Muscled, black with steel-green eye swishing through the rye grass with thoughts of mouse-and-apple pie. Tail balancing at half-mast. ...And the mouse police never sleeps --- lying in the cherry tree. Savage bed foot-warmer of purest feline ancestry. Look out, little furry folk! He's the all-night working cat. Eats but one in every ten --- leaves the others on the mat. ...And the mouse police never sleeps --- waiting by the cellar door. Window-box town crier; birth and death registrar. With claws that rake a furrow red --- licensed to multilate. From warm milk on a lazy day to dawn patrol on hungry hate. ...No, the mouse police never sleeps --- climbing on the ivy. Windy roof-top weathercock. Warm-blooded night on a cold tile.