The leopard and the mouse

Sheena the leopard was the shyest animal in the zoo, not because she wasn't brave but because she felt she didn't deserve to be there. All the other animals were able to entertain visitors with tricks and shows. But Sheena had no talents. She couldn't swing from branch to branch like the monkeys could, or roar like the lions, or squirt water from a trunk like an elephant, or catch fish in the air like the seals or even entertain people with colourful wings like the butterflies could. All Sheena could do was pad around the trees and rocks in her enclosure, and no-one wanted to see that. That was boring. Occasionally Sheena ventured close to the perimeter fence in the hope of enticing more people to come and see her, but when they didn't she stopped and decided not to venture out of her den. The zookeepers tried to tempt her out during the day with tasty morsels of moist meat but Sheena wouldn't come out. She would wait until sunset when the zoo was quiet, and only then would she come out. But one day she was so tired she slept through the night and forgot to wake herself up to feed before day break. It was only when she heard the sound of children laughing that she finally woke up.
'I'm so hungry,' she thought as her belly grumbled and gurgled. 'I can't possibly wait until dark. It'll be hours before I get food. I can't wait that long.'
She yawned, licked her dry, whiskery lips and took a deep breath.
'I only have to be out for a moment,' she thought. 'Then I can come back in. Only a moment. Only a moment in the daylight. There won't be anyone out there anyway. There never is. I'm too boring. Nobody likes to see a boring animal.'
She heaved her old bones off the sawdust bed and padded into the sunlight, with her curved tail swishing gracefully behind her.
The zookeepers always left chunks of meat for her on a flat rock by a leafy shrub in the middle of her enclosure, and sure enough as Sheena climbed down from her den, over giant boulders she saw the dried, meaty lumps. But as she approached she noticed something already dining on her lunch-something she had never encountered before. It was a grey furred animal so small Sheena was sure she could grasp it in one of her paws. She towered over it, watching as it gnawed on the crusty corner of one of the lumps of meat. It seemed, to Sheena, that it didn't notice she was there.
Curious, she bent down to sniff it, but instead accidentally nudged it over.
The animal peered up at Sheena.
"Do you mind I'm having my dinner?" said the little grey animal.
"Who are you?" asked Sheena.
"I'm Millicent, the mouse," said the little mouse. "And who might you be?"
"I'm Sheena the leopard. And you're eating my dinner."
"I thought you never came out of your den. That's what all the other mice told me. They said the only place in the zoo where I could happily eat without being eaten was in Sheena's enclosure because she never comes out during the day."
"But Sheena is out now," said Sheena.
"Does this mean you are going to eat me?" asked Millicent as she sat on her haunches and peered up at Sheena.
No sooner had Millicent asked that question there was a gasp from the other side of the fence surrounding the enclosure. "Look, mamma, there's a mouse with the leopard. I think its going to be eaten."
From the corner of her eye Sheena could see a young boy staring goggle-eyed at her.
"I think we have an audience," said Millicent.
Sheena stared down at the mouse. "That boy thinks I'm going to eat you, and you think I'm going to eat you. Why is that?"
"Because you're big and I'm small," said Millicent. "Big things always eat small things."
"Are you not afraid then?"
"Not anymore. You would have eaten me by now. Swallowed me whole."
Sheena laid down on the rock. She curled her tail over one of her fat, back paws and stretched her forelegs out in front of her, either side of the audacious mouse. "I'm hungry enough to eat you," she said glancing over to the fence where a steady stream of curious visitors started to gather. "Perhaps if I did I could show I have a talent and those visitors might come back and see me."
"Ah but if you ate me then I wouldn't be here tomorrow. How would you entertain them then?" Millicent asked before returning to gnaw on her lump of meat.
Sheena pondered the question as she glanced out to the enormous chattering crowd of visitors that now swarmed around her enclosure. A hundred or more pairs of eyes were fixed on her. For the first time in a long time Sheena felt important. A flush of excitement bristled her fur. She felt her back stiffen, her neck stretch up, her hunched shoulders drop and her lips curl into a joyful smile.
"I suppose I couldn't," she said. "But I know what I could do, and you could help me. Climb up onto my paw."
"Why would I do that?" asked Millicent.
"Because if you do we would both benefit."
Sheena could tell she had pricked the mouse's curiosity.
"I will let you come to my enclosure every day to feast on a lump from my lunch," Sheena whispered into the mouse's ear, "and I promise that I will never ever eat you."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because that's my talent. Not eating you every day is my talent. If I do that I'll have lots and lots of people come and visit me and you'll have lots and lots to eat. You see?"
Millicent looked at Sheena and then at the dry cube of meat between her paws. "Deal!" she said.
Sheena was delighted. A big, beaming smile drew on her face. "I'm now no longer boring Sheena," she said with glee. "I'm now Sheena, the mouse's friend."