Part I: The Society to Befriend Domestic Animals Like all crazy cat ladies or cat hoarders, Mrs. Sarah J. Edwards and Mrs. Grace Georgia Devide had good intentions when they opened a refuge for homeless cats in 1890. But something went terribly wrong, and a mission to provide shelter and food for friendless and maltreated […]
Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category
1890: The Crazy Cat Ladies and The Murderous Midnight Band of Mercy, Part I
Posted: 1st July 2014 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Crazy Cat LadiesTags: Barney Bowers, Cat Stories, Crazy Cat Lady, Grace Devide, New York History, Sarah J. Edwards, Washington Heights
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1916: Wang, the King of the Pirate Cats of West 80th Street
Posted: 22nd June 2014 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: Cat Stories, Hotel Majestic, John Pamaris, New York History, polio epidemic of 1916, SPCA, Thomas F. Freel
Wang was the leader of a pack of up to 100 stray cats that haunted West 80th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues during the brutal spring and summer of 1916. The press called them the pirate cats.
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
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.”
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.
