
                   Incident Along Fantasy Way 
                          Neighbor Cat

I don't know the technical term for it
But my next-door neighbor keeps turning
Into a cat.

It started when she was born --
The building had a rule:
"No dogs, no children."  Cats were OK.
Her parents didn't want to move right then
So they went to somebody a friend of theirs knew
Who was a wizard on the side.
So, whenever the landlord heard a baby crying
And came knocking on the door to tell them
"Either the kid goes or you go!"
All he ever found
Was a little kitten.

There were, of course,
Problems.
A kitten in diapers would never do
So she always went naked.
And the only toys she could have
Were things like rubber mice and balls of yarn,
And even in human form
She was sensitive to catnip.
But in general it worked.  

By the time she started school
They had moved to a house in the suburbs.
They were going to get the spell lifted Real Soon Now
But they never did
And when she learned to control it herself
She decided to keep it.  

So now on moonlit summer nights
When the city is quiet
And rooftops and alleyways beckon
Like mountains and canyons in some exotic land
And several of her friends
Whose parents knew people who knew that same wizard 
Come howling beneath her window
She is off,
Into the night,
Shadow among shadows,
Rejoicing.

                                        Thomas G. Digby
                                        written 2220 hr  8/10/74
                                        entered 2015 hr  3/29/92
