It has been very cold here, lately, and the two cats that are around the fields and
the garden, one our marmalade cat and one his sworn enemy, the black cat, are
so lithe and graceful in their hunting, that I often stop to watch them. The black
cat is a stray which we feed and have put him a bed in the greenhouse.  Our cat
is so jealous, he will stand guard over the food put out for the black cat until he’s
called They both try hard but are never within sight of catching a bird. If our cat
brings in one of the little brown field mice, he always drops it and then, with it
being so small, we have to find it. Not easy.  The last one hid in the round opening
for the hoover hose and took us hours to find.   Let out into the garden, these tiny
mice vanish in an instant down the sides of the path where they all seem to live.

EARLY CATS

If you walk the long grass in the morning
When it’s white with frost
And grey with the visiting clouds,
You see the cats.
They stalk the robin and the doves
Come from a nearby garden.

Those snake quiet cats
Slither through their silent world,
To spring from the stickle grass
With a startling coloured grace.
Those cats!

They go hungry this morning
Because a thin black twig
Fell from a wintered tree,
Frightening the red chested robin
And the gentle doves,

And those quick cats,
Those early morning hunters,
Wailed their anger to the fading moon.
                                                  © 2018 Gwen Grant