#1810 - spare a thought for the cat herder

 

1810

5.348

14.xii.24

spare a thought for the cat herder

 

a few words from Mehitabel’s personal roach

 

 

spare a thought for the cat herder

whose toil is all the while to please

                 and to please them all

to gather in the many sheaves

to bring relief to kittens, tabs, toms

     Cheshires – mostly vanishing

and none of them are safe to pet

 

pity the poor herder

whose deadlines are seldom met

 

who works for no wage but difference

          a list, the mountain yet to climb

 

and has to survive their many lives

(each greater than the rest)

 

pity the one whose task is

to swing them in a narrow room

 

put up a bowl for the lapping

 

who gives the glory out

must endure disapprobation

 

mendicating for the purr, the growl

there is of course ‘the hidden paw’

and Siamese can’t help it

there’s nothing they’ll retract

 

imagine this one’s empire

hear that one’s heated song

 

with bag of tricks and up your alley

    (tin can too)

 

who round the year takes in the strays

(and generally unspayed)

 

cartoon pelt electrified

just when you plug them in

 

think Androcles

think paw

think jungle

Coliseum

 

and a whichway thumb

you tell me

 

Norwegian Forest’s cool

 

how pitiless these pussies

and some of them unparliamentary

 

there’s always some great big wuss of a puss

with drama

with a grievance

comes coughing up the fur