minute, Momma!" they answered, and went back to playing.

A few minutes later, Momma Cat asked again, "Li'l Miggle, Li'l Tiggle, can you run some errands for me?"

Again, the kittens replied, "In a minute, Momma!" and went back to playing.

A few minutes later, Momma Cat asked yet again, "Li'l Miggle, Li'l Tiggle, can you run some errands for me?"

And once again, the kittens called back, "In a minute, Momma!" and went back to playing.

Finally Momma Cat gave up and went out to run errands herself. When she came back, she popped out into the yard and called, "Li'l Miggle, Li'l Tiggle, I found a treasure map, but I don't have time to figure it out. Maybe you can help."

"A treasure map?" The kittens scampered over excitedly. Momma Cat handed them a scrap of paper with a map on it, and disappeared back into the house.

"Let's see..." Li'l Miggle rotated the map around and around, trying to figure out what it was showing.

"Wait a minute," Li'l Tiggle cried. "Is that our pine tree?" He pointed excitedly to the fuzzy triangle, then the big pine standing in their back yard.

"Li'l Tiggle, that's brilliant! This is a map of our back yard!" Li'l Miggle bounced excitedly. "So that means..."

"...we have to go..." Li'l Tiggle traced the dotted lines to the X.

"Isn't that the fish seller?" Li'l Miggle stared at the map dubiously.

"Let's go!" Li'l Tiggle scampered off, with Li'l Miggle following close behind.

The kittens arrived at Harry's Hake Shop and began scraping around in all the hidden corners.

"What are you kids up to there?" Harry asked.

"We're on a treasure hunt!" the kittens chorused.

Harry chuckled. "Well all right, but as long as you're here, take these sardines back to your momma."

The kittens accepted the sardines, and continued to search the shop. Finally, Li'l Miggle cried, "AHA!" She tugged out a crumpled piece of paper from under a jar of pickled fish, and held it triumphantly.

Li'l Tiggle rushed over and together they smoothed out the map. "Where do we go next?" he asked excitedly.

The kittens squinted at the map, rotating it this way and that, until Li'l Miggle lifted her head and looked out the window. "Wait a minute..." She took the map, held it up to the window, and yelled, "It's the fountain!"

"That means...." Li'l Tiggle took the map back, tilting his head this way and that. "The green grocer!"

The kittens rushed out of the shop, yelling "Thanks Harry!" as they went. Around the fountain, down the street, there was the green grocer!

The old curmudgeon who ran the green grocer looked at the excited kittens scampering around his shop, shook his head, and sighed. "As long as you kids are here, you might as well take this home to your momma," he hollered and set out a basket of cat grass.

Li'l Miggle and Li'l Tiggle grabbed the basket, and then squealed in delight as they found the next clue, tucked under the oranges! They quickly scampered out of the green grocer, sitting down again in the sun to investigate the next map.

"This looks like...." They peered at the strange lines. "Is this..." They looked at each other. "The giant chicken statue!" Yelling triumphantly, they followed the map past the giant chicken statue and on to Mr. Mewser's Dairy Farm.

The kittens raced around the dairy farm, upsetting all the goats, until Mr. Mewser came out to see what was the matter. When he saw the kittens, he called out, "Hoy, Li'l Miggle, Li'l Tiggle! Slow down, or you'll get a kick from the goats!"

"Sorry, Mr. Mewser!" The kittens slowed down, creeping around so as to not upset the poor goats.

"By the way, since you're here, take this milk back to your momma!" Mr. Mewser put out a bucket and went back into the barn.

Li'l Miggle and Li'l Tiggle finally found the next clue, wedged between two slats of siding on the barn. "Let's see, let's see," they crowded around eagerly.

"Hey, it's the fuzzy triangle again," Li'l Tiggle said.

"Back to our yard!" cried Li'l Miggle.

They gathered up the sardines, the cat grass, and the milk, and raced back home.

"Hi Momma Cat!" Li'l Miggle yelled as they ran through the house.

"Here's the groceries," panted Li'l Tiggle as he set them down on the table, before running out into the yard."

The next clue was hidden in a hole in the side of the big pine tree. There was no map this time, only a bunch of nonsense letters. They puzzled over it for a long, long time. Finally, after almost an hour, they solved it: C-O-M-E-I-N-S-I-D-E.

"Co mein side?" Li'l Tiggle scratched his head.

"No, it says to come inside!" Li'l Miggle jumped to her feet. "Come on!"

They raced back into the house, where Momma Cat had just finished cooking. "Perfect! You found the treasure!"

