I’m trying to find a children’s book my mother read me over 50 years ago.
I remember vividly.
The mouse tells all the animals at the waterhole:
There’s a creature in my house yelling and screaming and throwing the furniture out of the windows.
He says this to lions, tigers, giraffes. In the end, it turns out the creature is an owl that the jungle animals trumpet and roar at, and it flies out of the mouse’s house in the tree.
Then, the lions realize they are hungry, and the giraffes and zebras etc. run away before the lions and tigers can get them. The mouse returns to his house in the tree.
It seems to be an adaptation of a Masai folk tale ‘The long one’/’The Fierce Creature’, where the house’s owner is a rabbit/hare and the interloper is a caterpillar not an owl.
There was a children’s version called ‘Who’s in Rabbit’s House?’ By Verda Aardema, but again it’s a caterpillar, and pub 1977 which sounds too late.
https://archive.org/details/whosinrabbitshou0000aard/mode/2up?q=%22Who%27s+in+rabbit%27s+house%3F%22%22
The tale was also turned into a small play for children, with the repeated phrase “there is a fierce creature in my house’ (caterpillar again). Pub 1976.
https://archive.org/details/playsfromfolktal00wint/page/46/mode/2up?q=%22Creature+in+my+house%22
There’s another version in ‘Knock Knock! Who’s There?’ By Rose Impey, and the book cover has a mouse illustration, but again, no owl, and a 1988 publish which doesn’t fit.
https://archive.org/details/knockknockwhosth0000impe/mode/2up?q=%22The+fierce+creature%22
The book is A Day in the Jungle by Janette Sebring Lowery.
Published by Simon and Schusyer copyright 1943.