Posts Tagged ‘Cats of Old New York’

On January 8, 1933, Betty, chief mouser of the Lackawanna Terminal at Hoboken, NJ, hitched a train ride on the famous Lackawanna Limited to Dover, N.J. It was her first train trip since joining the crew at Hoboken four or five years earlier.

In 1932, the George Washington Bicentennial Planning Committee partnered with Sears, Roebuck and Company to construct a wood and plaster replica of Pierre Charles L’Enfants’s Federal Hall at Bryant Park. Few humans took interest in the structure, but it made the perfect home for a family of stray cats and a flock of pigeons.

On December 26, 1922, Minnie, the ship cat of the RMS Cedric, was honored for saving 36 lives (herself and her three kittens). The rescue took place during a severe storm in the Atlantic Ocean that disrupted Atlantic shipping and damaged or completely destroyed numerous steamships heading toward New York.

It’s been said that Bill McSorley was gruff with his customers, but he displayed plenty of kindness toward his cats. He owned as many as 18 feline barflies at once, and they reportedly had the run of the saloon.

In December 1926, a live cat was shipped from Morrisville, NY, to the Brooklyn General Post Office via the New York, Ontario, and Western Railway. Four wild rabbits also arrived at the post office on the same day, albeit, they were not as fortunate as the cat.