"Where is it, Momma Cat?" they asked, wide eyed.

"Go wash up, treasure's on the table." She smiled fondly at them.

It was the yummiest supper Li'l Miggle and Li'l Tiggle had ever had.

Little Tiggle and the Snuggle Fruit

Once upon a time, Little Tiggle came upon a tree that looked funny. It had bright leaves, and wasn't like anything he had seen before. So Little Tiggle decided that he was going to see what sort of fruit the tree grew.

Each day, he climbed up the tree to see what was in its branches. For a while, he scared off all of the little birds in the tree, because he was a cat. But soon they realized he was a snuggle cat, and couldn't catch a bird if he tried. So they just went about their business and occasionally stole his whiskers to build their nests.

One day, little white flowers started appearing all over the tree. Little Tiggle watched as they turned into little green globes, and got bigger and bigger each day. Then they started getting soft and turning orange.

And Tiggle thought, 'I could snuggle that.' So he did. And it was great, until the day the fruit ripened and together they fell from the tree, and he and the fruit rolled all the way down the hill to the feet of a surprised Miggle.

"Whatcha doing," she said.

And Tig said, "I'm snuggling a snuggle fruit. You should help me get more."

So Miggle and Tiggle collected a pile of fruit and snuggled them all day.

The end!

The Beauty Pageant

Once upon a time, Li'l Miggle wanted to enter into the local beauty pageant. Momma Cat said, "Mm, okay," so Li'l Miggle signed up. Of course, that meant that Pirate Bun had to join too. And Li'l Tiggle didn't want to be left out, so he signed up too.

The first competition was a formal-wear contest. Li'l Miggle dressed up in a tasteful black evening gown. The judges murmured, "Hmm," and scribbled down their notes. Pirate Bun wore a revealing cocktail dress, and the judges all whispered, "Escandalo!" and scratched in their notes. Li'l Tiggle walked down the stage in a full tux, complete with tails, and the judges all remarked, "What a dashing young cat!" and took copious notes.

The second competition was a question-answer session. The judges asked Li'l Miggle, "If you could give everyone one thing to promote world peace, what would it be?" Li'l Miggle thought long and hard, and answered, "Tuna for everyone!" The judges said, "Hmm," and wrote down their notes. Then they asked Pirate Bun, "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?" Pirate Bun answered boldly, "Yarr, I would be a pirate and sail upon the seas!" The judges exclaimed, "Oh my," and wrote down their notes. Then they asked Li'l Tiggle, "If you could do anything in the world, what would you do?" Li'l Tiggle scratched his head and thought, then replied, "I would win this beauty pageant!" And the judges all said, "Aww," and wrote down their notes.

The final competition was a swim-suit contest. Li'l Miggle strolled onto the stage in a sleek one-piece, and the judges nodded and took notes. Pirate Bun sauntered out in a sexy two-piece, and the judges gasped and took notes. Li'l Tiggle missed the memo and misunderstood the contest, so he came out dripping wet in a tiny speedo, so that you could see all his curves and musculature, and the judges exclaimed, "What a well-formed cat!" and took notes.

In the end, the judges announced, "Due to the irregularity of this year's competition, we have decided to make a new category! The runner-up for the Queen's Category is Pirate Bun! And the title of Queen of the Year goes to Li'l Miggle! And finally, for our newest category, the title of King of the Year goes to Li'l Tiggle! Congratulations!"

And they all lived happily ever after, once Li'l Tiggle finally got dry again.

Motorboat Mig

Once upon a time, Motorboat Mig was sailing down the great Mississippi. She came to dock at a small port along the river to take on supplies, and was immediately accosted by Pirate Bun!

"Motorboat Mig!" cried Pirate Bun, "I challenge you to a duel! We'll see if you have the right to boat on the Mississippi!"

"All right," meowed Mig, "I accept. For the challenge, I choose ... purring!"

"A purring duel, eh?" Pirate Bun shook herself, hunkered down, and started things off with a low, steady rumble.

"Well now," Mig said, preening, "you know they don't call me Motorboat for nothing." So saying the little cat cut loose with the deepest, loudest, rumbliest purr you've ever heard! It was such a powerful purr that it bowled Bun right over, tumbling her tail over whiskers down the docks.

But Pirate Bun recovered from the blast, shook herself again, dug in, and purred hard. They were evenly matched, and neither would give way. The two little cats hunkered on that dock for three days and three nights, purring as hard as they could, but neither would budge an inch!

