The third cat in our old house

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Tuppence is our enigmatic cat,
Diffident and shy, much of the time,
But always, it seems, keen to climb
Into a laundry bin, or clamber up,
Oft unseen, on top of the ironing board.

A plump ball of dove grey fur is she,
With faint white brows over close-set eyes,
Small, sharp-set ears on either side,
Of a black-nosed, smallish, pixie face,
As if she came from an enchanted place.

And a small white blaze beneath her belly,
Rarely seen, begging to be rubbed,
Though those who try are invariably snubbed,
As she rolls over and haughtily stalks away,
Miffed at the taking of a liberty.

When visitors arrive, family or not,
She dashes to hide under the stair,
While Timmy’ll come to see who’s there,
Tuppence’ll stay tucked safely away,
Never to stir ‘till they’re on their way.

She often follows Timmy around,
To play with him from time to time,
Cuddle-up, snuggle and climb,
Over and under ’til he’s had enough,
Jumps down, turns round, and stalks away.

Even then she’ll often follow him,
To rub against him once again,
To which Timmy could surely complain
To feline HR, if such a whimsical place
Was willing to take his harassment case.

She and Tibbs are sisters, though they’re little alike,
Born to a semi-feral Mom one raw winter night.
We rescued the litter as best we might,
Bringing all inside for a chance at life,
The two males dying in our warming hands.

Tuppence, Thruppence and Tibbs survived,
Thruppence was adopted when old enough,
The other two staying here with us, with Timmy
Making up the three living in our old house today,
Each walking through life in their own sure way.

That’s it for our cats, at least for now. The other two are linked below. There’s a supplemental piece on Timmy’s tractor-like snoring, which can be found on my page if you’re interested.

Thanks for reading.

• The Boss Cat in Our Old House
• Timmy

Our Two Penny Cat was originally published in The Daily Cuppa Grande on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Never saying sorry to all of us

🍏 If partially greyed-out read the full text here. 👍

Sincere apologies are getting rarer,
especially from globally prominent,
self-aggrandized, monopolistic multinationals
such as Pfizer, the WHO, or the IOC,
who now appear to be following the
previously established ways of
mere governments, together with all
their myriad agencies, notorious for never
apologizing for doing anything seriously wrong,
even when ample evidence is lying around
for inquiring minds to find, see, and propound.

So now, with monopolistic multinationals
embracing this standard of irresponsibility
that’s notoriously there for all to see,
there are no sincere apologies
for medicines of dubious efficacy,
even when linked to deadly effects,
even when injected without consent ,
not to mention men pummeling women
in supposedly equal Olympic fights,
or a globally televised blasphemy
broadcast for all the world to see,
in an elaborately choreographed ceremony
dedicated to progressive modernity.

Thanks for reading. This piece was rejected by three publications so I decided to just post it directly rather than casting around for one that might find it acceptable. In each case it was rejected for not satisfying, meeting, conforming to the declared admissibility criteria for the publication concerned, judgments I accept without comment, complaint or contest. I imagine there are Medium publications that would have accepted it, happily or not: I just couldn’t be bothered to try and find one.
That’s all history and I’ll leave it to any readers to decide whether it was worth writing and posting. ✌️ Comments always welcome.

Another marginal piece:

Gods Ancient and Modern