Chapter 5: Mungojerrie's Close Call

When Teazer woke up, Jenny and Skimble weren’t in their lair as she’d expected them to be. She walked about, listening to talk from the other cats.
“Mornin’ ‘Lectra,” she greeted her friend.
“Good morning Rumpleteazer,” Electra said, a little less cheerful than what Rumpleteazer was used to.
“Whe’s Jenny an’ Skimble?” Teazer inquired.
“Skimble’s around here someplace,” said Electra. “Jenny’s in there with Mungojerrie. He took a big turn for the worse last night, I’ve heard the adults saying.”
“Tu’n fo’ the wo’se?” Teazer asked. “But tha’ can’t be! ‘E wos gettin’ betta yestaday!”
“I’ve only heard the adults talking about it.” Electra shrugged. “I haven’t actually seen him or anything. The adults say that Skimble stayed up with Mungojerrie most of the night, but by morning, Jerrie was a lot worse. Skimble went and got Jenny, and she’s been in there since. They don’t know if she can do anything, either. They sound nervous.”
Teazer backed away from Electra with a stunned expression on her face and ran to find Skimble.
“You shouldn’t have told her that,” Victoria said to Electra.
“She was going to find out sooner or later. Everyone’s talking about it,” Electra said. “Better now than later. If Mungojerrie…dies, Rumpleteazer should be there with him. She shouldn’t be kept out.”
“I didn’t know he was that sick!” said Victoria. “Do you think that he’ll…?”
“I don’t know,” Electra told her. “No one knows.”

“Skimble! Skimble!” Teazer ran around the junkyard madly, looking for the railway cat. She was in such a flurry that she ran right past Skimble without noticing. Skimble grabbed her by the arm as she passed.
“Hold there, lass,” he said. “What’re you doing running about the yard like that?”
“Tell me it ain’t true!” Teazer cried, clinging to Skimble. “Oh, please, Skimble! Tell me it ain’t!”
“What’s not true?” Skimble asked.
“Tha’ Jerrie’s gonna doie an’ go ta the ‘Eavisoide an’ leave me!” Teazer practically screamed the words out in dread.
“No one knows that for sure,” Skimble told the small tabby queen. “All we know is that he has more wrong with him than he can handle right now. May the Heaviside and the Everlasting Cat look after him.”
“Wot do ya mean, mo’ ‘n ‘e kin ‘andle’?” Teazer wanted to know.
“Well, come sit with me and I’ll give you the whole story,” Skimble said. He took Rumple to a sunny spot on the car hood and sat down with her.
“About one o’clock this morning, I wasn’t asleep. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t,” Skimble related. “So I decided to have a look at Mungojerrie while I was up, just to make sure he was alright. He seemed all right. He was breathing, and he was asleep, so I let him be. I sat outside until one-thirty or two in the morning, until I was tired. I decided to take one more look at Mungojerrie and go inside. I expected him to be just fine, but that simply wasn’t the case. I looked in his room, intending to make it just a quick peek. But when I looked, he was tossing about and shouting for you. He kept repeating ‘I want my Teazer’. I didn’t want to wake you up at that hour of the night, so I sat with him. I eventually quieted him down, but by then, he was so sick that I was afraid to leave him alone. I didn’t want to wake anyone up, so I just sat with him and tried to make him more comfortable, until Jenny came in the morning. All night he just got sicker and sicker. I didn’t know what to do.”
“But Oi still don’ get it,” said Teazer. “Wot do ya mean, mo’ ‘n ‘e kin ‘andle?”
“Well, think of it this way,” Skimble tried again. “If a cat pounces on a mouse and toys with it the way Macavity and his hench-cats toy with Mungojerrie, it’ll weaken more and more until it dies. Right?”
Teazer nodded.
“Mungojerrie isn’t strong enough to handle the abuse he’s been getting, so it’s weakening him,” Skimble explained.
“An’ will ‘e doie, loike the mouse?” Teazer asked.
“No one can say that for sure,” Skimble told her. “We’re doing all we can.”
“Oi’ve gotta see ‘im,” Rumple said. “Ya said ‘e wonted me. Wot if ‘e needs me?”
“Come with me. We’ll go see him.” Skimble led Teazer across the yard and into Jerrie’s makeshift room. Munkustrap was there, along with Jennyanydots.
“Munkastrap? Jenny?” Teazer said softly. “Is ‘e…okay? Is ‘e…dead?”
