Many historians and fans of Edgar Allan Poe are no doubt familiar with Catarina, the cat that served as Poe’s muse while he was living in his old cottage in Fordham. But I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find many people, if any at all, who know about Jig or the other black cat of Poe Cottage.
Now you can be one of the few who know this obscure feline fact.
Many old stories have been told of the Brooklyn-born canine and feline mascots that went to sea (like Peggy and Tom of the USS Maine, as an example), but this tale, which takes place at Pier 12 of the New York Dock Company, is about a landlubber dog and cat who patrolled the Brooklyn waterfront.
I am pleased and excited to announce that one of the three stories that I entered into the Cat Writers’ Association 2022 Communications Contest has won a prestigious Muse Medallion!
Forget the light bulb. Let’s talk about Thomas Edison’s short film starring Professor Henry Welton and his famous Boxing Cats! This 1894 film may very well be the first ever funny cat film ever made. (I even found out the names of the Boxing Cats…)
For fifteen years, Morris served as the ever-watchful feline mascot and mouser of the Sheepshead Bay police station, which was located in the Homecrest neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay. As official police cat of the 68th Precinct, it was his job to nab the rats and other vermin with which the rural district was infested.
