Once upon a time, there was a cat and dog boarding house nestled in the thick woods near 49th Street and 10th Avenue, in what was then the town of New Utrecht, Brooklyn, in Kings County, New York. The kennels, advertised as the Chelmsford Stock Farm, were just a stone’s throw from Fort Hamilton Avenue […]
Posts Tagged ‘Cat Stories’
1899: The City-Bred Cats and Dogs of the New Utrecht Kennels
Posted: 5th July 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Dog TailsTags: Animal Tales, Brooklyn, Cat Stories, Chelmsford Farm, dogs, Flatbush, Frederick Webster, Knickerbocker Field Club, New Utrecht, New York History
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1897: Ginger, the “Live Oak” Fire Cat of the Lower East Side
Posted: 12th June 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Featured FelinesTags: Baruch Houses, Black Jake Engine Company, Cat Stories, Engine Company 11, fire cat, Isaac Webb, Live Oak Engine Company, Lower East Side, Metropolitan Fire Department, New York History
In a recent post, I wrote about Ginger, a well-loved fire dog for Hook and Ladder Co. No. 5 of New York’s Metropolitan Fire Department. The following tale is also about Ginger, but this mascot was a fire cat for a historical fire company once called the Live Oak Engine Company. In 1894, an orange […]
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.
1929: Olaf, the Viking Cat with Tramp Traits Rescued at Sea En Route to Red Hook, Brooklyn
Posted: 15th May 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Featured FelinesTags: Animal Tales, Brooklyn, Cat Stories, New York History, Pier 44, Red Hook, Sea cats, Sea mascots, Sud Americano
“A mascot there was who almost wasn’t But he has the life he almost hasn’t. And the fact is this: Though he’s somewhat wizened, Though he almost isn’t— He is.” — Angus MacGregor, Hartford Courant, October 12, 1930 An old maritime superstition was that if a mascot was lost at sea, a member of the […]
1917 and 1945: The Refugee Sea Cats of Chelsea Piers
Posted: 28th April 2013 by The Hatching Cat in Cat StoriesTags: Animal Tales, Cat Stories, Chelsea Piers, mascot cats, New York History, Old New York, Seafaring cats
Everyone knows that despite its nine lives, curiosity kills the cat. For the sea-faring cats in this story, it was curiosity and a war-time ban on ship whistles that left them stranded on the Chelsea Piers ship terminal during WWI and WWII.
