Mitya is a very cheerful and curious little boy. He came into the world not long ago and everything around him seems enormous and extremely interesting to him. He never misses an opportunity to crawl under the sofa and collect the dust particles that hide there.
He also loves toy cars, though most of the time he doesn't push them across the floor but tries them with his teeth, as that's how he learns about the world. But most of all in the world, little Mitya loves to play with the kitten Vasya. The moment he catches sight of his fluffy tail, he immediately sets off in pursuit.
Vasya, a ginger fluffy cat, is much older than Mitya. He loves to warm his belly in the sunshine and count the flies flying past. But playing chase doesn't interest him. But fortunately for Vasya, it's very easy to get away from Mitya. After all, the little boy can't walk yet. The moment Vasya hears Mitya crawling towards him, he jumps—and onto the cupboard. The little boy certainly won't reach him there.
So they live on—one chases, the other runs away. Mitya crawls very quickly; he's a champion among other little ones at this difficult task, but he hasn't tried walking yet. And why should he? He can get into any room by crawling, and besides, mum doesn't go far away. Once Mitya tried to take a few steps and he even managed to keep his balance, but he quickly realised that this was difficult work and plopped back down on the ground, deciding that he wouldn't come to any harm without this 'grown-up' skill.
One bright morning, when everyone in the house except Mitya and Vasya was still asleep, the cat decided to have a bit of fun and tease Mitya. He crept up quietly to the little boy, barely touching the floor with his fluffy paws, whilst Mitya was busily chewing on another toy car, and meowed loudly. Mitya was frightened and tried to grab the rascal by the tail, but the cat was faster; he quickly ran away from the boy and began to meow from a safe distance.
Then Mitya suddenly jumped to his feet, which greatly surprised the cat, and took several confident steps towards him, then stopped. Vasya couldn't believe his eyes—surely the little boy could walk now? But Mitya fell back down on the floor and continued the chase on all fours. The cat took advantage and quickly left the scene.
After that incident, Mitya realised that on all fours he would never catch up with the cat. He began to learn to walk. He'd try once and fall over, another time it seemed like he was almost getting it—another failure. Mitya was scared to take his first steps; mum wasn't holding his hand, he had to stand on his own, and there was no room for error. But he really wanted to catch that rascal cat by the tail. And Vasya watched Mitya and was amazed at how quickly he was learning. Just yesterday he was afraid to take a single step, and today he's toddling along and hardly falling at all.
Mitya really was learning quickly, but something prevented him from making that final push. At the last moment he would always get frightened and start crawling again.
Everything changed one night. The little boy was sleeping peacefully in bed next to his mum and he was having a wonderful, colourful dream. As if he was chasing Vasya around the house, only his heels were flashing. And Vasya was egging him on in a human voice:
