Posts Tagged ‘Cats of Old New York’

This is a tragic story that involves injury and cruelty and death–both human and feline. But it is an important story to tell, because it is part of our history. In fact, it is a major part of the ASPCA’s 150-year history in New York.

When a fire broke out on Halloween at 1632-1640 Pitkin Avenue in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, a mama cat was not about to let the firemen ignore her box of kittens.

When a Bergen Street trolley struck a horse-drawn milk wagon near the corner of New York Avenue in 1907, street cats and parlor cats came from every direction to wade and wallow in the spilled milk.

“Midnight prowlers and back-fence howlers enjoyed a lacteal orgy yesterday morning at the expense of William Evans, 250 Herkimer Street, whose milk wagon was struck by a Bergen Street trolley car.” New York Sun, June 30, 1907

Jane McAdam’s two dogs and nine cats depended on her to feed them and provide water every day. That’s why she was determined to ensure their care when she was sentenced to prison for six months in February 1879.