中國成語寓言故事英文版：東氏養貓

In ancient times, a man surnamed Dong in the State of Wei was interested in nothing but keeping cats.

古代，衛國有個姓東的人，對世界上的萬事萬物都不感興趣，唯獨愛好養貓。

He kept over 100 cats in his home, which caught and ate all the rats in the house.

東某家裡養了一百多隻貓，老鼠被捕食得一乾二淨。

Later, as there were no more rats, the cats were so hungry that they meowed all the time. Dong had to buy meat from the market every day to feed them.

後來，因為貓再也捕食不到老鼠而餓得咪咪直叫。東某隻好每天從市場上買肉回來餵養它們。

Day after day, year after year, the cats multiplied. As they ate meat every day, they even didn't know there were rats in the world which could be caught and eaten. They meowed whenever they were hungry, and whenever they meowed, they were fed with meat. After they ate their fill, they were happy and carefree, lazy and sluggish, and had nothing to do all day.

日復一日，年復一年，貓兒傳宗接代，由於天天吃肉，竟然不知道世上還有老鼠可以捕食。它們餓了就叫，一叫就有肉吃，吃飽之後，一副悠閒快活的樣子，終日懶懶散散，無所事事。

In the south of the city, one house was plagued with rats. The rats ran amuck in swarms. Once it so happened that a rat fell into a jar. The master of the house hastened to Dong's home to borrow a cat to catch the rat.

城南，有一戶人家鬧鼠患，老鼠成群結隊，到處橫行。一次，有一隻老鼠忽然掉人甕中。這家主人急忙跑到東家，借貓捕鼠。

The cat from the Dong family saw the rat in the jar stick up its pointed ears, stare with a pair of pitch-black eyes, shake its red whiskers and squeak. The cat didn't know what a freak the rat was. It only followed the rat moving around on the mouth of the jar, and dared not get into it.

東家的貓看到甕中的老鼠，豎著兩隻尖尖的耳朵，瞪著一雙漆黑的眼睛，抖動著紅紅的鬍鬚，吱吱吱亂叫。貓以為是什麼怪物，只是在甕口上跟著老鼠轉來轉去，竟然不敢下去。

The master was furious at this and pushed the cat down into the jar. At this moment, the cat was panic-stricken and howled loudly at the rat. After a while, the rat eventually found that this cat had no other tricks, so it bit the cat's foot. The Dong's cat was so frightened that it exerted all its strength and made one jump out of the jar and ran away.

主人看了十分惱火，便一把將貓推了下去。這時候，只見貓驚恐萬狀，對著老鼠大聲嚎叫。時間一長，老鼠終於發覺這隻貓沒有什麼別的本事，就來咬它的腳。東家的貓急得使勁兒一躍，便從甕裡逃了出來。