The Cat Who Loved to Sing is a children's book by Nonny Hogrogian, with art by the author, published in 1988. It is available at the Internet Archive.
This lovely book is inspired by an Armenian cumulative tale, and also by Hogrogian's own cat. It starts off with a singing cat who gets a thorn in his paw. A woman takes the thorn out and says it will make a good needle, and she gives him bread in exchange. This begins a series of exchanges, and the cat sings a cumulative song about it all. So, you can see how the chain works in the cat's song:
Trala lala
I gave my thorn and got some bread.
I lost the bread and gained a hen.
I gave the hen for some nice red yarn.
I traded the yarn for a fine old coat.
I gave the coat to get a dog
and swapped the dog for a nice fat lamb.
I traded the lamb for a mandolin,
and this I will keep to play my songs.
Trala lala lala lala.
The song does not narrate the characters, which are: woman, fox, a young bride, an old woman, an old man, a farmer, and a shepherd (he's the one with the mandolin).
The art, of course, is lovely; Hogrogian is a wonderful artist:
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