A Cat prayed to be saved and was so long as no further birds were eaten. A Bat flew by and it took the Cat very little time to call the Bat a mouse. Eaten.
If someone wants something badly enough they will find a way.
JBR Collection
A Cat, having devoured her master’s favourite bullfinch, overheard him threatening to put her to death the moment he could find her. In her distress she preferred a prayer to Jupiter, vowing, if he would deliver her from her present danger, that never while she lived would she eat another bird. Not long afterwards a Bat most invitingly flew into the room where Puss was purring at the window. The question was, how to act upon so tempting an occasion? Her appetite pressed hard on one side, and her vow threw some scruples in her way on the other. At length she hit upon a most convenient distinction to remove all difficulties, by determining that as a bird indeed it was an unlawful prize, but as a mouse she might very conscientiously eat it; and, accordingly, without further debate, fell to the repast. Thus it is that men are apt to impose upon themselves by vain and groundless distinctions, when conscience and principle are at variance with interest and inclination.