By Jaime Stephens
Many people are familiar with Garfield, Felix the Cat, Tom of Tom and Jerry, and Sylvester, The Cat in the Hat, Grumpy Cat, and other fictional, cartoon, and even famous cats on the internet, but how many people have heard of Felicette? Or Crème Puff? How about Choupette? Or Room 8, Scarlett, or Oscar?
The first, and only, cat ever sent to space was Félicette, a tuxedo Parisian stray who was launched into space on October 18, 1963, by the French space program. She was part of a French mission to study the effects of space travel on living organisms. Electrodes were implanted in her brain before the flight to monitor her neurological responses to the flight. She came through the flight with flying colors but, unfortunately, was euthanized shortly thereafter so her brain could be studied by scientists. On a personal note: I might name my next female cat Felicette, after the first female astronaut, in her honor.
Who’s heard the story of Room 8? Hundreds of school children living in Echo Park, California, have. In 1952, a skinny, gray, stray tabby cat wandered into Room 8 at Elysian Heights Elementary School. Named Room 8 by the schoolchildren, he barely missed a day of school for the next 15 years. Living in the school throughout the school year, he would leave each summer when the children did and, like clockwork, return each fall. No one knew what he did or where he went during the summer break. Estimated to have been five years old when he first attended the school, he died from kidney failure at the age of 21, while attending a summer school class. His obituary was published in The Los Angeles Times and other papers around the country. In his heyday, he received up to 10,000 fan letters a year.
Crème Puff, a mixed tabby cat, has the distinction of being the longest living cat on record. She lived to be 38 years old and had no health issues when she passed away peacefully in her sleep. Her owner, Jake Perry, of Austin, Texas, attributed it to her diet, saying it consisted of dry cat food supplemented with broccoli, eggs, turkey bacon, coffee with cream, and—every two days—”an eyedropper full of red wine”. Perry claimed that this diet was key to her longevity, and that the wine “circulated the arteries.”
In 1995, a fire broke out in an abandoned garage, thought by authorities to be a crack house, in Brooklyn, New York. A mother cat and her five kittens were rescued by the New York City Fire Department’s David Giannelli, who noticed the cat carrying her kittens out of the garage one by one and brought them to safety at a veterinary clinic in Port Washington, New York, to be treated. Scarlett was very badly burned, her eyes shut and blistered, but she continued nosing each of her kittens to ensure all five were with her. All but one of the kittens, who died from a virus, survived and were adopted, the four remaining in pairs of two. Although difficult to pinpoint her age, it was believed Scarlett lived to be thirteen when she succumbed to a variety of illnesses. She was selfless, a true hero, and one Scarlett who definitely gave a damn.
One may be more familiar with Choupette, owned by the late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. Choupette, which means “sweetie” in French, is a cream Birman tortoiseshell, now 15 years old. When Lagerfeld passed away in 2019, Choupette was left $1.5 million dollars in the will to be administered by a caretaker. Today, Choupette resides with Françoise Caçote, Lagerfeld’s former housekeeper, and continues to enjoy the lifestyle that she did while her original owner was alive.
If you’re unfamiliar with Oscar, that’s probably a good thing. Oscar, as a six-month old kitten, was adopted by a nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island, with their intention that he become a therapy cat. While he was quite shy at first, a bit of a loner, he would occasionally crawl into a resident’s bed and snuggle up next to them. Frequently, the resident would die shortly thereafter, usually within a few hours. Sometimes, he would visit an individual that seemed to be dying but leave their bed after a short time. Instead, he’d hop on the bed of someone who was considered much healthier. The healthy person would usually pass away well before the individual Oscar initially visited.
Oscar’s behavior within hours of someone’s death was so accurately predictive, staff started calling in the family members of residents as soon as they noticed the cat starting to get friendly and cuddly with residents.
Research shows that both cats and dogs have the ability to smell illness and disease in humans and it may be possible that Oscar had a particularly sharp nose for chemical changes during the death process. Whatever it was, it compelled him to offer his companionship during someone’s dying hours.
Over the course of his lifetime, Oscar’s behavior “predicted” the death of over one hundred terminally ill individuals, until he himself died at the age of seventeen.
Cats are amazing creatures and the stories shared above are just a few examples that illustrate just how special they are.
About the Author: Jaime Stephens lives with her husband, John, and feline family in the west end of Alexandria.
References:
Inside the lavish life of Karl Lagerfeld’s cat Choupette: ‘she’s the boss’ – exclusive | HELLO!
A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat | New England Journal of Medicine
The story of Félicette, the first cat in space | BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Purr-n-Fur UK | Room 8, famed Californian School Cat