My favourite place is my back yard;
There’s lots of things to do there.
The only trouble is, you see,
Next door’s cat loves to poo there.
I may be playing basketball,
Slam-dunking with preciseness.
My foot collides with something soft
Of questionable niceness.
A cubby ‘neath the trampoline:
There’s nothing that could spoil it
Except when kitty set her mind
To use it as a toilet.
I could be kicking soccer goals—
A future world contender—
I slip and slide in messages
Where kitty is the sender.
I did my best to turn her off
From corners she was craving,
Put old tea leaves and orange peel,
The cat kept misbehaving.
I tried it all and nothing worked.
The kitty wasn’t shooing
‘Til one day Dad brought home a pup…
Now I pick up doggy doings!
(Original version published in Laugh, Chuckle, Smile Anthology, Vol 1, 1996)