Pets, Pets, Pets
by Joanne Anderson
 |
| Cali, 1-year
tortie in top photo, and Beach Boy, below delightful Lab mix,
waiting for homes at Babylon Town Shelter
| |
Throughout
history cats have sparked social conscience and creativity in the greatest of
minds. To DaVinci "the smallest feline was a masterpiece"; to Schweitzer "music
and cats were the two means of refuge from the misery of life"; to Hemingway "a
cat had absolute honesty." Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Walter Scott envied the cat's
mystery. Even an unknown feline philosopher, no relation to Descartes, once
joked: "I purr, therefore I am."
For Dr. Joan Digby, LI University Humanities professor, compassion and cats
complement curriculum. An advocate of TNR (Trap Neuter Return), Dr. Digby, along
with her colleagues, manages an inconspicuous yet content colony of campus cats.
Her Honors students design cat shelters that blend with college architecture.
The ferals in her care inspire Dr. Digby to compose picturesque poetry. The
following are selected from her collection- A Clowder of Cats:
FERAL COLONY
They come from nowhere
at the sound of my car.
Gray streaks at first:
dappled Puffball,
Oyster, flat like pewter,
long haired mop of a
philosophical sister
called Plato,
yellow-eyed and pensive.
Then from the bushes
a flash
of black and white-
Kodak and Ilford
shooting past
at a a hundredth
of a second
click, click like fast film.
Now the Clones march slowly on
parade,
black with the same white star on their
chests
sporting the
mark of a long family line.
Delicate maidens take their time:
she with
the white nose,
the shy aunt who lost her tail,
Cleopatra fringed with a
golden face,
two hungry tigers
and at last the Red King.
I wait and
watch and count and feed,
I call them jeweled movements,
the time pieces
that regulate my morning hour.
LOVE
HANDLES
Cats also have love handles,
that wiggle when
they walk
like a runway model
in a swing coat
letting each thrust
of her hips reveal
all the soft longing
for the days before
she
had her tubes tied.
RITUAL MEAL
The cats didn't know my mother died.
They were simply waiting for the
food
I bring them every morning.
"Momma's here," I called as usual,
"Breakfast," as they tripped around my
legs keep for the opening of
cans.
But my momma wasn't here today
and wouldn't be again for an
eternity
to come.
Snapping the lids I thought of breakfasts
she had
made and threw myself into the
task of serving up food in my mother's
name.
THE OLD
MASTER
(SIX-PACK 1988-2006)
It's Thursday
Six-pack
is sitting
on a chair in the front row
waiting for class
but no
other students have arrived.
He has taken Foundation
fifteen times
and still is yearning
to learn more
about perspective
and figure
drawing
With polydactyl paws
he has the means
to be creative
far
beyond his kind.
The human students
will not come today
but Six-pack
holds his place
meditating on the monumental
plastic form
needed to
express
the shape of feline thought.
PAW NOTE: A huge portrait of Six-pack leaning on an art
pedestal hangs above Dr. Digby's desk. This majestic tabby lived to be 18, and
spent his final years in a loving home off campus. Poster Pets
Our poster pets at Babylon Town Shelter (643-9270) Lamar St. W. Babylon
deserve loving homes too. "Beach Boy" in Cage 69 is a delightful Lab mix, about
1 yr., probably abandoned at Oak Beach. He doesn't belong to anyone there. The
shelter thought they'd need to trap him but after several days he jumped right
into the truck. He licked us while we removed tons of ticks. "Beach Boy" sits
and gives his paw. Also waiting: "Cali", # 18682 a pathetically thin, 1 yr.
tortie, who came into the shelter nursing 6 kittens, some still available. She
lived with other cats. "Cali" desperately needs a caring person to put some meat
on her bones.
Dogs: Husky trio- "Shadow" a purebred male Cage 41, "Rusty" Cage 35, a young
female Cage 67; "Moppet"- Beardie mix Cage 91; "Noah"- Chow type Cage 9;
"Casper"- cute Jack Russell in the Puppy Room; "Alex"- Shep mix Cage 39.
Cats: "MJ" #18633- super-loving tabby- now appearing in her Spiderman
costume; "Ms. Peabody" #18624 -dainty gray uses her paw as a spoon to scoop out
one morsel at a time. `
Last Hope-"Dog Walk, BBQ & Fun Night" Sat. 6/2,
register at 4:30 at Wantagh Park. Call 516-486-3158 or:
www.lasthopeanimalrescue.org.
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