Posts Tagged ‘Cats of Old New York’

On January 24, 1899, a cat sprang out of a mail pouch after it had been unlocked at Branch Post Office H on Lexington Avenue and 44th Street. The unexpected contents gave the postal employees quite the surprise.

In December 1897-1899, Wanamaker’s Department Store on Broadway and 9th Street lured shoppers with a “bargain cat day,” in which Angora cats were sold as Christmas gifts for $10 to $40 each, depending on the cat’s color, size, and age.

Two weeks after the body of an unidentified woman was discovered in a Connecticut pond, a cat found the murder weapon in the NYC apartment where the woman had been killed.

Don’t mess with Isaac the bank cat. And don’t even think about coming in and stealing his territory–or the cash, for that matter. That was the message a “gaunt hobo cat” received when he sauntered into the Louis Scharlach & Co. bank at 362 Grand Street on the Lower East Side on November 14, 1900. […]

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.