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Channeling Old Possum

365 Day 349
I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
Her equal would be hard to find, she likes the warm and sunny spots.
All day she sits beside the hearth or in the sun or on my hat:
She sits and sits and sits and sits- and that’s what makes a Gumbie Cat!
But when the day’s hustle and bustle is done,
Then the Gumbie cat’s work has but hardly begun.
And when all the family’s in bed and asleep,
She tucks up her skirts to the basement to creep.
She is deeply concerned with the ways of the mice-
Their behavior’s not good and their manners not nice;
So when she has got them lined up on the matting,

She teaches them music, crocheting, and tatting…

…I have a Gumbie Cat in mind, her name is Jennyanydots;
The curtain-cord she likes to wind, and tie it into sailor-knots.
She sits upon the window-sill, or anything that’s smooth and flat;

She sits and sits and sits and sits-and that’s what makes a Gumbie Cat!

 But when the day’s hustle and bustle is done,

Then the Gumbie Cat’s work has but hardly begun.
She thinks that the cockroaches just need employment 
to prevent them from idle and wanton destroyment.
So she’s formed, from that lot of disorderly louts,
A troop of well-disciplined helpful boy-scouts,
With a purpose in life and a good deed to do-
And she’s even created a Beetles’ Tattoo.

So for old Gumbie Cats let us now give three cheers-

On whom well-ordered households depend, it appears.

-T.S. Eliot, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats









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