Right To Freedom Poem by Susan Ash

Give her a kind
And loving home
And she will be
Faithful and true.
But she will still
Need her moments alone.
Time to explore and
Learn in the wider world.
She won’t be gone long.
Always comes back.

Lock the cat flap,
Her gateway to the world,
And she will look for
Any means of escape.
At first she may try
To charm you to
Get what she wants.
Then scratch at the door
Asking to be let out.

But as her feeling of
Being trapped intensifies
Her unhappiness will show.
She will change.
If you are unkind to her
She will scratch back.
Maybe even hiss
And back away.
Or withdraw, become dejected

It will be too late then.
Let her out and likely
She won’t come back.
Not this time.
Or when you are off
Your guard she will
Make her dash for freedom.
Now she needs to find
Her comforts elsewhere.
Where her right to some
Freedom is understood.

Makes me wonder.
Was I a cat
In another life?