For He Can Creep

I don't normally go out of my way for cat stories... but the quirky cover attracted me to the story on Tor.com (although I see I have been away from the website long enough for it to have changed its name!), then drawn in to find it is a short story based on an English poet from the 18th century who was put into a mental asylum, along with his cat Jeoffry, who becomes the star of this story.

Christopher Smart, the poet in question (1722-1771) wrote the religious poem Jubilate Agno, a small part of which is about his cat, containing the lines:

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him....For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the Adversary.For he counteracts the powers of Darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life....For he can creep.

And which forms the basis of this short story, in which Jeoffry, who guards he poet from the Devil is tricked into standing aside, while the poet makes a deal to write a poem for the Devil, and thereby lose his soul to him. Jeoffry must then engage the assistance of his cat friends to outwit the Devil and save his poet.

Read it here: For He Can Creep

4 stars