The only thing we cannot do is to live without them. We can scold our cats (not that it ever does anyone any good), laugh at our cats, play with them, find faults with them, and be exasperated by their unpredictable moods. What outsiders do not understand is that we are not just infatuated worshippers at the shrine of the cat. Eliot, but it’s highly entertaining:īuy Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats on Amazon.While researching the endlessly entertaining 1982 gem A Cat-Hater’s Handbook, I came upon Best Cat Stories ( public library) - a rare 1953 anthology, long out of print, edited by Michael Joseph and featuring 19 short stories about cats by some of the era’s most celebrated authors, with delightful black-and-white illustrations by English artist Dame Eileen Mayo. On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.Īnd, finally, Macavity: The Mystery Cat – this isn’t read BY T.S. ![]() So for Old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers With a purpose in life and a good deed to doĪnd she’s even created a Beetles’ Tattoo. So she’s formed, from that lot of disorderly louts,Ī troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts, To prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment. She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that’s smooth and flat: The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots. She makes them a mouse–cake of bread and dried peas,Īnd a beautiful fry of lean bacon and cheese. She sets right to work with her baking and frying. Her equal would be hard to find, she likes the warm and sunny spots.Īll day she sits beside the hearth or on the bed or on my hat:Īs she finds that the mice will not ever keep quiet,Īnd believing that nothing is done without trying, She teachs them music, crocheting and tatting. So when she has got them lined up on the matting, Their behaviour’s not good and their manners not nice She is deeply concerned with the ways of the mice She tucks up her skirts to the basement to creep. Then the Gumbie Cat’s work is but hardly begun.Īnd when all the family’s in bed and asleep, She sits and sits and sits and sits–and that’s what makes a Gumbie Cat!īut when the day’s hustle and bustle is done, Her coat is of the tabby kind, with tiger stripes and leopard spots.Īll day she sits upon the stair or on the steps or on the mat I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots ![]() Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name: His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation The reason, I tell you, is always the same: When you notice a cat in profound meditation, The name that no human research can discover–īut THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess. Names that never belong to more than one cat.īut above and beyond there’s still one name left over,Īnd that is the name that you never will guess Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum, ![]() Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride? Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter–īut I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular,Ī name that’s peculiar, and more dignified,Įlse how can he keep up his tail perpendicular, Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames: There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter, Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey– Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James, When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.įirst of all, there’s the name that the family use daily, You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, Eliot had a book of poetry entirely dedicated to cats (with Edward Gorey images to boot), I lost my little mind.
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