Archive for August, 2021

1923: Tramp, the Beloved Police Cat of the Richmond Hill Police Station

Posted: 25th August 2021 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Feline Mascots
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In March 1916, the Richmond Hill Police precinct, which covered all of Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Morris Park, and part of Forest Hills, was designated a mounted precinct. That is, every mounted police officer throughout Queens was transferred to the 283rd Precinct in Richmond Hill.

With more horses came more stables — and more vermin. What the Richmond Hill Police needed was a good to mouser to handle all the rats and mice that shared the stables with the horses.

1897: The Great Sea Lion Escape From Glen Island on the Long Island Sound

Posted: 10th August 2021 by The Hatching Cat in Animal Attractions, Sea Creatures
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On August 13, 1897, a 13-year old boy named Willie Grogan was swimming in the East River off East 84th Street when he saw what he thought was a seven-foot sea serpent opposite East River Park (present-day Carl Schurz Park).

The sea serpent turned out to be one of the three sea lions that had escaped from Starin’s Glen Island resort on the Long Island Sound one day before.

1921: The Cat That Screamed Bloody Murder in Jamaica Village, Queens

Posted: 1st August 2021 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the Mews
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Hurry up! There is murder at Herriman Avenue, Jamaica. The telephone receiver is off the hook and I can hear terrible screams and groans. Send the police department down quick.”

That was the breathless message that Lieutenant Louis Keppel of the Jamaica police precinct received shortly after midnight exactly one hundred years ago, on July 31, 1921. The voice was coming from a frantic telephone operator.