A Cat with a Ladder

Once Olivia had found her way out of the woods, she saw a little white cottage with a red-shingled roof, a white brick chimney, blue window shutters, and a small blue front door. In front of the house was a gate that matched the window shutters and door, which was accompanied by a small white brick wall and a long white fence that surrounded the house.

"I wonder who lives here?" she said, as she walked over to the gate. She stood there as she then heard a familiar voice calling out from above an open window.

"Maryanne! Where is that girl? Where did she put them? Maryanne! Maryanne!"

"The owl!" Olivia exclaimed, her face lightening up as she saw Archimedes from the window. Just as she opened the gate and headed toward the front porch, Archimedes closed the window shutters and opened the front door a moment later.

"No use! Can't wait! I'm terribly late! Oh, me! Oh, my! Oh, me! Oh, my!" he exclaimed, as he darted out of the house, holding a gold trumpet in his wing and wearing a white tunic that had a red heart printed on it and a pale blue court ruff.

"Excuse me, Mr. Owl," Olivia said to Archimedes, "I've been trying to—"

Archimedes turned around and ran over to Olivia, though he had thought she was this "Maryanne" person he was calling out earlier.

"Why, Maryanne! What are you doing out here?" Archimedes asked her, frowning at her.

"Maryanne?" Olivia repeated, a puzzled expression forming on her face.

"Don’t just stand there, do something! No, no! Go get my gloves! I'm late!" Archimedes barked, hopping in front of Olivia and holding up his large pocket watch.

"But late for what?" Olivia asked him, "That's just—"

"My gloves," Archimedes shouted, blaring his trumpet vociferously, forcing Olivia to go inside the cottage. "At once! Do you hear?"

"Goodness," Olivia said to herself, as she headed up the blue staircase. "I suppose I should be taking orders from Zipper next."

Once she made her way up the stairs to Archimedes‘ bedroom, Olivia started her search for Archimedes' missing gloves.

"If I were an owl," she said, looking through a white wooden dresser, "where would I keep my gloves?"

When she opened a porcelain vase-like jar that was on the dresser, there were cookies in various shapes and colored frostings, and each of them had messages, such as "TAKE ONE" and "TRY ME". These were the same cookies she saw back when she was struggling to get the key onto the table at only ten inches tall.

"Oh, thank you." Olivia said, as she picked out a pink flower-shaped cookie with the words "EAT ME" written in brown frosting and took a bite of it, "Don’t mind if I do." As she looked through a chest full of clothes while humming, however, Olivia started to grow at an alarming rate, and her head hit the ceiling. The cookie had caused her to grow again—just like last time!

"Oh! Oh, no, no! Not again!" she exclaimed.

Archimedes tapped his foot rapidly and looked at his watch with an impatient frown on his face. He jolted in shock and rushed back inside the house, with a fear of being very, very tardy.

"Maryanne!" he called out.

Olivia was still growing very rapidly as her arms emerged from the windows, and her right foot was toppling over furniture in Archimedes' room, just as Archimedes had darted up the staircase to the door of his bedroom.

"Now, you see here, Maryanne!" Archimedes started to say as he opened the door, only to see Olivia's colossal right foot struggling to get through. "HEEEELLLLP!"

The brown pygmy owl gasped in shock and tried to escape, but he was pushed down the stairs by her foot, which had finally found its way through the door, and blared his trumpet again. He then headed for the front door and opened it, only to be pushed through some of his broken possessions by Olivia's now fully huge foot. As he got out from underneath the destruction, the frenzied owl cried out in horror as he saw what was happening to his house. Olivia's arms had sprouted out of the windows, and her feet had emerged from the doorways.

"NOOOO! HELP! MONSTER!!" Archimedes shouted in a panic, running away from his house and blaring his trumpet again, "Help! Assistance!!"

Olivia was struggling to get up, but it was no use. Archimedes' house was too snug for her to break free, and therefore, she was completely stuck like a fly attached to flypaper.

"Oh, dear!" she complained, placing her left hand on the rooftop. Just then, she heard Archimedes' voice, as he had come back with someone to help him.

"A monster! A monster, O'Malley! In my house, O'Malley!"

"O'Malley." Olivia repeated in an unamused tone of voice, as she recalled seeing him in the ocean and him ignoring her desperate call for help while rolling her eyes.

Archimedes was hopping around O'Malley, who was walking with him down the dirt path back to his house.

"Settle down, old chap," O'Malley calmly said to Archimedes, as he twirled his cane with his right paw. "Can't be as bad as all that, you know."

"My poor house..." Archimedes said to O'Malley, still worried about his precious home. "Ohhh, my beautiful roof and rafters...all my walls, and—there it is!"

O'Malley stopped in front of the house as his eyes widened in shock, and he almost dropped his cane in the process.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed, raising his eyebrows and his shocked expression changing into a smile, "Jolly well is."

Olivia's giant hands opened the shutters, and she peeked through the open window to see Archimedes and O'Malley, her eyes blinking with curiosity.

"Well, do your thing, O'Malley!" Archimedes exclaimed, pushing O'Malley through the open gate and hiding behind it.

