Posts Tagged ‘Brooklyn History’

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.”

As the beloved cat mascots of the 153rd Precinct, Dewey and Dick lived a life of luxury in the castle-like police station at 484 Liberty Avenue in the East New York section of Brooklyn.

For four months in 1936, Bess was the most famous mother of all the Brooklyn fire dogs in the Fire Department of New York. But then her own daughter took over the Top Mom title of the FDNY.

An unnamed, heroic stray cat and a mischievous mouse played a prominent role in a fire that forced a dozen families from the double brick apartment at 561 49th Street (present-day Sunset Park neighborhood) on December 4, 1908.

Two days after the new Hook and Ladder Company No. 10 of the Brooklyn Fire Department went into service, a new member was added to the roster: a small cat “who wore a fur coat which in color resembled a tortoise shell.”