Posts Tagged ‘Cats of Old New York’

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.

There is a saying that goes, “Cats rule. Dogs drool.” When it came to picking a side during the women’s suffrage movement in Brooklyn, the cat in this story ruled. She picked the winning side–the Brooklyn Woman Suffrage Association.

To celebrate her beloved cat’s 13th birthday, Mrs. Sarah Knowles held a fancy breakfast in his honor at her home in Brooklyn. Many newspapers across the country picked up the story and waxed poetic about the pampered cat.

Here is the fun tale of Mike, the female Williamsburg Post Office cat. Not only was Mike misnamed, she was “missent.” If there had been an Internet back then, this story would have surely gone viral.