This story revolves around Christmastime and a family who once adopted a lost kitten, naming it Nyda. Nyda has now grown old and has settled into a calm, uneventful life with her new family-until the day before Christmas, when the family's older daughter brings two playful kittens, Mickey and Jack, home for the holidays. The two kittens from the big city are a change for the family, and for Nyda. The old cat likes her settled life and is not happy about the new arrivals. She's also very protective of her belongings. The city kittens annoy her, and the old cat grumbles about the new additions to the family- until she hears a story one night that makes her feel bad. The kittens aren't the soft or spoiled brats she had thought they were . . . Mrs. D. (Olga D'Agostino), author of children's picture books CARLO THE MOUSE ON VACATION and THE TREES HAVE HEARTS, grew up on a farm in a village nestled in the beautiful Carpathian Mountains in western Ukraine. Surrounded by nature and the real world, without TV and toys, she learned to read at a very early age, and books then became a huge part of her life. As a child, she used to create her own imaginary world populated with characters from books she read. She fi nished business college in Lviv, Ukraine. To escape the harsh reality of life in the Soviet Union, she immigrated to the United States in 1992 with her two small daughters. For many years she worked in her own business. While practicing English, she wrote many children's stories. Those close to her encouraged her to publish some of her stories.