Posts Tagged ‘Cats of Old New York’

When the police began incarcerating stray cats in the jail cells at the Stagg Street station, their mascot cat was none too pleased to share his home with the mongrel intruders. He was willing to put up a good fight to preserve his domain.

The new electric traffic lights on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn were confusing to some motorists and pedestrians. But not to Nickie, the black cat of Motorcycle Squad No. 2 adjoining the former 18th Precinct police station on the southwest corner of 4th Avenue and 43rd Street in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park.

Although she lived through three storms while at sea in a small rowboat, Tabby the cat never lost even one of her nine lives during her nine days in the Sandy Hook Bay.

In April 1944, an unnamed cat fell down the chimney of a six-story apartment building at 1973 Bryant Avenue in West Farms. For four days and nights, Rose Colgan, who lived on the first floor, listened to the poor cat cry behind a wall in her department. It took four days, but she finally decided to take action.

The Algonquin Hotel may have had Billy and Rusty the cats, and the Hotel Lincoln may have had Abe the cat, but these male cats could not be mothers. Minnie was not only the mascot of the Hotel St. George, but she was a mother to 160 kittens.