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.
Archive for the ‘Cat Stories’ Category
1903: Morris, the Faithful Police Cat of the Sheepshead Bay Station in Homecrest
Posted: 12th August 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Feline MascotsTags: Brooklyn History, Cats of Old New York, Homecrest, Ira Ferris, police cats, Sheepshead Bay
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1903: C. Buster, the battleship cat treated at the Fort Greene Hospital for Dogs and Cats
Posted: 27th July 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Mascots, Cat StoriesTags: Brooklyn History, Fort Greene, Herbert J. Brotheridge, Ship cats, USS Indiana
There was much sorrow and indignation among the men on board the USS Indiana on April 27, 1903. That day, there were about six men on the battleship’s sick list. C. Buster, the battleship cat, was also on the sick list.
“C. Buster!” the ship’s surgeon called out. Letting out a plaintive meow and hopping on three legs, the battleship cat responded to the doctor’s summons. Not able to explain his injury, the cat held up his paw and allowed the doctor to examine it…
1951: The Black Cat That Brought Good Luck to the Brooklyn Dodgers
Posted: 14th June 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: Baseball history, Brooklyn Dodgers, Cats of Old New York, Ebbets Field, Ralph Branca
In 1951, the Brooklyn Dodgers were favored to win the National League race. The 1950 World Champion New York Yankees were expected to come in second place in the American League. That April, the two teams played against each other in a three-game exhibition series. The first game took place at Yankee Stadium on Friday, April 13. A black cat may have brought some good luck to the Dodgers that day…
1924: Tom, the 20-Pound Brooklyn Cat of Gage & Tollner on Fulton Street
Posted: 23rd May 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: Brooklyn History, Cats of Old New York, Fulton Street, Gage & Tollner, John Craft, Samuel Smith
Tom and his brother cat were born in Gage & Tollner’s restaurant in 1917, when the famous oyster bar and chophouse was on the ground floor of the circa 1875 Craft building at 372-374 Fulton Street. No one knows what happened to his mother and brother, but Tom “apparently recognized his proper sphere in life” and stayed on at Gage & Tollner, where he dined on scallops alongside great icons like Mae West and Jimmy Durante.
1897: The Cobble Hill Cat That Caused a Commotion in St. Paul’s Church
Posted: 12th March 2022 by The Hatching Cat in Cat Stories, Cats in the MewsTags: Brooklyn History, Cats of Old New York, Cobble Hill, Cornelius Heeney, Father William J. Hill, St. Paul's Church
A gaunt tabby cat, a tiny poodle, and a few hysterical children walk into a church… No, this is not the start of a bad bar joke, but it was the start of a comedy of errors that took place at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn on May 2, 1897. According to The New York Times, “never before had such a commotion been raised in this church.”