O'Malley approached the gigantic Olivia and examined her carefully, before replying as he tapped her shoe with his cane: "Yes, indeed. An extraordinary situation, but..."

"But-but-but-but what?!" Archimedes exclaimed, finally coming out from behind the gate.

O'Malley blew his nose on his light blue handkerchief and put it away before placing a paw on Olivia's foot and crossed his right leg over his left.

"But I have a very simple solution!" he said, delighting the giant Olivia.

"Thank goodness!" Olivia said in response to O'Malley's announcement.

"W-W-W-What is it?" stuttered Archimedes.

"Simply pull it out the chimney."

"Yes! G-G-Go on, go on! Pull it out!" Archimedes exclaimed, running over and trying to push O'Malley, who was simply immovable.

"Who, me?" O'Malley questioned him, "Don’t be ridiculous! What we need is a...Er...Hmmm..."

A whistling noise was heard once O'Malley started thinking, and he turned to see a slender tabby cat with light brown fur, triangular ears with pink ear innards, yellow eyes, a pink nose, small, black whiskers, and a tan muzzle, underbelly, and tip on his tail, wearing a black jacket, a forest green long-sleeved turtleneck shirt, and a black English cap. He was also holding a broom in his right paw and a long ladder in his left as he was walking by Archimedes' house.

"A cat with a ladder!" O'Malley exclaimed.

"Hmmm? Oh, Sergeant Tibbs!" Archimedes called out to the cat, grabbing his attention, "Tibbs!"

Sergeant Tibbs lifted his cap up as a part of greeting the two, but he then felt himself being pulled through the gate by Archimedes.

"We need a lat with a cadder...A cadder..." the owl said to Tibbs, "Can you help us?"

"At your service, governor!" Tibbs replied kindly to the owl, saluting to him. He suddenly dropped his broom when he felt O'Malley's paw on his shoulder.

“Tibbs, my lad," O'Malley said to him. "Have you ever been down a chimney?"

"Why, governor," Tibbs said. "I've been down more chimneys!"

"Excellent, excellent!" O'Malley said with a smile, "You just pop down the chimney and haul that monster out of there."

Olivia was confused by O'Malley's choice to have Tibbs pull her out of the chimney, for she was simply too big to fit right through it. *Why would they have a small tabby cat pull me out of such a tiny chimney?* she wondered, *I don’t think this will help me out at all...*

"Right-o, governor!" Tibbs said, climbing past by Olivia. Just then, he moved back down to see Olivia through the window and cried out in alarm, "Monster?!"

He let out a frightened scream and scurried down the ladder, only to be pulled on the tail by Archimedes and O'Malley. The two were trying to calm him down and get him back up the ladder so he would do his job, but Tibbs was too frightened by the horrific vision of the gigantic Olivia to do so. Tibbs scurried back down the ladder again, only to be carried up by O'Malley.

"Settle down now. That's better," O'Malley said to the frightened tabby cat in an enthusiastic voice. "Tibbs, lad. You're passing up a golden opportunity."

"I am?" Tibbs repeated, a smile of delight lightening up on his face.

"You can be famous," O'Malley added, as he was still taking Tibbs up the ladder. That added the fuel to Tibbs' budding excitement.

"I can?"

"Of course!" O'Malley chirped. Once they reached to the top of the roof, O'Malley placed Tibbs into the chimney.

"There's a brave lad! In you go now," he continued to say to Tibbs. "Nothing to it, ol' boy. Simply tie your tail around the monster's neck and drag it out."

"Bu-But-But, governor!" Tibbs started to reply, only to be shoved down the chimney by O'Malley.

"Good luck, Tibbs."

Just as Tibbs was completely pushed down the chimney, smoke came out from the fireplace, shrouded the room, flew up in the air, and tickled Olivia's nose. She felt her head lifting itself up. The poor, giant Scottish-British girl mouse was about to sneeze!

"Ah...ah...ah...ah...ah..."

O'Malley wobbled on the roof once he felt Olivia's head bouncing him around, and he jumped onto the ladder as fast as he could.

"Ah...ah...ah...ah...ahh...ah...ah...ah...ah...ah..."

Archimedes took refuge behind Olivia's giant foot as the smoke emerged from the open window.

Suddenly, Olivia sneezed loudly.

"Ah-ah-ah...AH-AH-AHH-CHOO!"

Tibbs swiftly flew out of the chimney and into the sky like a rocket launching into outer space. It was quite a surprise to Archimedes and O'Malley as they watched him flying into the clouds above them and disappearing out of the view.

“Well, there goes Tibbs!" said O'Malley, as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Poor Sergeant Tibbs!" Olivia said as her eyes gazed from the open window, and her hand was in front of the window.

Now that Tibbs was no use for the monstrous problem, O'Malley had something else in mind. So he took out a match and used it to light up a pipe that had been in his mouth the whole time he was present. "Uhh...perhaps we should try a more energetic remedy!"

"Yes!" Archimedes replied to O'Malley, pointing to his pocket watch, "Anything! Anything, but hurry!"

"I propose that we, uh..."

"Yes! Go on! Yes!"

