What are T. S. Eliot’s “Jellicle Cats” and “Pollicle Dogs”? T. S. Eliot’s poem ‘The Song of the Jellicles’ was first published in _Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats_ (1939) and was popularized by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical _Cats_. It begins: > Jellicle Cats come out to-night > Jellicle Cats come one come all: > The Jellicle Moon is shining bright— > Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball. > > T. S. Eliot (1939). ‘The Song of the Jellicles’. _Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats_. London: Faber and Faber. Another group of curiously named animals in the book are the “Pollicle Dogs”: > But a terrible din is what Pollicles like, > For your Pollicle Dog is a dour Yorkshire tyke > > T. S. Eliot (1939). ‘The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles’. _Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats_. London: Faber and Faber. What are “Jellicle Cats” and “Pollicle Dogs”? Where do these names come from?

Catherine Milner, Arts Correspondent of the Telegraph, wrote in 2002:

> According to Dr Faber, a retired physicist who is now 74 and lives in Cambridge, Eliot was "a very generous godfather and the subject of great envy by my siblings". "He was quite a chameleon in many ways; he would be grave or funny as he so desired and could write anything - adopt any mood." Pollicle Dogs was a corruption of "poor little dogs", just as Jellicle Cats are "dear little cats".