Archive for the ‘Cat Mascots’ Category

On April 11, 1912, the RMS Carpathia departed from Chelsea Piers in New York City for Fiume (present-day Rijeka, Croatia), carrying about 740 passengers. The ship never reached its destination on this particular departure. Just after midnight on April 15, 1912, Carpathia‘s wireless operator, Harold Cottam, received some messages from Cape Cod stating they had private traffic for the Titanic. […]

As I often explain, not all of the cat stories of Old New York that I share with my readers have fairy-tale endings. Of course I prefer to tell happy stories. But I also believe that the kitties that met tragic ends also deserve some attention. This story of Nellie, the classroom mouser of the […]

Engine Company No. 31 and No. 1 Tower Company, which shared headquarters in the famous castle-like firehouse at 87 Lafayette Street, broke the FDNY rules by having not only one feline and one canine mascot, but also a mascot from the primate family.

“It seems almost a misnomer to speak of it as a ‘charity’ in the accepted meaning of the word. Far rather is it an expression of the true and highest signification the term can bear; the impulse which takes these little ones from their pitiful and often squalid surroundings, at the same time enabling their […]

In 1893, American lyricist and playwright Harry S. Miller–at one time a New Yorker–wrote a comic song titled “The Cat Came Back.” The original chorus to the whimsical ditty, which today is still a popular children’s song (or at least it was when I was a kid in the previous century), always comes to mind […]