My dogs were playing in the yard

I realised one was standing guard

And when I went across to see

A pretty face looked up at me

It hissed and then it cried, dismayed

“Please help me I am so afraid!”

“My mum’s long gone, I know not where.”

“I searched and searched, she’s just not there!”

I searched myself in hope she’d come

Incensed to take her baby home

But nothing called or showed its face

It seemed that fate had made a case

I gave him food most carefully

He cleaned my chin most gratefully

And all the while I searched again

To see if she would finally deign

To make her way in frantic haste

To seek the child she had misplaced

But fruitless hours just came and went

And tiny thing, so tired and spent,

At last curled up against my throat

And fell asleep inside my coat.

‘*     *     *

Late that night a female called

She sat outside and caterwauled

I went and showed her kitty’s face

She rushed to me at such a pace

So placing kitty on the floor

To see what she-puss had in store

I watched them come together both

Then vanish through the undergrowth.