“No,” Munkustrap told her. “But he looks bad. I’m not sure he’ll pull through.”
Skimble swatted gently at the gray tabby tom, rebuking him for saying such things to Rumple.
“There’s always hope. Remember that, Rumpleteazer,” Jenny was quick to say.
“There has to be hope if we’re ever to get Mungojerrie through this,” Munkustrap added.
“ ‘E’ll get betta because ‘e ‘as to, Munku,” sad Teazer. “ ‘E ‘as to! Oh, Jenny, wot’ll Oi do if Jerrie…if Jerrie…”
Rumple couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. She loved her Mungojerrie too much. There would never be a time in her life without Mungojerrie. They’d always been together, for as long as she’d lived. How could that possibly change now?
“Don’ leave me, Mungojerrie,” she whispered to her twin brother, taking his paw. “Oi needs ya! Oi loves ya!”
Jerrie choked, as though he was trying to say something.
“Moi…Teaza.”
“Yeh,” Teazer said, so relieved that she felt tears run down her face. “Oh, please, Jerrie! Wake up!”
But Jerrie had gone silent and still again, and he showed no evidence that he’d even spoken at all. Maybe Teazer had just imagined it.
Rumple sighed sadly and stroked Mungo. It was breaking her heart to see him lying there so incredibly sick.
“Don’t worry, Teazer,” Jenny said softly. “We’ll have him on his feet again. You wait and see.”
“This feva’s oll ‘e’s down with?” Teazer wanted to know. Jenny shook her head.
“He’s got several serious injuries,” she said. “Deep cuts and the like.”
“His right front paw is broken and his left back paw is sprained pretty badly, as well,” Skimble added.
“Wot ‘ave ya done so fa’?” Teazer asked.
“I’ve given him several medicines and rubbed cream on some of the cuts and scratches,” Jenny said. “I tried to get him to drink some water, but he wouldn’t. I think I was choking him, so I stopped trying to make him drink it. But I’m worried he’ll dehydrate. It’s dangerous for him to be so sick and not drink anything.”
“Le’ me troi,” Teazer said. “Maybe ‘e’ll listen ta me.”
Jenny gave her a cup of water. “If he’ll drink this whole thing, then it’ll be at least a little help.”
“Jerrie,” Teazer said quietly, so as not to excite him. “Ya needs ta drink the wota, so ya kin git betta. ‘Ere, drink it.”
She put the cup to Jerrie’s mouth and tried to tip some in, but Jerrie coughed and knocked the cup out of Teazer’s hand in his struggle. 
“Oh, Jerrie!” Teazer exclaimed. “Look wot…”
Jenny picked up the cup, refilled it, and gave it back to Rumple. “He won’t drink it willingly, Teazer. Be patient with him.”
“Mungojerrie,” Teazer tried again. “Drink this ‘ere wota. It’ll make ya betta. ‘Ere now, drink it.”
She put the cup to her brother’s mouth and tried again to get some in, but Jerrie simply refused to open his mouth.
“Come on, Jerrie!” Teazer said. “Oi needs ta get this down ya real bad! Drink it!”
Jerrie finally came to his senses enough to relent and open his mouth. Teazer gave him some water. Jerrie choked, but he managed to swallow some, enough to satisfy Jenny for the moment, obviously, because she took the cup away from Teazer and left the room.
“Je’,” Teazer mumbled.
“Teaz,” Jerrie replied, and he fell back in her lap just as Pouncival walked in.
“Hi,” Pounce said. “I just came to see if I could help. Or if I’d be in the way…”
“Not a’ oll,” said Teazer. “Oi’s jus’ ‘bout in ova’ me ‘ead. Oi could do with some ‘elp.”
“Okay.” Pounce took a seat besida Rumpleteazer. “What do I do?”
“Um…” Teazer looked around the room. “Ya kin wrap up these two of ‘is paws in…uh…these!” She held up some long pieces of white material.
“Okay,” said Pounce. He started to go about his task, listening to Teazer talk to Jerrie encouragingly. He picked up Jerrie’s right front paw, intending to wrap it, but Jerrie pulled sharply away from him and whimpered softly.
“Well, how am I supposed to wrap up his paws if he won’t let me touch them?” Pounce asked.
“Loike this.” Teazer picked up Mungo’s right front paw to see if she could wrap it, but Mungo pulled away from her too.
“Jus’ do the otha one,” Teazer decided. “It ain’t broken; jus’ sprained. Jenny‘ll ave ta do the broken one.”
