Dagwood the Ping Pong Cat
The Internet loves cats, and it's made quite a few of them famous (such as Snowball the Monster Cat, Grumpy Cat, and Maru). However, the phenomenon of the Celebrity Cat wasn't invented by the Internet. People have been fascinated by strange and unusual felines for about as long as the two species have been living together. So meet some of the famous weird cats of yesteryear.
First up we have Dagwood the Ping Pong Cat.
Whenever Ted Matson of Portland, Oregon wanted to play ping pong, his cat Dagwood would make a nuisance of herself and get in the way by chasing the ball. Finally, Matson decided to put her on the opposite side of the net and let her try the game. She proved to be a natural, adept at both the two-handed smash and the one-handed volley.
In the early 1950s, Dagwood's talent was featured on the TV show You Asked For It, hosted by Art Baker. (Check out the footage on YouTube.) This won her national fame.
In 1976, clips of Dagwood playing ping pong were shown during an episode of the TV series M*A*S*H, introducing her to a new generation of viewers.
Click through to meet some other weird felines who were famous in the Time Before the Internet.
Puffy the Hypnotist Cat
Puffy was a "feline hypnotist." His owner, Arthur Newman, a stage performer, claimed that Puffy had successfully hypnotized over 300 people.
A person would simply stare into Puffy's large, unblinking eyes while Newman slowly counted out loud. Within ten seconds, the person would be in a hypnotic trance.
Throughout the early 1940s, Newman included Puffy in his stage act, and he often entertained wounded veterans and helped promote war bond sales.
As a result, in 1945 the American Feline Society named Puffy its honorary president, in recognition of how he had used his "psychic powers" to aid the war effort.
Nonesuch the Cat Dog
In mid-August 1936, a cat in Wilmington, North Carolina gave birth to a litter of four kittens. Two of these kittens were rather odd looking, and a third was really weird. So much so that everyone who saw it swore that it was a dog rather than a cat.
This "cat dog" was named Nonesuch, and it soon attracted the attention of a local doctor, Henry Sternberger, who wrote an article about it for the Journal of Heredity.
He described it as "the queerest looking creature one could hope to set eyes upon. Its face is that of a black, white, and yellow spotted dog. Its ears are quite long and sharp-pointed. It has the short whiskers of a puppy."
Nonesuch proved she was really a cat (albeit a very strange-looking one) by giving birth to a litter of kittens a year later.
Blackie the Talking Cat
Blackie the cat had the ability to say several phrases, including "I love you" and "I want my Mama." During the early 1980s, Carl and Elaine Miles, his owners, would walk through the streets of Augusta, Georgia with him and would happily demonstrate his unusual vocal talent to whomever was curious — in return for a modest donation, usually in the range of 25 or 50 cents.
But when the city officials of Augusta learned of what the Mileses were doing, they reasoned that the couple was running a talking-cat business and should therefore have to pay for a $50 annual business license.
The Mileses sued the city instead, arguing that their "business" (the "display and collection of donations for a talking cat") didn't require a license, because that kind of activity was not specifically described in the relevant ordinance.
The court didn't buy their argument, but the case did earn Blackie lasting fame in the legal community by establishing a Talking Cat precedent which lawyers love to cite.
For more info about Blackie, see the Lowering the Bar Blog.
Note: The image above is a stock photo of a black cat. It's not Blackie.
Mincha the Tree Cat
In October 1947, something scared Mincha the cat up a 40-foot tree in a Buenos Aires neighborhood. No one is sure exactly what scared her. Maybe it was kids trying to tie cans to her tail, or a drunk taking a swipe at her. Whatever it was, she didn't come down again. Ever. (Or, by some accounts, not for six years). And by staying up there, she became a local celebrity.
She sat up there through summer heat and winter cold.
People tried to lure her down, but without success. So every morning the milkman would raise a bowl of milk on a pole for her to drink from, and other locals lifted pieces of meat on long sticks to feed her.
Perhaps she snuck down during the night, when no one was watching. But come daylight, she was always up there. She managed to get pregnant three times, but didn't descend from her branch to give birth, so all her kittens fell to the ground and died.
The Cat That Stole the Stage at the United Nations
On November 12 1951, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden was addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations, urging a calmer approach to world problems. As he talked a large black cat appeared out of nowhere, walked up the red carpet to the stage, and strolled nonchalantly across it, behind Eden.
No one ever figured out who the cat belonged to or what its name was. Some said they thought they had seen the same cat earlier that week hanging around the newspaper offices.
Pat the Christmas Tree-Eating Cat
In December 1960, as Christmas approached, Lawrence Roy put up a tree in the living room of his family's Greenville, Michigan home. He decorated it with plastic ornaments and tinfoil icicles.
But although the tree started out as a lush, densely needled green, it was soon looking a little worse for wear. The problem was that Pat, the family's Siamese cat, had developed a voracious appetite for pine needles.
Day after day, needle by needle, Pat ate the tree until there was nothing left but ornaments hanging on bare branches. He even gnawed the ornaments a bit.
Roy still wanted a decent-looking Christmas tree, so he replaced the cat-eaten pine tree with a wild cherry tree (leafless because of the winter cold). Pat climbed in it and occasionally batted the ornaments, but she didn't eat it.
Krip the Cat was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Joe Markey of Ocala, Florida. In August 1967, she gave birth to a litter of kittens, but lost all of them, save one. However, being determined to be a good mother, she improvised and adopted three baby squirrels she found in the yard.
Nowadays there are entire websites devoted to showcasing cats that look like Hitler. But Eva was the original one.
Back in 1951 she was put up for adoption on a Chicago TV show, but no one would take her in because of her resemblance to the infamous German dictator. Eventually she was given a home by the Animal Welfare League who made her head mouse chaser in their kennels.
