the Chinese zodiac As we know, we have the Chinese zodiac animals in China. They are the rat, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the rooster, the dog and the pig.  In China, every year has its own zodiac animal. Today I'm going to tell you the story behind it. Long long ago, in China, there were no zodiac animals. Once while the Jade Emperor was walking on the earth, he came up an idea about looking for 12 zodiac animals. He held a meeting and told every animal how to be chosen as the zodiac animal. At that time the cat and the rat were good friends. The the cat was very lazy, it slept all day. So he asked the rat to wake him up while he was sleeping in the morning. The rat promised quickly, but he wouldn't do it. The next day, the rat wake up very early, of course, he didn't wake up the cat. “It is quite difficult to take part in the team, the more animals join, the more difficult for me, so I wouldn't wake the cat up,” he thought. It was time for choosing the animals! The Jade Emperor wanted the ox to be the first zodiac animal. Everyone agreed, except the rat. The rat promised to prove to the Jade Emperor that the people will only say a rat is big but never say an ox is big. Then he stood on the back of the ox and walked on the street. “How big the the rat is!” said everyone. So the rat became the first animal of all. When the cat wake up and forced to accept the result, he was very angry with the rat, they were enemies ever after.