Mulligan & Zebra

Mulligan and Zebra

The story of the Kent House feral cat

Who became Mr & Mrs Gravenall’s cat named Zebra

Upon the mat at Flat A, Kent House, East Cowes, Isle of Wight

1954

Zebra? You may ask

Yes, Zebra that’s me

I agree, it is a very strange name

Especially when you stop to consider

That I was born one of five brothers and two sisters

Fighting like fury for a milky teat

When I was not filling my belly

I was pressed hard up against my mother’s furry arse

In the back of a coal cellar in Kent House

In an old iron range forgotten by time

Life was tough rough even

Zanzibar

Was never far away from where we lived

A banana box lid was where we crept

In the darkness of a banana box lid

Zanzibar

Was where we slept

A banana box lid

Was where mother would schlep

All manner of squeaking detritus

To our home sweet home

Safe as houses warm as toast

No Hobgoblins in our nest

It just would not happen

They would be dead no more to be said

My father, he would have sorted that

No one screwed with Mulligan he was no scaredy cat

Yes, ours was an exotic, chaotic, pied de tire

But then came the day that stopped the good life

No more free eating no more bleating for a teat

No more playing with my sister…

No! not today

The time had come for us all to walk the talk

For silhouetted in the doorways light

Stood my father his eyes were blazing

Green and bright his hiss a roar

He was a fearsome sight

Then came the loudest of his roars suddenly Mulligan

Shouted OUT!

In that same exact moment, as though by magic,

there we all were

OUT!

Out and about, knee deep in dead mattress

Crambling, and scrambling over rambling roses

Roses that had died long before the old King

Picking and sticking we foraged forward

Over shards of splintered glass and flattened grass

Where over lay, rusted, crusted discarded prams

Bent and broken,

Open like the bleached corpses of the Kalahari

There we all were ‘beneath wild and windswept skies

A cold fouling stingle mist

that stung and clung to your fur like

A thief

Just keep walking ordered Mulligan

Do not look at me and don’t look back

And to each of you I have given a give a name

Remember it well

It will save your life this no shitty kitty game

Springheart, Lester, Pudding and Punch

Sallied forth into that frosty morn

Closely followed by Brigham and sweet Daisy May

All but me had gone

Mulligan gerned up his face and with one last snarl hissed

Off with you be on your way

And mind you do not stop to sleep beneath a tree

Or chase a mouse or scratch a louse

Or even think of me

There will come a day my son

When you will find a friend for life

But only you, and you alone will know

A human friend

Who smiling, will stoop to ask your name

My name is Zebra you will say

And I am here, and I am here to stay

Oh yes, I am here

I am here for ever and a day

At that moment,

Your friend will never know for sure

That he is your friend

But you will Zebra, you will.