Archive for the ‘Cat Mascots’ Category

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.

The Winter Garden Theatre was home to the original Broadway production of Cats from 1982 until the production closed in 2000. But about 50 years before the creepy human cats appeared on stage, the theater was famous for its real cats. Cat mascots, that is.

Thomas Wood was one of the many feline tenants of 290 Washington Street, a large, six-story brick factory building on the northwest corner of Washington and Chamber streets. Originally the pet cat of a dye maker at the factory, he made his home on the third floor, which was occupied by the American Wood Decorating Machine Company.

Tom the Terror was reportedly a noted figure in the United States Navy. He came from a long line of naval cats, having been born on the Cob Deck at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1896. All of his siblings and cousins had also honorably served the United States Navy as rat killers and mascots.

I once wrote about Tom, the famous cat that survived the explosion and sinking of the USS Maine during the Spanish-American War. The following tale is about several other seafaring cats who similarly survived naval events during the same war: these were the ship cats of the Cristóbal Colón, a Spanish cruiser that ran aground during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.