Face Time with the Squid

Last night I shared my bed with a Squid. Before we went to sleep, I invited her over and she batted at my pencil and sat on the clues while I did a crossword puzzle. As Emily says, Squid is both friendly and strange. She is small and gray with ripply fur, and gold-rimmed black eyes.

This morning, she made me think of Christopher Smart's cat Jeoffrey. As she energetically chased her mouse at five in the morning, I kept dreamily thinking, "She rolls upon prank to work it in," and I was grateful for what I had learned from the poem of feline morning habits:

For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.

I was disappointed that none of my students took to this poem, which I found really exciting in college. I mean, how can you not love lines like these?

For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.

For he can spraggle upon waggle at the word of command.

For his motions upon the face of the earth are more than any other quadruped.

Or, as Sammy J would put it, Hodge shall not be shot.