This short story is based on "The Aristocats" movie from 1970, which was set in Paris, France in 1910. In this story, Madame Adelaide Bonfamille has passed away and left her mansion to her cats. Duchess and Thomas O'Malley have since then had five kittens – three girls and two boys. Now there are four girls and four boys in all. Our original kittens are now in a, you could say, pre-teen stage. The new kittens are a bit younger than when we first saw our original three kittens in the movie. The entire family gets along fine without humans around. They still have O'Malley's friends to help around every now and then and, of course, their ever-friendly companion of a mouse: Roquefort.

Characters mentioned in this chapter:

Berlioz – Black male cat. Original character. Plays the piano.
Toulouse – Chubby orange male cat. Original character. Paints.
Marie – White female cat. Original character. Sings.
Duchess – White female cat. Original character. Mother of all kittens.
Thomas O'Malley – Orange male cat. Original character. Father of all kittens.
Soleil – Youngest female kitten. Orange fur.
Cheri – White female kitten.
Yvonne – Oldest female of kittens (second litter). White fur.
François – Black and white male kitten.
Thierry – Oldest male of kittens (second litter). Black fur.

"Look at me! Look at me!" Soleil yelled out. She looked back to see if her mother was watching and ran into the wall. Instantly she started to cry.

Cheri and Thierry turned the corner and raced on leaving their sister behind.

"Mama!" Soleil cried out.

Duchess looked up and ran over to her youngest daughter. "Oh my dear, are you all right? How did this happen?"

"I was running and the wall came up and… I fell!" she replied. "See… my paw? It hurts." She held it up and instantly mother Duchess licked it.

"You're such a whiner Soleil." Yvonne walked over to her. "And you're a terrible racer. You lost."

On cue Thierry's joyful voice yelled, "Yeah! I won! I won!" He stood on his hind feet and jumped up only to tumble down below Cheri.

She looked down at him. "I'll beat you yet, you'll see," she said with an air of snobbishness. Her white coat shined as her golden eyes gleamed at him.

Thierry stood up ready to pounce when a much larger, and chubby, body moved in front of him: Toulouse.

"Out of my way. I was just about to get her!" Thierry's ears went down in disappointment when he saw Cheri trotting off to another room.

"Get whom?" Marie asked. She jumped off a chair and walked over to her siblings.

"No one Marie. I was just playing." Thierry told her.

Marie raised an eyebrow and turned her head to Toulouse.

Toulouse sighed, "Cheri. She went to the other room." He looked back at the small black kitten and walked off to avoid his glare.

"Now you mustn't fight with a lady," she told him.

"I know, I know…" He ran off before she got a chance to say anything else.

Yvonne and Soleil ran up to Marie. "Marie, Marie!" they called.

"What little sisters?"

"Well, I thought it would be a marvelous idea if we practiced our singing." Yvonne looked around, "Where is Berlioz? We need him to play the piano."

"He is out with Father O'Malley learning to fish, remember?" Marie shook her head; "We'll do it later. Just run along and do something else to pass the time." She walked by them.

Soleil watched her walk away. "NOW what do we do?" she asked her sister. No reply. "I said, now what do we..." she stopped and noticed Yvonne looking at François.

"RUN!" Yvonne yelled. She and Soleil ducked under a chair.

The white and black cat's left ear twitched. "I hear you… I'll find you. I always do." He pounced on a squeaky toy mouse he saw. Yvonne and Soleil glanced at each other fearfully. Suddenly, François's legs appeared in front of them. He slowly moved past the chair then stopped.

"What's he doing?" Soleil asked, forgetting to whisper.

"Soleil! … Oops."

"Gotcha!" François reached a paw under the chair and the other kittens ran off. He saw them go into the kitchen – he raced after them.

End of first chapter. This will be a short story. No more than five chapters, I'm sure.