Conference misery::feline_v1

From the "Kittens and Cats Calendar": (please forgive duplicates)

"What modest claims do kittens make? The ownership of men."
					-- David Irvine

"A cat has absolute honesty."
					-- Ernest Hemingway

"A cat's comedy is unconscious, slightly rueful, and often delicate."
					-- Paul Gallico


... and a favorite of mine:

"When all candles be out, all cats be grey."
					-- English saying

-b

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing!"
                                        - Chef Woo

(Just kidding)

Here follow a couple of my favorite cat poems; I've included
them here because they're (a) fairly short, and (b) rather difficult
to find. I'm glad to number the authors among the ranks of "cat
people".

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		CAT

The fat cat on the mat may seem to dream
of nice mice that suffice for him, or cream;
but he free, maybe, walks in thought
unbowed, proud, where loud roared and fought
his kin, lean and slim, or deep in den
in the East feasted on beasts and tender men.

The giant lion with iron claw in paw,
and huge ruthless tooth in gory jaw;
the pard dark-starred, fleet upon feet,
that oft soft from aloft leaps on his meat
where woods loom in gloom -

Far now they be, fierce and free, and tamed is he;
but fat cat on the mat kept as a pet, he does not forget.

			- J.R.R. Tolkien


***************************************************************


	For Timothy, in the Coinherence

	"Tutti tirati sono, e tutti tirano" -
			(Paradiso xxviii. 129)

Consider, O Lord, Timothy, Thy servants' servant.
(We give him this title, as to Thy servant the Pope,
Not knowing a better. Him too Thy ministers were observant
To vest in white and adorn with a silk cope.)

Thy servant lived with Thy servants in the exchange
Of affection; he condescended to them from the dignity
Of an innocent mind; they bent to him with benignity
From the rarefied Alps of their intellectual range.

Hierarchy flourished, with no resentment
For the unsheathed claw or the hand raised in correction;
Small wild charities took root beneath the Protection,
Garden-escapes from the Eden of our contentment.

Daily we came short in the harder human relation,
Only in this easier obeying, Lord, Thy commands;
Meekly we washed his feet, meekly he licked our hands -
Beseech Thee, overlook not this mutual grace of salvation.

Canst Thou accept our pitiful good behaving,
Stooping to share at our hand that best we keep for the beast?
Sir, receive the alms, though least, and bestowed on the least,
Save us, and save somehow with us the means of our saving.

Dante in the Eighth Heaven beheld love's law
Run up and down on the infinite golden stairway;
Angels, men, brutes, plants, matter, up that fairway
All by love's cords are drawn, said he, and draw.

Thou that before the Fall didst make pre-emption
Of Adam, restore the privilege of the Garden,
Where he to the beasts was namer, tamer, and warden;
Buy back his household and all in the world's redemption.

When the Ark of the new life grounds upon Ararat
Grant us to carry into the rainbow's light,
In a basket of gratitude, the small, milk-white
Silken identity of Timothy, our cat.

		- Dorothy L. Sayers

(Found some more ...)

This one is for Louise's little brown kitten:

	Marigold, by Richard Garnett

She moved through the garden in glory, because
She had very long claws at the end of her paws.
Her back was arched, her tail was high,
A green fire glared in her vivid eye;
And all the Toms, though never so bold,
Quailed at the martial Marigold.

*************************************************

And for all of us:

I wish she wouldn't ask me if
I love the kitten more than her.
Of course I love her -
But I love the kitten too,
And it has fur ...

	-Anon.

"The most difficult task is to find a black cat in a 
dark room; it is especially difficult if the cat is not there"

			 from Confucius 

(The following isn't a particularly famous quote, but I thought you
might find it interesting.
    
-b)
    
    
    "...The writer of this article is the owner of one of the most
    remarkable black cats in the world - and this is saying much; for it
    will be remembered that black cats are all of them witches. The one in
    question has not a white hair about her, and is of a demure and
    sanctified demeanor. That portion of the kitchen which she most
    frequents is accessible only by a door, which closes with what is
    termed a thumb-latch; these latches are rude in construction, and some
    force and dexterity are always requisite to force them down. But puss
    is in the daily habit of opening the door, which she accomplishes in
    the following way. She first springs from the ground to the guard of
    the latch (which resembles the guard over a gun-trigger), and through
    this she thrusts her left arm to hold on with. She now, with her right
    hand, presses the thumb-latch until it yields, and here several
    attempts are frequently requisite. Having forced it down, however, she
    seems to be aware that her task is but half accomplished, since, if the
    door is not pushed open before she lets go, the latch will again fall
    into its socket. She, therefore, screws her body round so as to bring
    her hind feet immediately beneath the latch, while she leaps with all
    her strength from the door - the impetus of the spring forcing it open,
    and her hind feet sustaining the latch until this impetus is fairly
    given. 

    "We have witnessed this singular feat a hundred times at least, and
    never without being impressed with the truth of the remark with which
    we commenced this article - that the boundary between instinct and
    reason is of a very shadowy nature. The black cat, in doing what she
    did, must have made use of all the perceptive and reflective faculties
    which we are in the habit of supposing the prescriptive qualities of
    reason alone." 

    from "Instinct vs. Reason - a Black Cat"
    by Edgar A. Poe
    January 29, 1840