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Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

63. THE SNAKE, THE WEASEL AND THE MICE
Perry 197 (Chambry 289)

A snake and a weasel were fighting with one another inside a house. The mice who lived in the house were always being hunted down by either the snake or the weasel, so when they saw the snake and the weasel fighting with each other, they emerged from their holes and scurried around. When the weasel and the snake saw what was happening, they stopped fighting with each other and turned their attention to the mice.
The same is true in a city: if you recklessly get involved in a political dispute, you will become an incidental casualty of the quarrel.

Note: The Greeks and the Romans used weasels (not cats) to keep their houses free of vermin.

Source: Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.