In Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Samuel Whiskers," anxious mother cat Tabitha Twitchit tries to keep her kittens contained while she bakes, but mischievous Tom Kitten hides up the chimney instead. Lost in the soot-filled passages of the old house, Tom accidentally falls into the hidden lair of two enormous, villainous rats, Samuel Whiskers and his wife Anna Maria, who capture him with the intention of rolling him in stolen dough and butter to make a "kitten dumpling." While Tabitha searches frantically, aided by her cousin Ribby, they hear the suspicious "roly-poly" noises from the rats' activities and call John Joiner, the carpenter dog, who saws open the floorboards and rescues Tom just in time, leading the rats to flee and leaving Tom with a lasting fear of rats despite being cleaned up.