Once a Chinese emperor organized a race for animals. The first twelve animals to finish were to be given a place in the Chinese Zodiac. The cat and the rat, both lazy creatures, asked the ox to wake them on the day of the race. The day arrived. The ox tried to wake them up, but could not succeed. The race was about to start. The ox coaxed them onto his back and started running. The rat woke up when the ox was crossing the last hurdle, a river. The rat pushed the cat off the ox’s back. When the ox reached the other side, the rat jumped off and scampered to victory, just ahead of the ox. The tiger came third, crossing the river by using the backs of the animals swimming across as stepping stones. So the twelve-year cycle of the Chinese Zodiac begins with the rat.
After him come the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. The cat, however, has no place in the zodiac. So all the cats still remember the humiliation heaped on their ancestor by a tricky rat and thus chase the rats to punish them.
