Will Barnet | Woman with Cats

Serigraph Poster, 1983

A retrospective at the Wichita Art Museum

Sigmund Abeles | Self-Portrait with Cats

1965, Impression in collection of MOMA, New York

The Ad-dressing of Cats | T.S. Eliot

You've read of several kinds of Cat, 

And my opinion now is that 

You should need no interpreter 

To understand their character. 

You now have learned enough to see 

That Cats are much like you and me 

And other people whom we find 

Possessed of various types of mind. 

For some are same and some are mad 

And some are good and some are bad 

And some are better, some are worse-- 

But all may be described in verse. 

You've seen them both at work and games, 

And learnt about their proper names, 

Their habits and their habitat: 

But how would you ad-dress a Cat? 

So first, your memory I'll jog, 

And say: A CAT IS NOT A DOG. 

And you might now and then supply 

Some caviare, or Strassburg Pie, 

Some potted grouse, or salmon paste-- 

He's sure to have his personal taste. 

I know a Cat, who makes a habit 

Of eating nothing else but rabbit, 

And when he's finished, licks his paws 

So's not to waste the onion sauce.) 

A Cat's entitled to expect 

These evidences of respect. 

And so in time you reach your aim, 

And finally call him by his NAME. 

So this is this, and that is that: 

And there's how you AD-DRESS A CAT.