The Rum-Tum-Tugger is a Curious Cat...

It's hilarious how blogging trends will trend away. One person starts something and it is like the Common Cold--it spreads around and around and around. I suppose this is a confession. I stole something from Abigail this evening: I have never told you about this certain personage before, merely because she is not crizackly the type that immediately says: "Writing", but I will tell you about her now.

Her name is Cricket, and she is what I describe as my "Supercilious Black Pussy."

This phenomenon is half-Siamese and half-something-or-other. She is solid black with goldy-green eyes, rather long, and rather plump, and rather consequential in her own right. You see, she belongs to a species called "Rum-Tum-Tugger"... [and I quote]

 

"The Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat:
If you offer him pheasant he would rather have grouse.
If you put him in a house he would much prefer a flat,
If you put him in a flat then he'd rather have a house.
If you set him on a mouse then he only wants a rat,
If you set him on a rat then he'd rather chase a mouse.
Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat--
And there isn't any call for me to shout it:
For he will do
As he do do
And there's no doing anything about it!

The Rum Tum Tugger is a terrible bore:
When you let him in, then he wants to be out;
He's always on the wrong side of every door,
And as soon as he's at home, then he'd like to get about.
He likes to lie in the bureau drawer,
But he makes such a fuss if he can't get out.

Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat--
And there isn't any use for you to doubt it:
For he will do
As he do do

And there's no doing anything about it!

The Rum Tum Tugger is a curious beast:
His disobliging ways are a matter of habit.
If you offer him fish then he always wants a feast;
When there isn't any fish then he won't eat rabbit.
If you offer him cream then he sniffs and sneers,
For he only likes what he finds for himself;

So you'll catch him in it right up to the ears,
If you put it away on the larder shelf.
The Rum Tum Tugger is artful and knowing,
The Rum Tum Tugger doesn't care for a cuddle;
But he'll leap on your lap in the middle of your sewing,
For there's nothing he enjoys like a horrible muddle.
Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat--
And there isn't any need for me to spout it:
For he will do
As he do do
And there's no doing anything about it!"

-T. S. Elliot

This is a faithful portrait of my Cricketer, beyond being a particularly charming poem. Cricket is essential to my writing inspiration, I believe, for she does the darndest things. If I am particularly uninspired, this naughty vixen will come and plop herself down on the keyboard as if she is the most interesting thing since the Fall of Rome. That is her strategy, you see, to keep me writing. For no sooner does she sit down than I decide I had rather write after all and I push her off.

She kneads bread-dough on my pink lap-blanket.

She brings me balls of yarn and plastic army-men and anything else portable and yowls at me till I lay aside my book or pen and properly congratulate her on the brilliancy of her catch. [This, you will understand, includes petting her and praising her aloud (to at least one other person) before she will quieten.]

She knocks over glasses of water and crystal vases and breaks them right in the best scenes of my book or my story and therefore adds sound-effects. Does your cat do this? I thought not.

She puts her arms around my neck and gives me a cleaning at least once a day.

She jumps at me and bats my ankles when I walk down the hall.

She purrs like a Civil-War army drummer's...drum. :D

She catches moths.

She take sun-baths.

She drapes herself around my neck and shoulders like a real life mink-stole. :)

She is my alter-ego, I believe.

This is Cricket. Swear fealty or die. ;)