REQUIES-CAT

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2319, 21 May 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

REQUIES-CAT

(Dunedin Public Opinion.) Ah ! tender tabby, gentle, graceful cat, Thou, too, art numbered with the silent dead, And I shall never stroke thee more or pat With toying fingers thy devoted head. Help me, oh " mews," to fitly celebrate, In tearful verses, Tom's untimely fate. My going out and weary coming back, My midnight pacing of the lonely floor, Or echoing footstep on the lonely track, Thy dear, dead ears will never gladden more. But I would fain, if thou couldst tell " m-i-o-w," Do tardy justice to thy memory now. Through the wet grass thy very soul abhorred, With high-raised tail and loving look intent, Thou wouldst come bounding, crying " Oh my lord, So thou art near me, I am well content." Surely King Death, whom love nor hate abash, Knew, when he stole thy " purrs," he stole not trash. For thee no other place, no further shore, Where phantom cats chase ghostly fleeing mice, Where hunger, thirst, and boot-jacks come no more And shadowy rats think being eaten nice, Grim death, Gritn-alkin, had no fears for you, Farewell, a last, a long, a fond adieu. A. W. MAURAIS.