Finally, Mig said, "You're pretty good there, pussy cat! Let's stop this -- on the count of three." So they counted, one, two, three! And they both stopped purring, and looked at each other.

"Well, I guess you deserve to boat on the Mississippi," Pirate Bun conceded.

"You're not half bad yourself," replied Motorboat Mig.

And they all boated happily ever after.

Kittens In Space

Once upon a time, Little Miggle was learning about the moon in science class.

Mimzy Mouser said her momma told her the moon was all made up of green cheese. Ryan Ratcatcher said he'd heard there were rats the size of your head! Little Miggle said, "No! I saw a picture of the moon on the internet! It's a big rock!"

The teacher patted Li'l Miggle on the head and said, "That's right! The moon is a big rock! No cats have ever been to the moon, but we know from photographs and such that it is actually a rock." Li'l Miggle beamed, and all the little kittens glared at her.

Li'l Miggle was feeling pretty good when she got home, though she felt a little shy because all her classmates were mad at her for being all smart and right and such. She found her little brother, and had an idea. "Hey Tiggle! Wanna build a rocket to the moon?"

"Yes!" Li'l Tiggle bounced up and down. "Only, shouldn't we ask Momma Cat for permission first?"

Li'l Miggle thought for a moment. "I guess." So they ran into the house and asked Momma Cat, "Can we please build a rocket to the moon?"

Momma Cat looked at them. "Of course! Just be back in time for supper."

Miggle and Tiggle ran back out into the yard and got to work. "Let's see," Li'l Miggle muttered, "a rocket needs engines!" She looked at her brother. "Do you have anything that can be engines?"

Li'l Tiggle thought hard for a moment. "Hold on! I got an idea!" He scampered back into the kitchen and returned moments later with an armful of canned tuna. "Lots of energy in here!"

"Perfect!" Li'l Miggle beamed. She stacked the cans of tuna on the ground. "Now we need a crew pod! And well, I was saving it for a good day, but it's just the thing!"

She sprinted into the house. A series of loud thumps and scrabbling noises later, Li'l Miggle reemerged dragging a cardboard box three times her size out the door. They stacked it on top of the tuna engines. "Perfect!" Li'l Miggle was ecstatic. "Now all we need is a nose cone. Tiggle, what can we use for a nose cone?"

Li'l Tiggle tucked his nose under his paws in embarrassment. "Um, um, I think I might have something." He shot off into the house, returning moments later with a large conical hat.

"Where did you get that?" Li'l Miggle asked.

"Um, um, in first grade, they made me wear the dunce cap, so I stole it so that I wouldn't have to wear it anymore." Li'l Tiggle hid his face, tucking himself into a ball.

"Wow! I never knew that!" Li'l Miggle said admiringly. "Well done, Tiggle!" She put the cap onto the top of the crew pod with care. Having completed their rocket ship to the moon, the kittens blasted off.

Sure enough, the moon was a big ol' rock, but they did find rats the size of their heads. Miggle and Tiggle chased them 'round and 'round, but couldn't catch a one. They were too fast for the little kittens.

After the moon, they flew around the whole solar system, visiting the planets, and even fighting off the dread Martian Pirate Bun! But around Jupiter, their little tummies began to gurgle, so they flew home for supper.

Great Detective Miggle and the Figh Dough Puppy Pastries

Once upon a time, there was a business beagle by the name of Mister Biggle. Mister Biggle was the owner and operator of a fine factory of puppy pastries. The Figh Dough Puppy Pastry Factory was famous throughout the land for their delicious doggy treats. Mister Biggle had a formula for his success: Figh Dough only employed cats on their factory floor, because only cats could be trusted not to filch the pastries being made.

One day, Mister Biggle got an angry phone call from a customer. "Your puppy pastries taste awful today! I don't know what it is -- I can't put my paw on it, but... but it's just wrong!"

Mister Biggle was very concerned! He went down to the factory floor and inspected all the equipment and all the machinery, sniffing here and snuffling there with his great big hound nose, but he couldn't find anything amiss! Mister Biggle was stumped. He decided to hire a great detective to help him solve this mystery, and who better than Little Miggle?

The very next day, Little Miggle arrived bright and early, before all the morning shift cats, to meet with Mister Biggle on the factory floor. "So your pastries are coming out funny, eh?" she asked him. "Let's have a look-see. Where do you get your ingredients from?"

Mister Biggle nodded and led Little Miggle out to the loading zone. "See here!" He waved his arms exuberantly, his big ol' hound ears flopping about. "Only the finest rotted fish heads and chicken carcasses for my pastries! We get the straight from the docks, and the hen houses too!"

