Little Cat by McGrath of Harlow

McGrath's Comments:  This song is a bit long, but it's true.  I don't sing it too often, not with the cynical buggers I tend to hang around with in sessions. But I'm fond of it.  Whether you lose a cat or a person, all loss touches the same place.  And the Cats involved are still with us. 


One is lying by the fireside, 
one is lying by the door.
One is looking out the window. 
Seems Little Cat is gone for sure. 
Lonely days are here once more,
standing at the open door, 
lonely days, and lonely nights 
- seems nothing ever works out right.

On the day we'd planned to collect them 
a message came - they'd run away. 
Mother Cat was tired of kittens, 
she'd led them in the woods to stray.

It seemed we weren't to have those kittens, 
too bad for us, but worse for them. 
Three days, then news we'd hardly hoped for, 
the kittens had come home again. 
Lost there in the woods at midnight, 
tiny balls of fur and bone, 
foxes, dogs and roaring cars - 
God knows how, they'd made it home.

I still remember how we fetched them 
from the farm where they were born. 
Huddled up and lost and lonely, 
clung together to keep warm.

Little Cat and Little Brother, 
she was queen and he was clown, 
All their lives were twined together -
then one morning, she was gone.

Standing at the empty window
like a sentry at his post.
Searching in the empty garden
like a little golden ghost.

We searched around, we climbed the fences, 
asked the neighbours one by one, 
made a notice with a picture - 
nothing more we could have done.
Lonely days are here once more,
standing at the open door, 
lonely days, and lonely nights 
- seems nothing ever works out right.

Sitting looking out the window, 
heard a knocking on the pane, 
heard a noise like someone crying - 
Little Cat came home again.

Times of trial, times of trouble, 
times aren't easy, that's for sure. 
But tonight we're all together, 
Little Cat came home once more.

One is lying by the fireside, 
one is standing by the door, 
one is eating in the kitchen - 
Little Cat is home once more.

Kevin McGrath