Cat Lovers Know the Answer

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on. 

Most of us have read and enjoyed the imagery of this little poem, written by Carl Sandburg and first published in 1913.

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But I just came across some lines by another Midwesterner, contemporary poet Judith Minty.

All winter, those cats of mine

doze like old women in front of the fire,

curl their fur around saucers of sunlight

they have trapped on my rug.  Sometimes

they bury themselves in the wool of blankets
to sniff dreams I left there.

 (I just love that last line!)

Awake, their eyes reflect deeper sleeps.
Delicate tongues yawn, hide needles of teeth.
I listen for their soft paws,
for their purrs to rattle in slow circles
near my bed.  They want to capture
warmth from my body.  "Why do you
keep those cats?" my neighbors ask....


(This is only part of the poem.  The original appeared in her book Lake Songs and Other Fears, 1974).

"Why keep us?  Who needs to ask?"