a rhyme for st jerome's cat

thanks wikimedia commons {PD}

(Image: Saint Jerome, miniature by the Meister des Maréchal de Boucicaut, 1410-1415) Yesterday I posted on Saint Jerome's pet lion.  Some variants of the Jerome legends have him owning a regular cat as well, and there's an English nursery rhyme of unknown provenance that muses ...

St. Jerome in his study kept a great big cat,

it's always in his pictures, with its feet upon the mat.

Did he give it milk to drink, in a little dish?

When it came to Fridays, did he give it fish?

If I lost my little cat, I'd be sad without it;

I should ask St. Jerome what to do about it.

I should ask St. Jerome, just because of that,

for he's the only saint I know who kept a kitty cat.