Practical Thursday Part Five

Time for another installment of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats! This week we have a dangerous duo, we hope you enjoy their adventures!

(Also please don't forget that today is George's Third Birthday! We hijacked her bloggie and have a super great party going on over there!)

MUNGOJERRIE AND RUMPELTEAZER
Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer were a very notorious couple
      of cats.
As knockabout clowns, quick-change comedians, tight-rope
      walkers and acrobats
They had an extensive reputation. They made their home in
      Victoria Grove-
That was merely their centre of operation, for they were
      incurably given to rove.
They were very well known in Cornwall Gardens, in
      Launceston Place and in Kensington Square -
They had really a little more reputation than a couple of cats
      can very well bear.

      If the area window was found ajar
      And the basement looked like a field of war,
      If a tile or two came loose on the roof,
      Which presently ceased to be waterproof,
      If the drawers were pulled out from the bedroom chests,
      And you couldn't find one of your winter vests,
      Or after supper one of the girls
      Suddenly missed her Woolworth pearls:
Then the family would say : 'It's that horrible cat!
It was Mungojerrie-or Rumpelteazer!'-And most of the time
      they left it at that.

Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer has a very unusual gift of the
      gab.
They were highly efficient cat-burglars as well, and remarkably
      smart as a smash-and-grab.
They made their home in Victoria Grove. They had no regular
      occupation.
They were plausible fellows, and like to engage a friendly
      policeman in conversation.

      When the family assembled for Sunday dinner,
      With their minds made up that they wouldn't get thinner
      On Argentine joint, potatoes and greens,
      And the cook would appear from behind the scenes
      And say in a voice that was broken with sorrow:
      'I'm afraid you must wait and have dinner tomorrow!
      For the joint has gone from the oven-like that !'
Then the family would say : 'It's that horrible cat!
It was Mungojerrie-or Rumpelteazer!'-And most of the time
      they left it at that.

Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer had a wonderful way of
      working together.
And some of the time you would say it was luck, and some of
      the time you would say it was weather.
They would go through the house like a hurricane, and no
      sober person could take his oath
Was it Mungojerrie-or Rumpelteazer? or could you have
      sworn that it mightn't be both?

      And when you heard a dining-room smash
      Or up from the pantry there came a loud crash
      Or down from the library came a loud ping
      From a vase which was commonly said to be Ming-
      Then the family would say:'Now which was which cat?
It was Mungojerrie! AND Rumpelteazer!'-And there's nothing
      at all to be done about that!