Around in sympathetic mirth
Its tricks the kitten tries;
The cricket chirrups in the hearth,
The crackling fagot flies.
Joanna Baillie wrote in the same strain.
In one of Gay’s fables about animals the cat is asked what she can do to benefit the proposed confederation. She answers scornfully:
... These teeth, these claws,
With vigilance shall serve the cause.
The mouse destroyed by my pursuit
No longer shall your feasts pollute,