Jennyanydots

Jennyanydots is the Gumbie Cat at the center of The Old Gumbie Cat: a household cat whose apparent daytime idleness gives way, after the family falls asleep, to work in the basement. The poem defines her through that reversal and through her efforts to impose order on the Mice and Cockroaches around her.

Identity and Appearance

The poem introduces Jennyanydots by name as the Gumbie Cat. Her coat is tabby, marked with tiger stripes and leopard spots, giving her a visibly patterned appearance that the verse specifies before turning to her habits. She is presented as part of a household: during the day she settles on its stair, steps, or mat, while the family sleeps at night.

Daytime Rest and Night Work

By day, Jennyanydots occupies familiar places around the house, sitting rather than appearing busy. That stillness is not the whole account of her character. Once the day's bustle is over and the family is asleep, she tucks up her skirts and creeps down to the basement. The contrast makes the timing of her work decisive: the quiet, sedentary figure seen in the daytime is active after dark, and the household's night becomes her working period.

Her Management of the Mice

Jennyanydots is deeply concerned with the Mice's behavior and manners, which she regards as poor. Her response includes lining them up on the matting, an image that turns her concern into an attempt to arrange and regulate them. The poem also gives her a practical diagnosis for their failure to keep quiet: she believes their diet is irregular. Her approach therefore combines supervision with an explanation of conduct, treating disorder not simply as misbehavior but as something that might be addressed by changing its cause. She is guided by the conviction that nothing can be improved without trying, though the lines here do not specify the particular dietary remedy.

Employment for the Cockroaches

Her attention extends beyond the Mice. Jennyanydots thinks the Cockroaches need employment to keep them from idleness and wanton destruction. Where her response to the Mice begins with manners, order, and diet, her response to the Cockroaches begins with giving them work. The verse then turns to an organized scheme she has formed from them, presenting her as an industrious manager who tries to redirect disorder rather than merely complain about it. Together, the two efforts establish her characteristic method: she observes unruly behavior, identifies what she takes to be its cause, and devises a practical intervention.