The story begins when a seemingly harmless kitten limps into the Burrell family's garden. The kitten gets bigger and bigger and soon the family, apart from the narrator David, are in thrall to the creature. They slowly descend into squalor and sloth as they are sucked into the service of the enormous black cat that has taken over their lives. Eventually David breaks the spell and sends in a pack of dogs to see off the cat, who makes a dramatic exit through the lounge window and is flattened by a passing truck.

A big skeleton, a little skeleton and a dog skeleton live in the dark cellar of a dark house on a dark hill. The skeletons venture out of their cellar one night to find someone to scare, but everyone is in bed so they amuse themselves by scaring each other and playing with the skeleton animals that live in the zoo.