Alive, Alive, Oh!

“When the tea is brought at five o’clock
And all the neat curtains are drawn with care
The little black cat with bright green eyes
Is suddenly purring there”

“Another cat? Perhaps. For love there is also a season; its seeds must be resown. But a family cat is not replaceable like a wornout coat or a set of tires. Each new kitten becomes its own cat, and none is repeated. I am four cats old, measuring out my life in friends that have succeeded but not replaced one another.”

“You now have learned enough to see
That Cats are much like you and me
And other people whom we find
Possessed of various types of mind.
For some are sane and some are mad
And some are good and some are bad
And some are better, some are worse —
But all may be described in verse.”

“How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven.”

“I think all cats are wild. They only act tame if there’s a saucer of milk in it for them.”

“[My cat] Nameless and I have an agreement: I leave her alone and don’t make sudden moves when I wake up to find her perched on my chest, staring with an unblinking hostile gaze at my face and in return she rarely mutilates me.”

“Few of them had all nine: they’d had to roam
Alone through many perils, icy nights,
Hypnotic headlight beams, a thousand fights,
Starvation, when the hunt was thin, no home.
Rescued, inside, and dry, and checked by vets,
The lucky ones had eight, some still had five,
And some were on their last, barely alive,
When they were offered safe warm lives as pets.
Cats do know gratitude they won’t admit
They’ll curl up close and give a special purr
Then look embarrassed, stop and clean their fur,
Here, life for life, it’s spare, don’t mention it.
Nine lives, or eight, or seven, cats make these claims,
And who’d deny the many lives of James?”

“Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.”

“One cat just leads to another.”

“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.”