Mehitabel

Mehitabel is a fictional alley cat featured in the humorous stories of Don Marquis, primarily known from the collection "Archy and Mehitabel". She is characterized as a free-spirited feline whose motto is "Toujours gai" (always cheerful).1

Mehitabel is often depicted in free-verse poems alongside Archy, a philosophical cockroach who communicates through typed messages. While Archy claims to have been a poet in a past life, Mehitabel asserts she is a reincarnation of Cleopatra. Her adventures, however, now primarily result in litters of kittens. The stories, originally published in newspapers from 1916, were collected into books, often without the use of capital letters.12