Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category

On August 19, 1897, it rained cats in front of the Brush Block building on Main Street and New York Avenue in Huntington, Long Island. Customers of the human kind could do nothing but walk cautiously along the sidewalk as the business owners used brooms to sweep cats out and hold others at bay.

In August 1904, two of Caroline G. Ewen’s neighbors on East 101st Street petitioned the Board of Health regarding the nightly concerts of 80 or more fat and sassy cats sheltered in the woman’s three-stone brownstone at 105 East 101st Street. “It is not that we object to Miss Ewan’s humane impulses in caring for all the stray and homeless felines of the neighborhood, but the noise of her pets is something wonderful,” the petitioners said. “It is enough to drive a strong man with a newly-signed pledge in the pocket to drink.”

On May 8, 1939, a 400-pound tiger escaped from his wooden crate near the Madison Square Garden Bowl on Northern Boulevard in Woodside, Queens. According to several newspapers, it took more than 60 men to corral and capture the tiger in the back yard of a private residence.

On July 19, 1904, the New York Times and many other newspapers across the country reported on a mother Maltese cat who was caring for her two kittens and five pedigree orphan puppies in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Seafaring Cats of Gotham Virtual Presentation (via Untapped New York): Travel back in time to explore amazing stories of famous and memorable ship cats and naval cats of Old New York; June 30, 2020, 12-1 p.m. (ET). Registration required.