Growltiger

"Growltiger's Last Stand" is a poem from T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, as well as a song from the musical derived from that book.

Growltiger was a "bravo cat who lived upon a barge", one who scoured the Thames from Gravesend to Oxford, terrorizing the inhabitants along the river, including "cottagers", canaries, geese, hens, "pamperedPekinese", and the "bristly Bandicoot that lurks on foreign ships". Growltiger is usually envisioned as a pirate, although he is never explicitly described as such. He is short an eye and had a "somewhat missing" ear.

"Growltiger's Last Stand" describes how he meets his fate when he least expects it.

Besides the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical setting in Cats the English composer Humphrey Searle composed a musical setting of "Growltiger's Last Stand" as the second of his Two Practical Cats for speaker, flute, cello and guitar.