Chapter 1: A Cold, Dark World CHAPTER 1 A Cold, Dark World
Whoosh. A gust of freezing air blew through the streets, filling the alley with sparkly snow.

It seemed that everyone was hurrying inside to escape the winter storm that evening. The squirrels were hiding in their tree nests, the rabbits were fast asleep in their dens, and the pigeons were all cuddled together under the roof of the train station. The city was so still that the only sound was the whistle of the wind and one tiny squeak.

"Squeak."

Mama Mouse was still out in the cold, but she was in a hurry, gathering bits of bread from the dumpster behind a restaurant for her and her son to carry back into the hidey-hole of some unsuspecting human's attic.

The mice scurried along the edge of the dumpster, their arms filled with discarded crusts. "Listen, Mama!" the young mouse called out over the sound of garbage bags rustling in the wind. "Do you hear that?"

"Squeak."

Mama Mouse paused, and then they both shimmied down the side of the bin to seek the source of the sound. There, beside the dumpster, lay a tiny frozen kitten named Badger.

"What is he, Mama? Is he a mouse?" asked the son.



Mama Mouse sniffed the trembling baby with her wiggly nose and jumped back. "We have to go now. Come along."

Baby Badger tried to cry out for help, but all he could muster was another small squeak.

"But we can't leave him! Can't we bring him to the attic? He can share my bread crumbs....," said the son, lingering behind as his mom kept moving.

Mama Mouse turned around and gently nuzzled her concerned son. "Oh, my boy. That is no mouse. He may be our size, but that frosty being is a baby cat. And I'm afraid bread crumbs are not the food of choice for cats! No, no, this city will freeze over before I start inviting felines into our hidey-hole, tiny or not."

The son looked back at the creature and frowned. "But, Mama, he'll freeze."

"Kittens belong with cats--and I'm sure his family is around here somewhere," she said, pulling her son along the path.

"I feel sorry for him," said the son, and as he scooted away on the icy street, he left a trail of bread crumbs behind in hopes that it would help the mama cat find him.

To think that a mouse could take pity on a cat! That should tell you the danger that Baby Badger--a newborn kitten no bigger than a snowball, all alone in a winter storm--was in. He couldn't hear the wind, as his ears were still folded shut. He couldn't see the snow, as his eyes were still closed. All he could sense was a light overhead, where a bright neon sign buzzed in the dark. He tried to scoot closer for warmth, but the sign was too far away and impossible to reach. All he could do was wish to be closer to its light.

"Squeak? Squeak?" he tried one last time, but he was losing strength and couldn't muster words. As he huddled under the light of the neon star, his voice was fading into a silent whimper.

"Squeak...."

For a moment, the alley was quiet again--until the distant crunch of footsteps in the snow drew near. Then a human bundled in scarves and gloves emerged from around the corner, following along the mysterious path of the bread crumbs.

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Excerpted from Baby Badger by Hannah Shaw
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