Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Our cat flap has become a revolving door for hungry strays

Which I am sure they are not

I think, Merlin, our black and white, goes out on his rounds

Telling them there is food back at ours

As fast as I fill his bowl, some unknown visitor empties it

I know two of them, one white with black-tipped ears

The other, a black and white like ours that Jaye calls Bandit.

She is fond of him, but I think he looks like an old boxer

I tried putting his bowl away at night

He doesn’t like that, so now it stays out

Twenty-four seven. Hotel cat paws!

They are like silent ninjas

Merlin asleep in the front room with us

I barely hear the cat flap but

He doesn’t bother moving

I manage to catch the odd tail

Slithering out of the half-open flap

Like the remains of a snake slowly disappearing

There are one or two strays

that Merlin doesn’t like coming into the house

That’s when I hear the hissing,

the banging of the cat flap late at night

He’s choosy about who he lets in to eat his food

So now we buy extra food to keep them all happy…

©anitadawes