On a windy night the owl fell out of the tree into the pond. Fortunately, the pond was frozen, so the owl, who could not swim, fell onto the ice. But the fall broke its left wing. Thereafter, the owl flew lop-sided.
The fish saw the owl, and laughed. How silly it looked, flapping around on a broken wing. This made Owl mad. The rat saw Owl, and laughed even harder. This made Owl really mad...
The owl dove at the rat, intending to snap it up and eat it, but with a broken wing, it missed and slammed into the ground instead. The fish and the rat were both in hysterics -- so much so that the rat wet itself and the fish dried itself (it rolled up onto the land, due to laughing so hard).
The owl realized the rat must be in great pain from laughing so hard, and the fish would soon suffocate. Finally, an easy meal. But wait, hadn't it broken the other wing???
Who ever heard of a double-fractured wing owl trying to pounce on anything, let alone a laughing pair of dinner entrees? The owl decided to lie low in the snow near the pond and hibernate until his wings could mend. And in this case, the ones who laughed last laughed best -- both the rat and the fish lived to confront the owl another day.