Short ode to cat is artistic work (4)
I believe the answer is:
opus
'artistic work' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'short ode to cat' is the wordplay.
'short' says to take the initial letters.
'to cat' becomes 'pus' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The initial letter of 'ode' is 'o'.
'o'+'pus'='OPUS'
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for opus that I've seen before include "Composition - magnum __" , "Work or composition, usually musical" , "Work (mus.)" , "Soup (anag.)" , "A Latin work" .)