Amazing Cat Stories

Amazing Cat Stories

by Michael
(London, UK)

It is not that hard to bump into amazing cat stories. This is because cats are amazing in a number of respects and they do get into some life threatening scrapes. Although I will update this page in the future, I would just like to pick a few examples. There are many more. One instinctive act of bravery that a mother cat exhibits is in the protection of her young.

Scarlett

This story concerns a stray American cat called Scarlett, living in Brooklyn, New York. Scarlett and her five kittens occupied an abandoned building, which caught fire. Scarlett carried all five of her kittens to safety despite the fact that the building was engulfed in flames. She returned into the burning building over and over again to bring her offspring to safety. She became badly burned with scarlet red patches on her body - hence her name. Her paws were burnt and her eyes "sealed shut by blisters". She identified her recovered kittens by smell. She made a recovery after three months. One of her kittens subsequently died. The remaining kittens were re-homed and Scarlett found a loving home as a special needs cat with Karen who had lost her cat seven years earlier in an accident. She was the perfect human companion as she was more than usually tender and compassionate due to her loss.

Cats have an enormous capacity for endurance and survival under the harshest of conditions. The next two stories concern trapped cats.

Lucy

Lucy's human family were selling their home and moving to Scotland from the south of England, some 500 miles away. They had prepared their furniture for the removals people and packed everything up. They spent the night in a nearby hotel (I guess with the intention of leaving first thing in the morning). They left their cat, Lucy, at home (a mistake in retrospect).

The next morning, when they returned to pick up Lucy, she had disappeared. They had to catch a flight to Scotland and with a lot of anguish and floods of tears left Lucy behind, resigned never to see her again despite asking neighbours to search for her. They heard nothing for seven weeks. The new owners of their house had moved in. They were settled. They heard a faint meow. Lucy was found trapped under the floorboards. She had been there the entire time probably surviving by licking condensation off a pipe under the floor. Wow. That is survival. She had survived seven weeks without apparent access to food or water. She was near death and very frail. She had lost one kilogram in weight (2.2 lbs). She was back on solids within 5 days and her human companions flew back from Scotland to pick her up ecstatic to see her again.

Emmy

Emmy's story of survival is similar to Lucy's. Emmy was trapped in a garden shed in Torquay, Devon, England. The astonishing thing is that she was trapped for an incredible nine weeks. With no food or water it is believed that she too survived by licking the condensation off the windows. The windows were covered in lick marks. Emmy made a full recovery.

There are a number of cases of cats helping people. Elisa recounted the amazing cat story of Oscar who spent time with people in a hospice who were near the end of their lives. He could tell when the person was about to die. Can cats predict disaster and death?.

Joey

Joey, an American shelter cat living in Oregon, was employed as a "feline therapist" at the Oregon Health Services University in Portland Oregon. He was a very relaxed and people orientated cat. His presence helped people recover. One example is the case of a teenage girl who had undergone brain surgery and in recovery was not responding to anything. As soon as Joey was placed next to her and her hand placed on Joey, the girl started to scratch him! Joey had done his work and prompted this sick child into action. This is not really one of the amazing cat stories because it is almost normal for a cat to have such a positive effect on people.

Some cats provide amazing cat stories by virtue of their appearance. The classic is the winged white cat in China. I have written about this: Winged Cats. There are a good number of winged cats throughout the history of the domestic cat. They attract attention but should be left alone and not exploited.

Yoda the four eared cat is another one of the "freak show" amazing cat stories. I dislike this. Cat With Four Ears.

Is the story of Savannah Cat Magic one of the amazing cat stories? I think it is. This is the world's tallest pet cat in a tender and loving relationship with a boy of similar size. It is a modern day real equivalent of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip. Here is the well known video that I made with video material provided by Kathrin Stucki who raised Magic with Martin Stucki at A1 Savannahs. The boy is their son, Andreas.

Cats have astonishing homing instincts. There are many amazing cat stories concerning journeys. I cover The Homing Instinct of Cats.

Gulliver

A not untypical cat journey story is the story of Gulliver a feral cat who curled up on top of a bus radiator to keep warm. When the bus started up and moved off he stayed put! The coach travelled from Glasgow in Scotland to Hull in East England, a journey of 300 miles and survived - no problem. The people at the bus depot discovered him when servicing the coach!

Felix

This amazing cat story is a mixture of survival and a cat journey. Felix, an Israeli cat, had found his way into a container at a port (he might have been a feral surviving on fish). He become trapped. The next time the container was opened was in the English port of Felixstowe. Note: Felix was named by the English after the town! The journey had taken seven weeks. He had clearly not eaten a thing during that time but had licked the condensation off the walls of the container to survive. Naturally, he was emaciated and distressed when recovered from the container that, incidentally, contained children's sandpits and paddling pools (a useless bit of information!) but soon bounced back when in the care of the RSPCA's hospital in Birmingham.

Interspecies friendship is really nice to see and cats are experts at it - look at our relationship with cats. There are a number of stories of cats befriending animals of a different species.

Muschi

Muschi is a German cat that befriended a 40 year old Asian bear named "Maeuschen" at Berlin Zoo in 2000. Muschi just turned up and settled into a long term relationship with the bear, who clearly liked Muschi from the word go. They shared food and slept together. When the bear's enclosure was refurbished the bear was moved to a cage in 2007. Muschi pined for her companion, hanging around outdo the cage, and it was decided that she should join the bear in the cage - common sense I say. They greeted each other with a cuddle!

I would also like to mention heroic cats as they will by definition provide amazing cat stories. The famous Simon comes to mind. You can read about him here in the comments section of this post entitled: Brave Cat. Simon is the only cat to be awarded the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross (the highest award for bravery) in the UK. Ruth (Monty's mom) is composing a song about him. She will also sing it herself. I will publish the song and some more about amazing cat stories in due course.

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