The Story of the Cat & the Hat In My Kitchen (with apologies to Dr. Seuss)

BoHo Home
There's a cat and a hat in my kitchen now.
The hat is not for the cat's head, oh no!
But the hat is because of the cat--the cat
who can't keep his tongue off the flow
BoHo Home
or the source of the flow, the tip of the pipe
that carries the water, fresh and clean,
past filter to tank and then into my cup.
He licks that tip, water on, water off, seen and unseen.
BoHo Home
So I draped a clean dish towel over the pipe,
and that kept him at bay and his tongue in his gob.
But it looked a bit sloppy in a kitchen so fair,
so I sewed up the hats to make a tidier job.
BoHo Home
A pattern I drew with pencil on paper,
tracing carefully 'round the pipe's half-moon shape.
The I cut four pieces from a towel with a hole,
allowing for seams and a hem and a drape.
I zigzagged the seams to keep them from fraying
and snipped all the curves to tailor the fit.
I zigged and I zagged and I snipped and I clipped,
and when the hats worked I just could have spit!
BoHo Home
'Cause snug as a bug in a rug on the pipe is the hat--
a hat and a spare made from a towel with a hole,
two pieces per hat, a seam and a hem, and they fit
on the half-moon curve of the pipe like a bowl.
BoHo Home
The cat still thinks that water's great game-- 
whether running from pipes or pooling in toilets and sinks. 
He plays and he splashes, he splashes and plays. 
But mostly he likes to take very long drinks--
BoHo Home
only not anymore from the human's small pipe,
which he bypasses as long as the bonnet is set.
But take off the chapeau and switch on the flow,
and soon he'll appear like the lovingest pet,
licking my fingers and face instead of the spout,
mewing and purring and begging for treats,
his bowling ball head butting my knees and my shins,
crying and nagging with meows and bleats.
BoHo Home
I won't be surprised to find him one day
with water pooled 'round him almost like a moat,
that hat on his head and his tongue on the spout,
plotting escape with an owl on a smart pea-green boat.

Happy Thursday,

(Apologies also to Edward Lear, author of “The Owl & the Pussycat”)

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