Legend has it that many centuries ago, Chinese has no means to measure time. Jade Emperor, the Emperor of Heaven, decided to arrange a contest. He invited all animals to a race on his birthday. The first 12 animals who cross the swift current river and reach the designated shore would be assigned to the 12 Zodiac Years.

The cat and the rat, who were once good friends and poor swimmers, convinced the ox to carry them across the river. Being naive, gullible, good-natured, the powerful swimmer ox agreed. As they were crossing the river, the rat was worried that the cat might win the race; so the rat pushed the cat into the river. This explains why cats hates rats because they never forgave the rat for the incident. Right before the ox and the rat reached the shore, the rat jumped off the ox's back and took first place in the race. 

As the Jade Emperor named the ox as the 2nd zodiac animal, the tiger reached the finished line. Panting his way toward the Jade Emperor, the tiger explained that he had difficulty crossing the river because the current kept pushing him down stream. With his powerful strength, he was able to reach the shore safely. The Emperor recorded the tiger as the 3rd zodiac animal.

From a distance, the crowd heard a thumping noise. Twitching its pinkish nose, the rabbit told the crowd that he had to hop from one stone to another in order to cross the river. Luckily, he was able to get hold of a floating log which finally washed him to shore. The Emperor named the rabbit, the 4th zodiac animal.

In the 5th place came the dragon flying and belching fire in the air. Jade Emperor was very curious as to why the dragon came in late for he can fly and swim. Because the mighty dragon could not bare to see his people and all the creatures on earth suffer a drought, he had to stop to make rain. When he reached the river, he spotted a helpless little rabbit clutching tightly to a log, so he gave a little puff and blew the log with the rabbit on it to the shore.

Just as the Jade Emperor complimented the dragon for his consideration, he heard the horse whining and galloping. Out from the horse's hoof sneaked out the shrewd slimy snake. The sudden appearance and the hissing of the snake startled the horse and made him jump backwards, thus forcing the horse to fall in 7th place and the snake to take the 6th place in the race. 

From a distance, approached the sheep, the monkey, and the rooster. The rooster proudly described how he had spotted a raft from a high ground, picked up the sheep, and the monkey. Along the way, the monkey and the sheep helped clear the weeds, pulled and pushed the raft to the shore. The Emperor complimented the trios for their combined efforts and named the sheep the 8th of the zodiac animals, the monkey the 9th, and the rooster the 10th. 

Just as the Emperor was making the record official, next came the dog . The dog was trying to justify to the Emperor why, being one of the best swimmer, he was late. It turned out that the dog hadn't had a bath for a long time. The river water was so clean and fresh that he had to stop. The dog was recorded as the 11th zodiac animals. 

Jade Emperor was about to dismiss the crowd and retire from the long day when he heard an oink and a squeal from the little pig who was waddling down the path. Needless to explain, the pig was hungry during the race and he stopped for a feast. After the feast, he felt tired and took a little nap. The little pig made it as the last of the 12th zodiac animals.