national feral cat day - october 16

thanks wikimedia commons.
lazy cat by palmer cox. PD

October 16 is National Feral Cat Day here in the US.  The link will take you to the Alley Cat Allies-sponsored site, where you can learn about activities and information to help our little homeless fellow beings.  If only foodstuff walked up to them and swung off their tails, as in the charming early 1900's illustration above.
Though the public drive to help ferals has been much more in evidence in recent years, there have always been those who feel for them.  The following two poems from Isabel Valle's 1916 book don't shy away from a homeless kitty's frequent fate.

TOMMY
A Stray Cat
Nevermore need Tommy roam
Looking, longing for a home;
What he wanted he has found
In the doorless underground!

POOR ITTY BITTY
A Stray Pussy
She died of cold and hunger in the snow
Where these forget-me-nots and bluebells grow;
I never pass them now but I see her
For whom was life all "miaou" without a purr.—
The summer day becomes a winter night,
The lawn's green velvet changes and grows white
And black upon it, like a blot, there lies
A tiny sodden heap with open eyes.

-- Yes, I know - bitterly sad.  So imagine being tiny and hungry with nowhere to go.  Perhaps you can do something easy to help, like make a winter house out of your old cooler.  Here's a video how - they say it takes 5 minutes!


Valle, I. (1916). Epitaphs of some dear dumb beasts. Boston [Mass.]: The Gorham Press. 36-37.