During World War I and World War II, hundreds of cats from all over the world were left stranded on the Chelsea Piers in New York when the troopships they had stowed away on left the harbor without them. The news media called them the “Chelsea Pirate Cats.”
Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category
1922: A Christmas Feast for Woo-Ki and the Pirate Cats of Chelsea Piers
Posted: 17th December 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Christmas Cat TalesTags: Cat Stories, Chelsea Piers, Chelsea Pirate Cats, New York History, pirate cats, RMS Olympic, Sam Meders
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1932: The Cat That Took Down a Plane at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Posted: 26th November 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Animal Attractions, Cat StoriesTags: Annette Gipson, Cat Stories, Clarence Chamberlin, Felix the Cat, helium balloons, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, New York History
Whenever the forecasters call for windy weather on Thanksgiving, I always wonder whether the giant balloons are going to appear in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. If the wind speeds are higher than 34 miles per hour, the balloons don’t fly. That’s because in 2006, Macy’s incorporated several safety measures to prevent accidents and balloon-related […]
1946: Susie the King Cat of Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge Wharf
Posted: 15th September 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Men, Cat StoriesTags: Atlantic Yacht Club, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn Beach, Cat Stories, Kerr Steamship, New York History, Sunset Park, Sunset Play Center
Weighing 20 pounds and standing about one foot tall, Susie was a jumbo cat. She was also the terror of the rats on the Kerr Steamship Company pier at the foot of 57th Street in the Bay Ridge section (now called Sunset Park) of Brooklyn. Susie would often kill up to 10 rats in a week; her record was eight rats in four hours.
1941: The WWII “Aristocats” of the Brooklyn-Long Island Cat Club
Posted: 25th August 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Featured FelinesTags: Ann Mudge, Brooklyn-Long Island Cat Club, Cat Clubs, Cat Stories, Hotel St. George
The Brooklyn-Long Island Cat Club was the brainchild of Ann Mudge of Brooklyn Heights. Although Mrs. Mudge had a pampered Persian named Chou Chou Bu, the backyard of her federal-style townhouse at 64 Poplar Street was home to numerous alley cats, including one of her favorite strays, Kitten Mitten.
1946: The Cat Who Broke Rank with the Dogs of Operation Bow-Wow
Posted: 31st May 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Featured FelinesTags: Cat Stories, Chelsea Piers, Liberty ship, New York History, Operation Bow-Wow, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Warren P. Marks
On February 20, 1946, the Liberty ship SS Warren P. Marks arrived at Chelsea Piers (Pier 60) on the Hudson River carrying 81 dogs and “one live cat from Bremerhaven, Germany.” The dogs and cat had all been obtained overseas during World War II by American soldiers who wanted to keep them as pets back home.
