A Cat Essay

I found the following essay in a local newspaper when we were in Ellsworth, Maine. I cut it out and slipped it into a cottage decorating book that I had bought in a used book shop, then forgot all about it until this morning, when I was paging through the book. The newspaper it was printed in is called The Ellsworth American, which has the distinction of being "New England's Newspaper of The Year."

This essay was written by James Russell Wiggins..... the paper didn't give it a title, so I guess Mr. Wiggins didn't either. Titled or not, it's a wonderful essay ---


A dog is friendly, warm and nice.
But cats are made of snow and ice.
A dog who hears his master's voice
Will run toward him and rejoice.
A cat, when asked to come, will flee
And wave its tail and climb a tree.
A dog will shake with gratitude
For just a bone. A cat is rude,
And offered some espensive fare,
Will turn its nose up in the air.

A dog is crushed by just a frown;
A scolded cat will stare you down.
Dogs yearn for smiles, and love and such,
But cats don't care so very much
For man's affection, as a rule,
And they respond by looking cool.
Dogs are depressed when men are blue;
Cats sit and say, "What's wrong with you?"
Dogs lavish love on all mankind.
If all men died, cats wouldn't mind.



I don't necessarily agree with all of the above.... each of my cats will come to me when I call them, whether or not it's meal time. They know their individual names, and if I call AngelBoy, it won't be ShadowBaby who comes running. That part about dogs being crushed by a person's frown-- well, that's true. And you can scold a cat all you want and it won't make a bit of difference.

Comparing dogs and cats is like comparing apples and oranges.... too different to compare. A dog is a dog and is there to please you. A cat is a cat, and that's that.