Cat Theme Songs/Poetry
Claude (top)
Kerouac (bottom)
My cats have their own theme songs:
Kerouac (aka Wacky or the Wack): “Wack the Knife”
Claude: “What if Claude Was One of Us?”
They also have poems, which I have to say fit their personalities better than the theme songs do. Wacky is a soft, fat, round “rumpy riser” Manx with a sweet disposition, one front tooth, and no harmful desires in the world, as long as he is permitted to eat as much kibble as he wants. Claude is, well…insane. My sister once told me the look in his eyes made her think of the Unabomber. Now I will let the poetry, and the haunting imagery you've just seen, say the rest.
The Wack (from “Songs of Innocent Wackiness,” by Sarah William Goss Blake):
Little Wack who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life & bid thee feed (and feed and feed and feed)
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee mottled black and white fur, wooly bright;
Gave thee such a squeaky voice,
Making thy parents at 4 AM rejoice!
The Claudster (from “Songs of Experienced Claudsterness”)
Claudster Claudster, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes!
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the *Wack* make thee?
_____________________________
Do *your* pets have theme songs and theme poems? Don’t you think it’s about time they did?
posted by Sarah Goss at 2:54 PM
13 Comments:
Your cats are very lucky. My cat Mouschi doesn't have any poems or fantastic lyrics written in his honor -- but on a banal, far less literary note, he does love it when I sing "You Are My Mouschi" (to be sung to the tune of You Are My Sunshine). The lyrics aren't clever -- his name just replaces about every other word in the song, that's all. But he still knows it's his song. He gets very emotional, puts his paws on my chin, purs huskily, and gazes deep into my eyes until the song is over. He's about the only being on the planet who appreciates listening to me sing, without criticism.
P.S. He also likes to dance. He's a great fan of the arts.
purrs :o)
Oh! Mouschi! That is so fabulous, that he can appreciate your artisic endeavors on his behalf. I haven't noticed that my cats particularly appreciate their theme songs or poetry. If they only knew how much they are loved. I just bought a digital camera (two days ago) almost for the express purpose of photographing THEM.
Wasn't Mouschi Anne Frank's cat? I mean, not to imply that it's the same cat or anything. Never mind.
Oddly, one of my cats *does* have a theme song: "O Maisy Grace, how sweet the kitty-cat..." It doesn't usually get much further than that. Adding "Grace" to her name was satirical; she has only one functional eye, so she falls off things a lot. She is sweet, though.
One of the things I miss about Jason is that he used to sing to Truman--John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy" song.
I am so happy that other people's cats have theme songs. Actually, it's making me reconsider mine, since I chose mine mainly for the ways the cats' names fit cleverly into the verses, rather than for the actual appropriateness/
lovingness of the lyrics....
Yes, Mouschi belonged to Peter-- Anne Frank's little friend in the attic. I'm afraid MY Mouschi would be very challenged, though, if he had to hide in an attic without making a sound. He's a chatterbox.
Whoops, that was me who just said that. :o)
My cats don't have theme poems, but Katie The Cat has a theme song (to the tune of "Lovefool" by The Cardigans):
Love me, love me,
Say that you'll pet me,
Feed me, feed me,
Say that you'll feed me
(We have to call her Katie The Cat now because we have a Katie The Person living in the house.)
Jam, while he has neither song nor poem, does have an ethnic identity. We're convinced he's Jewish, because as a kitten he had a bunch of very Woody Allen-ish neuroses. We even gave him a Hebrew name. ("Yam", pronounced YAHM.)
My sister sewed a yarmulke for her cat. Okay, Matt, now you have inspired me to figure out my cats' ethnic identities. All we have figured out so far is their political parties: Kerouac is a middle-of-the-road Democrat and Claude is an anarchist.
This makes me so very happy. Do you accompany these songs with a little accordian box?
P.S. To clarify, I am not pleased to hear that poems are being written about cats. I just love the Blake. Up with Blake. Down with cats.
Well! Er...how about if the songs were about a donkey? Or a lemur? Or is it bad that they are about any animals at all?
PS Tera, do you have a Friendster blog?? I can't remember my Friendster password! I tried looking at your blog anyway, but the last entries appeared to be from November...have you written in it since then?
Ohhhhhh! Of course! How could I forget... Tera and I saw Allan Ginsberg perform with a little accordion box at UC Santa Barbara when we were in college, and he sang several Blake poems, including "Tiger," while accompanying himself...yeah! That's right. Little did I know, my future husband was at UCSB that same night and I think he tried to go to the Ginsberg event but found it too crowded (I didn't meet him till years later, in grad school at Oregon).
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