Little Miggle ventured forward to peek at the trucks, her delicate kitten nose wrinkling as the stench washed over her. She turned away in horror at the smell of rot, and the sight of thousands of flies buzzing over the shipment. "I... uh... I see! Well!" She scuttled back inside. "And you haven't changed who you buy from? Same truck drivers as usual?"

Mister Biggle looked confused as Little Miggle fled the sweet smell of fish and chicken. "No, no, nothing's changed. Everything's been just the same as it's always been!" Taking one last whiff of the delightful aroma, Mister Biggle followed the detective kitten back inside.

"After it's delivered, where does it go?" Little Miggle asked.

"Right this way," said Mister Biggle, leading onward to a large, echoing storage room. Huge vats of fish heads and chicken carcasses lined the walls, spewing their scent into the air. "They come in here, and are aged another 2 weeks to get the flavors juuuuuuust right!" Mister Biggle looked very proud of his operations.

Little Miggle cringed as she stepped inside. "Ah, so, who has access to this room?"

"The shift foremen, and me of course."

"They haven't been acting strange, have they?" Little Miggle eyed the tubs with deep suspicion, secretly wondering how it is that dogs could stand to eat the stuff.

"Well, I don't think so." Mister Biggle shook his head, making his ears flop all about.

They left the storage room and went on to the factory floor. "Where does the, er, fine ingredients go after the store room?" Mister Biggle pointed to a round machine sporting a large cone, with a mess of tubes coming out its belly, and covered with valves and levers and blinking lights.

Behind the machine was a ladder leading to a narrow catwalk. Little Miggle scampered up it, trotted to the machine, and peered into the cone. It was a smooth metal slide that culminated in a fearsome rotating blade. A tantalizingly familiar scent of catnip tickled Little Miggle's nose. She craned her neck and leaned out farther and farther.

"Whoa there, Little Miggle!" cried Mister Biggle as he hauled her back from the edge. "Careful! You don't want to fall in and get chopped up into puppy pastries."

Little Miggle squirmed a bit, looking abashed. "You're sure nothing has changed? The machine's not broken? The fish aren't rotten? Er, more than they're supposed to be?"

Mister Biggle shook his head. "Everything looks fine to me."

"Well, the only thing that's left are the workers then."

Mister Biggle nodded, leading the way back down the ladder to the employee lounge. Here, rows of lockers lined the walls, one for each factory cat. Mister Biggle took out a big ring of keys and opened a locker, and Little Miggle poked through it looking for suspicious things.

"AHA!" she cried triumphantly. "Just as I thought! Catnip!"

"What? That's not allowed! I'll not have any drugged out cats on my factory floor!" Mister Biggle stamped his foot, indignant. "Why, I'll fire that cat right now!"

"No, wait!" Little Miggle pleaded. "We haven't looked through them all yet!"

So Mister Biggle confiscated the catnip, and opened all the lockers. And in each locker, they found a little bag of catnip, cleverly hidden here or there or in a boot. "Well I never! They're all drugged out kitties!" Mister Biggle waggled his ears in despair.

Little Miggle did not answer. She was too busy nibbling on an errant bag of catnip.

"Little Miggle! Give that here!" Mister Biggle snatched the bag of catnip from the kitten and bopped her lightly on the nose. Little Miggle pouted. "You can have some after you solve my mystery," said Mister Biggle.

"Okay," said Little Miggle, a little sullenly.

"It looks like the early shift cats are here, let's go talk to them! I need to yell at them about their catnip habit anyway." Mister Biggle thrust the catnip into his coat pockets and called all the cats over. They stood around the beagle in a loose semi-circle curiously. "We found catnip in all your lockers! See here!" The beagle waved a pawful of catnip bags in the air. "What have you got to say for yourselves?"

The cats of the early shift looked at each other and, as one, they shrugged nonchalantly. One of them yawned and said, "You already pulled out the catnip, so how can you prove that you didn't plant them in our lockers to begin with?" The other cats sniggered as Mister Biggle turned red and sputtered in indignation.

Little Miggle was getting bored with this. She looked all about the factory idly, when suddenly she noticed a little shadow creeping along the catwalk overhead. Little Miggle's tail puffed out with excitement as she silently stalked up the ladder after the figure. She inched closer... closer... and pounced!

"Wah!" The figure crumpled to the ground in an ungainly heap of kicking feet and lashing tail. "Little Miggle, why are you jumping on me so early in the morning!"

