Francis Duggan Cat Poems

The Councillors of the Shire of Sherbrooke of late passed a decree
That in the hours of darkness no cat should wander free
That all cats be kept behind closed door during the hours of dark
And not be left to roam and prowl though woodland and through park.
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Old Dorothy the cat is getting weary
And she is not as nimble as she used to be
And catching mice has never felt such hard work
And she finds it harder now to climb a tree.
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She believes she is human Vegas the siamese cat
Likes to sit on your lap and like a dog likes a pat
Cannot say if she has ever killed a bird or a rat or a mouse
Since she has never been outside of the Inman house
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Some humans may blame my kind for small birds and small animals extinction
But of the demise of the thylacine the passenger pigeon and great auk we cannot claim the distinction
And the dodo of Mauritius was clubbed to death by sailors many decades ago
Than us felines humans to wildlife a far greater foe
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The spinster she was worried
Her cat had gone astray
As through the fields she hurried
In the pleasant month of May.
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The cat will kill a bird it is her Nature
And though the bird she kills a rare species why her blame
Since she is only doing what to her is natural
And a rare or common bird to her the same.
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Do not hate your neighbour's cat Mandy for he feels he has not done wrong
By killing the golden billed blackbird and robbing your garden of his song
He does not have a guilty conscience a bird to him is only prey
Our own kind are far greater killers though you do not see it that way.
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Her whiskers in her prime years dark have turned a silver gray
Old Shadow the black persian cat has known a better day
She has not caught a rodent or bird for somewhile now this once nimble beast of prey
No longer what she used to be that's life as some might say.
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