One day at rehearsal a soprano who worked for Alley Cat Allies stood up and said she desperately needed a home for a cat which otherwise would be euthanized in a very few days. My wife Jan had always lived with cats and I am also very much a cat person. So Lucy, the black cat in question, came to live with us.

She has a very strong and not totally predictable personality, so much so that we have since acquired 2 black kittens to try to stimulate hoped-for maternal instincts (to curb tendencies of activities like chasing other cats off their own porches). After a rocky introduction, it worked like a charm. But (actually this could possibly be in a musical thread) Lucy also has several musical connections.

First of all, she is an extremely opinionated critic. When I start playing the piano (I'm not spectacularly wonderful but I can play some Beethoven, Joplin, 19th century parlor songs etc.) she jumps up onto the top of the piano and listens to the music. But I am not allowed to practice. If I play a piece through, that's fine with her. But if I'm trying to learn a new piece and go over a passage slowly or several times to try to iron it out, she comes right down and sits on the keys. I'm not making much progress.

Scondly, she has proven to be my muse. Two parodies based on her behavior have come to me while lying in bed.

The first is to "I'll Be Seeing You"

I'll be seeing you
In every closet full of bags
In every pile of dirty rags
I love the way your stomach sags
I'll see you on Jan's head again
And when the night is through
I'll be trying to read my book
But I'll be seeing you.


The second is to the tune of Tom Lehrer's "The Old Dope Peddler"

As the dawn outside is breaking
Comes a feline everyone knows
It's our old friend Lucy
Making noise wherever she goes
She rips the carpet daily
She scratches on the stair
She makes the choice real easy
"Feed me now or lose all your hair"
Here's a cure for too much sleep-time
Here's our daily pal----and pest
It's our old friend Lucy
Our beloved pet-------------more or less

Never a dull moment with Lucy, Fern and Avery