Information

Cabinet
Legacy Name: Cabinet

The Chibi Wyllop
Owner: Pureflower

Age: 8 years, 4 months, 1 week

Born: December 7th, 2015

Adopted: 8 years, 4 months, 1 week ago

Adopted: December 7th, 2015

Pet Spotlight Winner
December 14th, 2022

Statistics

• Level: 36
   
• Strength: 37
   
• Defense: 10
   
• Speed: 10
   
• Health: 10
   
• HP: 10/10
   
• Intelligence: 44
   
• Books Read: 26
• Food Eaten: 0
• Job: Store Manager

For the first few weeks of my life, I knew only the warmth and comfort of the nest. Maisie collected only the best fluff for our family, padding the rear corner of the huge cabinet in the old man's attic to protect us from splinters.

The nest was already crowded by the time I entered the world. Hinge was the firstborn, the largest and strongest mouse in the litter. Knob had a nose that truly looked like it could open a door and the tail on Varnish was just a pink stub. Panel and Oak held a special place in Maisie's heart as the girls of the family.

I was the youngest, the runt of the litter with the grandest name our mother could bestow. Cabinet

*****

We had such grand adventures, exploring the mysteries of the attic. Humans are truly baffling creatures. They hide their food yet leave good nesting materials lying around. Maisie taught us the hiding places in the sofa and at the base of the giant stuffed bear. She forced us to memorize the sight of poison pellets, the sound of a mousetrap trigger, and the scent of Old Tom.

Tom was a fat gray tabby more interested in napping in the sun than the antics of six young mice. As long as we didn't let his master see us, Tom was more than happy to pretend he couldn't hear us.

I could tell so many stories of our attic adventures. There was the time Knob fell in the empty fishbowl and the whole family had to piece together a rope made of threads from the couch cushion to get him out. My personal favorite is how Oak managed to sneak an entire cupcake out of the kitchen and up the stairs by dragging on the wrapper with her teeth. What a feast!

Our lives were ruined the day the old man died.

*****

The seven of us huddled together as Tom came limping into the room, wheezing heavily. He put one huge golden eye up to the crack between the doors.

"I know you mice are in there. I've come to give you warning." Maisie gently stroked our backs with the tip of her tail as his fishy breath washed over us. "Humans are coming to clean the place out. If they see you, they will kill you. You're a decent lot, for a bunch of rodents."

Maisie twitched her whiskers. "I've seen enough of the world, Tom. When I found out I was having Silver's children, I swore that not one of them would ever meet their father's end. There are hawks and dogs and horrible monsters out there. This is our home and we will not abandon it."

We all sat on the windowsill and watched on the day they came for Tom. We could hear him yowling from inside the red box with silver bars. Maisie herded us back tot he nest with gentle prods of her nose, telling us in a sad tone that there was nothing we could do for him.

We were not free to scamper and play in the attic as humans began to clear it out. They never even looked at our cabinet in the first few days. We thought the pair of moving men would be no different until our home began to shudder.

"Should we have a look inside, see if there's anything that needs to be cleared out?"

"Nah. I got no interest in old Roger's musty sport coats. Besides, the new owner's rich enough, he can afford to pay people to restore this old piece of junk. Let it be their problem."

I do not like to remember our sea voyage. Maisie would leave us huddled together at night, doing her best not to draw the attention of the rats as she struggled to find scraps for us to eat. Little food and strange air took their toll on Panel. She died the night before we reached land.

We mistrusted the strange, sandy earth and sickly sweet odor of our new home. Maisie shoved us behind her body as men came to run their sticks over the edges of our cabinet's sides. We watched from the hole chewed in the mansion's wall by a former occupant as a new group of men ripped apart our beautiful nest and threw the remnants into a bag, growling and making faces of disgust.

A monstrous device was placed outside the hole. It was made of metal and we shuddered at the sight of it. The little cubes of cheese humans tried to bait us with were laughable. The most delectable cheese in the world couldn't tempt us to approach that thing.

We were not so strong upon our introduction to peanut butter.

Knob always was the first to stick his nose into everything. We found him in the morning. Maisie tried to pry the cruel steel jaws apart but was forced to give up her efforts at the sound of human footsteps. We could hear the men congratulating each other as two more traps were set. The smell of the bait was no less enticing but we knew the consequences of giving in to desire.

Maisie came to the hard decision to abandon the house of the rich man and to seek a new home.

We spent our first night in the outside world huddled beneath a dumpster, doing our best to stay warm despite the rain. We could smell the stink of rats but we saw no sinister red eyes that night.

That all changed when the rain ceased to fall.

We thought ourselves lucky when Hinge's nose led him to a few chicken bones that had fallen from a garbage can. We hadn't seen one rat all day and even their scent was fading.

Varnish was caught by a rear leg, squealing in terror as he was dragged into the midst of a swarm of brown bodies. Hinge launched himself into the mass with a growl of rage, latching onto the ear of a giant female and taking her to the ground. His efforts were brave but foolish. We could see his body lying in the alley as the rats turned their full attention to the three of us that lived.

Maisie touched Oak and I with the tip of her tail, her last gesture of affection as she launched herself into the gap left by the shifting bodies of the rats. She made herself a lure with the chunk of meat she dragged in her jaws, convincing the rats to follow her and giving us a chance for escape.

I could have been content in the forest or in some small human home if only Oak hadn't been taken from me. It was her idea to return to the mansion, to see if we couldn't find some way back into the cabinet we loved.

The man's terrier was a pampered brute with trophies and painted toenails but she was still a dog. She caught our scent in the entry hall, giving chase with a string of annoying yaps. I managed to make it to the mouse hole. Oak launched herself at the cabinet's back door, a hole chewed by Maisie as an emergency exit.

Oak hit the patched backboard with a loud thump, falling to the floor in a daze. The terrier shook the life out of her, leaving her lying behind the cabinet until even the dull nose of a human could not mistake the scent. The dog was given a meaty bone as a reward.

The plan came to me that night among troubled dreams of all those I had lost.

My revenge took weeks of careful planning. I chewed my way through wood and foam. Though I was fully grown, I could still squeeze my way through the tiniest openings. I gathered discarded bits of paper and dead leaves, placing my findings in every open space between the hollow spaces in each wall.

I took care not to put my plan into action until the night the man took his dog to a show. I would have my revenge but I would not stoop to the level of humans by killing needlessly.

I chewed through the bundle of wires in the sitting room with great care, allowing myself plenty of time for escape before the fire could spread. I paused at the hole that looked out on the entry, whiskers drooping as my dear cabinet went up in flames.

I was hiding beneath the marble garden bench when the firefighter came over to talk to the rich man.

"It would appear the fire was started by an electrical short, most likely due to mouse activity in the walls."

My blaze was so hot that it took hours for the last of the flames to die. The rich man held his head in his hands as his little dog sulked in the rain.

I smiled.

*****

My own children ask what it was like growing up in the wondrous attic. I tell them about the hundreds of strange human objects my siblings and I explored and about Old Tom, the cat so lazy he had to be carried to his own food dish. They have no idea how fortunate they are to live in the house of a woodworker whose little girl has a habit of dropping half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the floor.

Only my wife knows the darker parts of my story. She offers me a look of love and understanding when I pass through the tunnel to the building where the man does his work. The scents of sawdust and wood stain are comforting, taking me back to the days when six little bodies huddled together in a heap while Maisie sang a soft tune of sleepiness and safety.

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Story by Pureflower
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