Amy, Pet Laureate

Beloved cat companion Amy was put to sleep on 25th June. She had been poorly for several months. Over 12 years she often collaborated in writing, by walking across the keyboard or by making muddy pawprints on draft poems.

In honour of animal companions everywhere here are some links:

Alison Brackenbury's Cat Poems (scroll down the page)

Curiosity by Alastair Reid

There's also a cracking interview & poem by recent TS Eliot prize-winner Jen Hadfield, in the recent Mslexia (Jul 09): 'In the same way' about her cat Sophie.

And here's one of mine, for Amy and the pets of Derbyshire and beyond who remind us what's really important in life.

2.53 a.m.

Leave your rush-hour sweat and classroom roar.

Leave your sprint towards the train door,

double-bookings, lost notes, stagnant mail,

your desk pitched in its papery white grave.

For miles around you sense collective weight

of heads on pillows, dreams' cast-lists.

Nothing can be done. No-one to phone;

even the West Coast's on the freeway heading home.

Water slides into a glass like well-earned sleep

and as you slump across the sofa, dark takes shape;

insists you curl up, make a lap. Sink now

to purring and the deep fur of the night. Be cat.