“Uh…okay,” said Pounce. He carefully wrapped up Mungojerrie’s sprained paw. Pleased with his work, he smiled to himself.
“This tom will be as good as new in no time,” he said. “Right, Jer? You’ll be around the yard again soon.”
“Wot?” Jerrie asked, coming out of his faint.
“ ‘E say tha’ you’ll be good as new soon,” Teazer said.
“Oh. Oi ce’tainly ‘opes so.” Mungo fidgeted with his blanket with his good paw.
“Owwie,” he said to himself.
“Jenny’s comin’ back,” Teazer told Mungo. “She’ll wrap this paw so it kin ‘eal. Okay?”
“Okay,” said Jerrie, not quite getting the point of what Rumple had just told him. He guessed she’d said it out of encouragement.
Jenny wrapped Jerrie’s paw, with Jerrie biting his lip the entire time. When finally she was done, Jerrie didn’t know if it hurt worse now or when it was unwrapped.
“Sorry if I hurt you a bit,” Jenny told him.
A bit? Mungo was thinking. A lo’ is mo’ loike it.

Soon Mungojerrie was reasonably healed. Within a week, he could stand on his own, and soon after that, walk with support.
One day, as he was sitting on the old car trunk, Pouncival joined him, looking cheerful.
“I love sunny days, don’t you?” Pounce asked.
“Yeh, Oi s’pose Oi do,” said Mungojerrie.
“Um, I don’t suppose you’d know where Jemima’s at?” Pounce asked shyly.
“Su’ Oi do.” Mungo pointed to where Jemima was visiting with his sister. “She’s roight ova the’ with Teaza.”
“Thanks Jer.” Pouncival hopped off the trunk and scampered over to the two queens.
“Hi girls,” he said. “Hey, Mima, I was sort of wondering if you’d want to go out with me tonight.”
“I’m in the middle of a conversation right now,” Jemima said. “I’ll go with you when it’s over. All-”
Suddenly there was a crash behind them. They looked and saw Mungojerrie sitting on the ground with a metal pail over his head.
“Jerrie!” Teazer and the other two Jellicles ran over to the tabby tom.
“Hey, pail face, what’re you doing in there?” Pounce asked. Mungo lifted the bucket off his head, laughing.
“Woy Oi…Oi…” he stammered. “That wos fon!”
“Fun?” Jemima exclaimed, coming over. “You could’ve gotten hurt!”
“Oi knows, bot it wos still fon,” Jerrie told her. “Oi wos goin’ ova ta you goys, noice an’ slow-loike, an’ my paws jus’ plain slipped out from unda me!”
“Well, I hope you’ve learned your lesson,Mungojerrie,” said Jennyanydots, overhearing them. “When you can’t walk without support, don’t.”
“Oi kin wolk foine, i’s jus’ tha’ nobo’y will give me a chance,” Jerrie countered.
“Still, you’ve got to be careful,” said Jenny. “You could’ve really hurt yourself like that, Mungojerrie. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Woy, Jenny, ya do ca’,” Mungojerrie teased.
“Of course I care. That’s why I’m the tribe nurse,” said Jenny, smiling.
“Mima, about that walk…” Pouncival began.
“Okay, Pouncy. Let’s go,” Jemima said. The two of them strolled out of the yard, their tails twined and their paws clasped.
“Looks loike Pouncy found ‘imself a queen,” Mungo remarked.
“They makes a noice couple,” said Rumple. She grasped Mungo’s paw and helped him up, supporting him as they walked around the yard together. They stopped to talk to Jemima.
“ ‘Ello Moima,” Mungo greeted kindly.
“Hi Jerrie,” said Jemima, smiling sweetly at the Cockney tom. “Did you know Munkustrap’s birthday is next week?”
“Nope,” said Mungo. He looked at Teazer, and they grinned at each other. They were already thinking of a way to cause commotion.
The next week, while Jellicles were celebrating Munkustrap’s birthday, Mungo and Teazer caused their bit of trouble.
When Munkustrap came to talk with Pouncival and Jemima, whom Mungo and Rumple were sitting with, Jerrie and Teazer jumped out from behind the table and threw their pieces of birthday cake at Munkustrap. Rumple giggled loudly.
Munkustrap started to laugh. Mungo and Teazer were very pleased with themselves, for soon the entire tribe was laughing and throwing cake!
Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer had a wonderful way of working together, and of loving each other, and of causing trouble.
And there was nothing at all to be done about that!

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