Miss Darcy Kitty

"What ARE you doing, Oliver?" asked my nosy neighbor Bob.

"If you must know, I'm wrapping a gift for Miss Kitty." I retorted. 

 I shouldn't be so snappy with Bob.  He is my friend, after all, but he teases me about being friends with his adopted sister, Miss Kitty. Actually, Miss Kitty's real name is Darcy.  She was named after a famous character named Mr. Darcy in a famous book called Pride and Prejudice by an even more famous writer named Jane Austen.  At first, Bob's human thought Darcy Kitty was a boy so he picked a boy's name from a book in Bob's personal library. As it turns out though, Darcy Kitty, unlike the character in the book, is actually a girl, so sometimes the humans just call her Miss Kitty.

Bob's human brought Miss Kitty home a few years ago on Valentines Day as a playmate for Bob, but Bob doesn't really like spending time with her. Bob calls it a classic case of sibling rivalry.  Whatever that means. 

Darcy Kitty and I get along all right. We both like watching the water skiers on the lake. Still, Darcy has always been rather shy.  I guess anyone would have a hard time coming out of her shell with Bob around, but I was feeling bad for me Miss Kitty. I think she could use more friends.  Chunkier friends.  Friends like me.  So, I used my allowance and went online and bought her that famous book by Jane Austen, the one that has her name in it, so she can have her own copy of it.  Who knows?  Maybe she and Bob will find some common ground and start getting along better.  I can't wait to give it to her for Christmas.  I think she's really going to like it. 

What about you?  Have you ever been so excited to give a gift to someone that you couldn't wait for them to open it and see what you got them?  I'd love to read about it.  Now, if only I could get this tape out of my paws.

On Poetry

A little bird told me that Miss R.'s students are going to be hosting an International Poetry Potluck on December 15. In preparation, they will be learning to write all sorts of different kinds of poems AND they will memorize a famous poem to recite in front of their parents at their classroom potluck. Talk about your lucky loons (Bob tells me that is an example of alliteration, whatever THAT means.) My neighbor Bob considers himself a jack-of-all-trades.  I don't really know what that means either since his name is Bob, but I do know he is pretty good at poetry.  In fact, at night when our humans are sound asleep in their beds, the cats in our building like to hang out on our decks and converse.  Sometimes, though, we just listen as Bob recites poems.  Some of the poems he recites are from famous writers but others he has written himself.  Last night he taught me this poem.  This one was written by Bob's favorite writer, Anonymous. It's about a cat who owned a human named St. Jerome.  I don't know why the human was called a saint.  Seems to me, we cats are the saints putting up with all their crazy human antics.  Whatever.  Here's the poem. 

St. Jerome's Cat
St. Jerome in his study kept a great big cat,

it's always in his pictures, with its feet upon the mat.

Did he give it milk to drink, in a little dish?

When it came to Friday's, did he give it fish?

If I lost my little cat, I'd be sad without it;

I should ask St. Jerome what to do about it.

I should ask St. Jerome, just because of that,

for he's the only saint I know who kept a kitty cat.

Anonymous

Tell me boys and girls, do you have any favorite poets?  Have you decided which poem you will recite?  Better yet, have you written any poems?  I'd love to read them if you have.