by Jean Prior, Nancy Pearsall, Marc Gunn

What happens when a bunch of cats hear that the dairy farm is on fire? It turn into a kitty free-for-all with cats flying from rafters and partying till the cows come home in this parody of "Old Dun Cow" from my CD, Whiskers in the Jar: Irish Songs for Cat Lovers.

Some friends and I in a milkman's truck
Were eating catnip one night
When into the truck a tomcat jumped
His scraggly face gone white.
"What's up", says Tom, "Have you seen a dog,
Or has our milkman retired?"
"Milkman retired? Fft hiss!", says he,
"The dairy farms' on fire!"

And there were toms stretched up and down
Lappin' up the milk on the floor.
"My Cream, Cream!" the farmer cried
As he came knockin' on the door (clap clap)
Oh don't let him in till it's all lapped up
Then somebody shouted Mreow! MREOW!
And we all drank milk till the cows came home
When the dairy farm caught fire.

"Mew," says Tom, "What a bit of luck!
Everybody follow me
And it's out to the barn
If the fire's there
Then we'll have milk for free."
We chased Tom down nipping his heels
Then into the milk pond flipped
And we hadn't been there ten minutes or more
Till we were all quite 'nipped.

Percy sauntered over to a water pail
And pawed at it as he gagged (cough cough)
Started takin' off his flea collar
Likewise his rabies tags.
"Hold on, " says Tom, "that ain't allowed
Ya can't do that thing here.
Why go washing your tags in the wat'ring trough
When milk's coming out our ears?"

Then there came from the old barn door
A collie from across the street
And when he saw three hundred cats
He took a ringside seat
He nipped at tails in good clean fun
Splashed milk on a cat or three
And just to show there was no harm done,
He licked their whiskers clean.

And then there came a mighty splash
Fur flew to and fro
Leaping from the rafters' flames
Into the pails below.
"Well, we're safe here," a Persian mewed
Paddling in the foam,
"This here's a bath I'd get used to
They won't believe back home!"

When the sun came up, the fire was out
We rolled across the floor
The barn was burned. The milk was drunk.
There wasn't any more.
Tom stretched his legs, said, "Good job, lads!"
Raised his tail up higher,
"There's dairies all along this road.
Let's set them all on fire!"