"Little Tiggle? What are you doing here?" Little Miggle peered over her paws at her little brother.

"Don't you know? I work here!" Little Tiggle huffed indignantly, heaving Little Miggle off of him.

"Hey, aren't you on the afternoon shift?" Mister Biggle panted from the top of the ladder. "What are you doing here so early?"

Little Tiggle clambered to his feet. "Well sir, you told me to experiment with making kitty treats, so I was staying late working on a recipe. But all this rotten fish and chicken tastes pretty bad! So I got some nice fresh fish and newly slaughtered chickens, mixed with my special catnip, and I've been experimenting with different test batches!" Little Tiggle shook out a packet of extremely aromatic catnip, looking very proud of himself.

"But where did you make the test batches? There's only one production line!" Mister Biggle looked confused.

"Oh, I had to use this one." Little Tiggle pointed to the enormous cone beside him.

A slow, broad grin split Mister Biggle's muzzle as he realized that the bad flavors were not the result of corporate espionage, but cross contamination between doggy and kitty treats. "Mystery solved! Little Miggle, you're a genius!"

Little Miggle did not respond.

"Little Miggle?" Mister Biggle looked around. There on the catwalk, rolling about and purring contentedly, was Little Miggle, who had gotten her little teeth into Little Tiggle's special catnip. She looked so cute, purring and rolling about, that Mister Biggle pulled out a camera and took many photos of her. "Fantastic! Little Tiggle, I hereby appoint you Chief Scientist in charge of making a delicious kitty treat! And Little Miggle, you can be the cute kitten mascot!"

Migla the Belly-Woggler

Far far away in Wagaland, there lived a cute belly-woggling cat named Migla. Migla was the best woggler of them all, and she was determined to win the title of belly-woggler of the year. She went to the belly-woggling competition and the judges looked at her and said, "That no-talent Migla is just going to embarrass herself." Migla was determined to show them. She woggled to the left. She woggled to the right. And she woggled up and down and the judges had coronaries and had to be carried off to the hospital. The competition brought in a new panel of judges, and each one gave her a 10.0. Then the judges in the hospital demanded that their 10.0s count too. And Migla got twice the score that a cat could get in the competition, and won Belly Woggler of the Year by the largest margin ever. The end.

Catsylvanian Goulash

Once upon a time Little Miggle's mother told Little Miggle to take her little brother to the market to get the ingredients for Mincemouse Pie.

"Now don't you tell Little Tiggle what we're making, 'cause mincemouse pie is his favorite holiday food. I want this to be surprise."

"Mom! But Little Tiggle will know as soon as we start getting the ingredients."

"You're a smart kitten. You can keep it a secret."

So Li'l Miggle told Li'l Tiggle that they were going to the market.

"So what are we getting, Miggy?"

"Well, we need white mice, and black mice, and brown mice and chocolate mice and spicy mice and.... little peeps."

"Ooh. What are we making. Can I guess??? Is it mincemouse pie?"

"Nope, we're making... uh... Catsylvanian Goulash." Mig lied.

"What's that."

"Well, we take the white mice, and the black mice, and all the other mice and the peeps too, and throw them in a big pot with a little Tiggle too."

"With a Tiggle?"

"Yep, with a Tiggle. An' you have the little Tiggle wiggle around and squish up all the mice, and then you start it cooking."

"With the Tiggle in it?"

"Oh, well, you don't cook the Tiggle. That would be silly. You take him out. You need the Tiggle later. When the pot gets nice and hot, you throw the tiggle back in and have him swim all about stirring it as it cooks."

"I don't think we should make Catsylvanian Goulash," Tiggle squeaked timidly.

"I'm going to tell mom that you're a wuss puss."

"Okay." Tiggle drooped.

So they went and bought their white mice, and black mice, and brown mice and chocolate mice and spicy mice and little peeps. And when they came home, Momma Cat asked Li'l Miggle what she told Tiggle.

Mig relayed the story of the "Catsylvanian Goulash."

Momma Cat smiled. "You got the recipe just about right, with a little change though."

"It exists?"

"Of course.... I'll have you make it. Hop in the pot and start braining mice."

And Momma Cat made up a reciped for Catsylvanian Goulash on the spot just to chasten Miggle for making fun of her brother. Later that night, Miggle, embarrassed and tired, joined her family for a delicious meal of mincemouse pie and catsylvanian goulash. Tiggle loved it, and asked for Catsylvanian Goulash, Momma Cat style, every Christmas thereafter.