Who Needs a Pup

I lived for a million years
Without a pup in the house.
There was only me the cat,
Maybe the occasional mouse.

Then one day it all happened:
They went and brought home a pup.

Though the worst day of my life,
I tried hard not to act up

But from that very first day,
The puppy took center stage,
Sleeping on the best linen,
And never acting her age.

Looking down from the table
She would make faces at me.
Then I’d hide in a corner
To have a nap and be free.

But since I don’t want to leave,
And the pup is here to stay,
We may as well get along
And learn to share and to play.

Erwin Schalm

Kitty the Cat

Kitty the cat was getting very annoyed because
someone was always nibbling at her food.
To be sure, she always paid close attention to how
much food was left in the bowl.
Kitty thought she knew who might be
eating her food.
It had to be Rover the dog.

Since she could never catch Rover doing it,
Kitty decided to confront him.
It took courage, because she knew annoying Rover
would result in her being chased up a tree.
But one day she garnered the courage to
confront Rover.
She cleared her throat and said, “Rover, you are
the best dog in the whole world.
We have lived in this house together for a long time
and I would be honoured if you liked my food.”
Rover began to growl and he said
“what! Me like cat food?”
And with that the chase was on.
Rover chased Kitty around the house three times,
down the lane and up a tree.

While waiting things out on the tree, Kitty realized
she had made a big mistake.
But she was still determined to find out who
was eating her food.
Kitty decided to hide out on the veranda
where her food dish was.
She saw a bunch of crows on a tree across the street.
could it be them stealing her food?

Or what about mice? She had seen mice around
the house.
Kitty fell asleep. And cats do sleep a lot!
A bit of scraping noise woke her up.
She glanced at her bowl and couldn’t believe her eyes:
A squirrel was eating her food.
Kitty thought of chasing the squirrel up a tree
because squirrels climb trees and cats
can also climb trees.

But then she thought of how she disliked it when
Rover chased her up a tre

Besides, the squirrel was so cute.
Right there and then Kitty decided she would
share her food and try to
make friends with the squirrel.

Written by Erwin Schalm