I find evidence in the morning 

Of things I heard 'go bump' in the night,

A Q-tip floating in the dog's water bowl,

A broken coffee cup,

And I know the culprit right away,

Out of all my menagerie,

A little gray cat with impossible green eyes

Is responsible.

They told me she was "fixed"

When I adopted her,

But I'm glad they didn't know

That they left all the most troublesome parts

Alive and well inside her.

For I wanted a cat,

And that, she is, through and through.

She slinks through my life

And this house, at night,

Doing things that naughty cats do,

Or, even a nice one, probably would,

For cats aren't naughty or nice or bad or good.

Cats are cats, and if we could know,

Humans are humans, and we could allow

Ourselves and others to be more so,

If we would quit judging one another so harshly

And just take the Q-tip out of the dog bowl

Quietly, and go on with our days.

-jenn