"I propose that we...YOW!!!" O'Malley cried, as he had felt the flame of the lit match burn his fingers.

"By Jove, that's it!" exclaimed the bigger cat, "We'll burn the house down!"

"Yes!" Archimedes replied, chuckling and nodding in response to his suggestion, "Burn the house—WHAT?!" But his eyes widened in shock because he knew that would mean he would lose his house to the burning flames if they would choose to go with it.

"Oh, no!" Olivia said, also alarmed by O'Malley's new plan.

O'Malley started gathering any of Archimedes' valuables that would be used as firewood as he started to sing a joyous tune of his. The first item he picked out was a chair, much to the poor owl's worries.

O'Malley: (spoken, laughing) Ho, ho, ho!
(singing) *Oh, we'll smoke the blighter out*
*We'll put the beast to rout*
*Some kindling, just a stick or two*
*This bit of rubbish ought to do*

O'Malley picked up a pale pink-colored grandfather clock with disinclined help from Archimedes. The clock was tossed into the wall and smashed into thousands of pieces, shocking Archimedes. "Oh, dear!" he said fearfully, as O'Malley gathered more items with a pink wheelbarrow that belonged to the owl.

O'Malley: *We'll smoke the blighter out*
*We'll smoke the monster out*

Olivia was watching the entire scene with her bright brown eyes as Archimedes scurried over toward O'Malley.

"No, no, no! Not my beautiful birdhouse!" he exclaimed, but it was already too late for the anxious owl to stop him. O'Malley had already taken a white birdhouse and split it in half, scaring a small group of bluebirds away. He then tossed it into the pile of the destroyed furniture as Archimedes bonked his head onto the broken gate.

O'Malley: *Oh, we'll roast the blighter's toes*
*We'll toast the bounder's nose*
*Just fetch that gate*
*We'll make it clear that monsters aren't welcome here*

"Oh, me, oh, my!" Archimedes said with a nervous look on his face, as he carried the gate over to the pile and placed it there. Then O'Malley placed a paw out in front of him, indicating that he needed something from him.

"Match," he said to him.

"Match?" Archimedes repeated, as he handed a matchstick to O'Malley. Then O'Malley used Archimedes to light up the match and placed it on the stack of roof shingles and the obliterated furniture.

O'Malley: *Without a single doubt*
*We'll smoke the monster out*

Then Archimedes sang along, as well.

Archimedes: *We'll smoke the monster out*

"Nooo! No! My poor house and furniture!" he exclaimed, as his worries had only heightened due to O'Malley's recent action.

White smoke started to rise up from the pile of the furniture, making Olivia feel sorry for the poor pygmy owl.

"Oh, dear! This is serious," she said. "I simply must—"

Olivia suddenly let out a short gasp of shock, and her eyes focused on a small garden of carrots located on the left side of the house.

"A garden!" she gasped, as she reached her gigantic hand for a carrot, not noticing Archimedes running over to the carrot and grabbing hold of it.

"Perhaps if I eat something, it would make me grow small." Olivia strained.

It was a brief struggle, but soon, Olivia lifted the carrot and Archimedes from the garden and up toward her face. Archimedes was struggling to break free from her grip as he swung around in a panic.

"NO!!! Let go! HELP!!!" he cried fearfully, thinking that he would be eaten by her.

"I'm sorry, but I must eat something." Olivia said to Archimedes.

"Not me, you...you...you barbarian!" Archimedes shouted, aiming the carrot at Olivia as if it were a sword. Olivia took a big bite of the carrot and the tip fell off, surprising Archimedes. Archimedes fell off, free from the female's grip.

"Ahh! Monster!" Archimedes yelled.

Olivia was shrinking at a very rapid pace, thanks to the carrot she found in Archimedes's garden. O'Malley was still blowing the smoke in an attempt to make a fire, whereas Archimedes was scurrying away from Olivia and tripped over her shrinking foot.

Olivia had shrunken down to the size of a small figure again, just like when she drank the bottle of the multi-flavored liquid.

"Ahh! I’m late!" Archimedes exclaimed, as he had taken yet another look at his pocket watch. "Oh, dear! I'm here! I should be there! I'm late! I'm late!"

"I say, do you have a match?" O'Malley asked Archimedes. However, he was given a rapid handshake by the pygmy owl instead.

"Must go! Goodbye! Hello! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" Archimedes exclaimed, as he then hurried off on the dirt path and disappeared once again.

Olivia had made her way from underneath the front door, yet she still had to go after Archimedes.

"Wait! Please wait!" she exclaimed, running over to the front porch and jumping up and down.

"Ahh, young lady," O'Malley said to the miniature Scottish-British girl mouse. "Do you have a match?"

"I'm sorry, but...Mr. Owl!" was all Olivia had to say to O'Malley before hurrying off.

O'Malley shook his head and raised an eyebrow as his paws were placed on his hips. "No cooperation," he said of Olivia and Archimedes. "No cooperation at all. Well, can't have monsters about. Very well have to carry on by myself."

Then O'Malley took the broken legs of Archimedes' furniture and used them to make a fire, and he blew some smoke once a small flame formed inside the hole of the broken piece.