Got your attention, right? Early on in my poetry publishing attempts, I learned that you can almost always hook an editor’s interest with a poem about sex or cats.

Considering my reservations about personal privacy, that left me with the prospect of writing a lot of Cat poems if I ever hoped to get published. Indeed, my very first published poem appearing in The Lyric was a Cat poem. I had Cat poems in The Ladies’ Home Journal, Cricket Magazine for children, and…well, you get the idea. So if you are considering a career in poetry, first get a cat.

When Bill and I first met, I was already owned by a cat named Lily. Bill often said, “I’d like to have a cat.” So one day, I placed in the foyer of his house a new litter box containing a bag of litter, some cat food, toys, treats, and so forth, with the following note:

INSTANT PET KIT

JUST ADD CAT

That very day, Bill went off to the shelter and adopted “Bobbie.” Bobbie was a girl cat with a bowling-ball belly and a very short tail, whether natural or accidental we’ve never known. Bill thought Bobbie sounded wimpy. So our cat became Bob forever after. She doesn’t care if we explain it or not, as long as she gets the Fancy Feast twice a day, and plenty of lap time from both of us.

As I write this, Bob the Cat is snoozing on my desk next to the computer screen. If she were hungry or needy in any way, she would be walking back and forth across my keyboard, with surprising editorial consequences.

SCIENTIST AT THE WINDOW

 
The indoor cat who never has seen snow
chitters at the fluffy, drifting flakes as though
they were a swarm of insects of a kind
that till today had never crossed her mind.
Her curious temperament dissatisfied
with speculation on the world outside,
Lily assembles self-sufficient poise
and turns to the purpose of familiar toys,
abandoning what is mysterious and true
for something she can sink her claws into.

Barbara Loots
The Lyric Spring/Summer 2014

Please feel free to send me your cat story. That’s the way cat people are.