The Internet loves cats, and it's made quite a few of them famous (such as Snowball the Monster Cat, Grumpy Cat, and Maru). However, the phenomenon of the Celebrity Cat wasn't invented by the Internet. People have been fascinated by strange and unusual felines for about as long as the two species have been living together. So meet some of the famous weird cats of yesteryear.
First up we have Dagwood the Ping Pong Cat.
Whenever Ted Matson of Portland, Oregon wanted to play ping pong, his cat Dagwood would make a nuisance of herself and get in the way by chasing the ball. Finally, Matson decided to put her on the opposite side of the net and let her try the game. She proved to be a natural, adept at both the two-handed smash and the one-handed volley.
In the early 1950s, Dagwood's talent was featured on the TV show You Asked For It, hosted by Art Baker. (Check out the footage on YouTube.) This won her national fame.
In 1976, clips of Dagwood playing ping pong were shown during an episode of the TV series M*A*S*H, introducing her to a new generation of viewers.
Click through to meet some other weird felines who were famous in the Time Before the Internet.
Puffy the Hypnotist Cat
Puffy was a "feline hypnotist." His owner, Arthur Newman, a stage performer, claimed that Puffy had successfully hypnotized over 300 people.
A person would simply stare into Puffy's large, unblinking eyes while Newman slowly counted out loud. Within ten seconds, the person would be in a hypnotic trance.
Throughout the early 1940s, Newman included Puffy in his stage act, and he often entertained wounded veterans and helped promote war bond sales.
As a result, in 1945 the American Feline Society named Puffy its honorary president, in recognition of how he had used his "psychic powers" to aid the war effort.
Nonesuch the Cat Dog
In mid-August 1936, a cat in Wilmington, North Carolina gave birth to a litter of four kittens. Two of these kittens were rather odd looking, and a third was really weird. So much so that everyone who saw it swore that it was a dog rather than a cat.
This "cat dog" was named Nonesuch, and it soon attracted the attention of a local doctor, Henry Sternberger, who wrote an article about it for the Journal of Heredity.
He described it as "the queerest looking creature one could hope to set eyes upon. Its face is that of a black, white, and yellow spotted dog. Its ears are quite long and sharp-pointed. It has the short whiskers of a puppy."
Nonesuch proved she was really a cat (albeit a very strange-looking one) by giving birth to a litter of kittens a year later.
Blackie the Talking Cat
Blackie the cat had the ability to say several phrases, including "I love you" and "I want my Mama." During the early 1980s, Carl and Elaine Miles, his owners, would walk through the streets of Augusta, Georgia with him and would happily demonstrate his unusual vocal talent to whomever was curious — in return for a modest donation, usually in the range of 25 or 50 cents.
But when the city officials of Augusta learned of what the Mileses were doing, they reasoned that the couple was running a talking-cat business and should therefore have to pay for a $50 annual business license.
The Mileses sued the city instead, arguing that their "business" (the "display and collection of donations for a talking cat") didn't require a license, because that kind of activity was not specifically described in the relevant ordinance.
The court didn't buy their argument, but the case did earn Blackie lasting fame in the legal community by establishing a Talking Cat precedent which lawyers love to cite.
For more info about Blackie, see the Lowering the Bar Blog.
Note: The image above is a stock photo of a black cat. It's not Blackie.
Mincha the Tree Cat
In October 1947, something scared Mincha the cat up a 40-foot tree in a Buenos Aires neighborhood. No one is sure exactly what scared her. Maybe it was kids trying to tie cans to her tail, or a drunk taking a swipe at her. Whatever it was, she didn't come down again. Ever. (Or, by some accounts, not for six years). And by staying up there, she became a local celebrity.
She sat up there through summer heat and winter cold.
People tried to lure her down, but without success. So every morning the milkman would raise a bowl of milk on a pole for her to drink from, and other locals lifted pieces of meat on long sticks to feed her.
Perhaps she snuck down during the night, when no one was watching. But come daylight, she was always up there. She managed to get pregnant three times, but didn't descend from her branch to give birth, so all her kittens fell to the ground and died.
The Cat That Stole the Stage at the United Nations
On November 12 1951, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden was addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations, urging a calmer approach to world problems. As he talked a large black cat appeared out of nowhere, walked up the red carpet to the stage, and strolled nonchalantly across it, behind Eden.
No one ever figured out who the cat belonged to or what its name was. Some said they thought they had seen the same cat earlier that week hanging around the newspaper offices.
Pat the Christmas Tree-Eating Cat
In December 1960, as Christmas approached, Lawrence Roy put up a tree in the living room of his family's Greenville, Michigan home. He decorated it with plastic ornaments and tinfoil icicles.
But although the tree started out as a lush, densely needled green, it was soon looking a little worse for wear. The problem was that Pat, the family's Siamese cat, had developed a voracious appetite for pine needles.
Day after day, needle by needle, Pat ate the tree until there was nothing left but ornaments hanging on bare branches. He even gnawed the ornaments a bit.
Roy still wanted a decent-looking Christmas tree, so he replaced the cat-eaten pine tree with a wild cherry tree (leafless because of the winter cold). Pat climbed in it and occasionally batted the ornaments, but she didn't eat it.
Krip the Cat was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Joe Markey of Ocala, Florida. In August 1967, she gave birth to a litter of kittens, but lost all of them, save one. However, being determined to be a good mother, she improvised and adopted three baby squirrels she found in the yard.
Nowadays there are entire websites devoted to showcasing cats that look like Hitler. But Eva was the original one.
Back in 1951 she was put up for adoption on a Chicago TV show, but no one would take her in because of her resemblance to the infamous German dictator. Eventually she was given a home by the Animal Welfare League who made her head mouse chaser in their kennels.
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