100 Cats Who Changed Civilization (18 page)

The firefighter scooped up the mother and babies and took them to the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, New York. The staff, sensing a chance for a little publicity, told the story to a local TV station. The agency got more
than a
little
publicity. Everyone from CNN to the BBC picked up the tale, and soon people from as far away as Cairo and Japan were writing and phoning the shelter.

The mother was named Scarlett, because of the livid color of her burns. Sadly, one of the kittens died of an infection. But the other four made strong recoveries. As the family convalesced together, thousands of adoption offers flooded in from around the world. Finally, two kittens named Samsara and Tanuki were given to a Port Washington family; the other two, Cinders and Oreo, found their way to Hampton Bays, New York.

Heroic Scarlett found a home with the Wellen family in Brooklyn. Her scars healed, and the only remaining signs of her travails were her rather poor vision and the amputated tips of her ears. Her new owners have also helped heal any emotional scars. “She’s a total love machine,” a family member told the
New York Times
. The formerly scrawny stray is also, apparently, an eating machine. After her rescue she ballooned to seventeen pounds—quite a change from her days as an action heroine.

MOURKA

THE CAT WHO SERVED AT
STALINGRAD

No single World War II battle proved as costly as the struggle for Stalingrad. For 199 days, German forces tried to wrest control of the Soviet city (now called Volgograd) from the Red Army. The Nazis were finally repelled, but at the almost unimaginable cost of two million lives.

The victory demanded incredible feats of heroism. Remarkably, one of the bravest of the brave wasn’t a soldier, but a cat named Mourka. During the bitter street fighting inside the city, exposing oneself for even a moment was tantamount to suicide. For one squad assigned to find and report the location of German artillery positions, the only way to get information back to headquarters was by hand—until they received unexpected help in the form of Mourka. The stray cat could run notes back and forth unobserved, sparing his human comrades terrible risk. His contribution to the war effort was duly noted in the
Times
(UK), which said of the intrepid feline: “He has shown himself worthy of Stalingrad, and whether for cat or man there can be no higher praise.”

PRECIOUS

THE CAT WHO SURVIVED 9/11

During a crisis, average citizens may discover they possess undreamed-of reserves of heroism and grit. Such was the case for many New Yorkers on September 11, 2001. And such was especially the case for a pampered nine-pound Persian cat named Precious. Her tale of survival is as unlikely as it is inspiring.

Precious’s owners, Steve and D. J. Kerr, were out of town on the fateful day. The cat was alone in their apartment, located directly across the street from the Twin Towers, when the buildings collapsed. The shock shattered every window, first spraying the interior with glass and metal shrapnel and then filling it with a cloud of dust.

But things got worse. The 114 Liberty Street building was so heavily damaged that its tenants weren’t allowed to return. That meant Precious had to survive on her own—a tall order for an eight-year-old feline who’d never even been outside. Yet eighteen days later, an animal rescue team found her on the building’s roof. She was thirsty, dirty, and two pounds lighter, but otherwise intact. Her survival proved that New Yorkers are tough, even the ones who don’t get out much.

TOMMY

THE CAT WHO COULD
USE A PHONE

The news is filled with stories of dogs who help their stricken owners. But few canines have ever displayed the devotion, let alone the cognitive skills, shown by Tommy, owned by Gary Rosheisen of Columbus, Ohio. In January 2006, the chronically ill Rosheisen fell out of his wheelchair near his bed. He couldn’t get up, and he couldn’t call for help.

Shortly thereafter, someone used his phone to place a 911 call. When dispatchers answered, all they heard was silence on the other end. The call was disconnected and the number dialed, and when no one answered, police were dispatched. The officers who entered the apartment found an incapacitated Rosheisen sprawled on the bedroom floor and his orange and tan feline, Tommy, sitting in the living room by the phone. No one else was around. Later, Rosheisen (who must have had a lot of time on his hands) stated that he’d tried to teach his cat to hit the 911 button on his speed dial. He didn’t think the lesson had stuck, but apparently it had. “He’s my hero,” he told the Associated Press.

EMILY

THE CAT WHO TRAVELED
WORST-CLASS TO FRANCE

Curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat. More often, it just lands the cat in some very curious predicaments. That’s certainly the case for Emily, a nondescript tabby who lived the first months of her life with owner Lesley McElhiney of Appleton, Wisconsin.

Emily had a nose for trouble. One day, while out roaming the neighborhood, she decided to explore a nearby warehouse. That decision started her on an adventure that spanned two continents and turned her into an international celebrity.

Because Emily can’t talk, we’ll never know all the details of her globetrotting adventure. But the high points of her itinerary are plain enough. In late September 2005, Emily started poking around a paper company distribution center near her home. Somehow she got into a container of paper bales bound for France. Once inside, she must have fallen asleep—so soundly, apparently, that she didn’t notice when the container was sealed and shipped out.

She wouldn’t see the light of day again for weeks. First the parcel containing the paper (and Emily) was hauled by truck to Chicago, then by ship to Belgium, then by truck again to Raflatac, a
laminating company based in Nancy, France. Finally, on October 24 (which happened to be the hapless cat’s first birthday), the crate was pried open to reveal a very thin, very thirsty Emily. Surprised workers checked her tags and called her Wisconsin veterinarian, who in turn informed the extremely surprised McElhiney family.

The tale of the little cat’s saga quickly spread around the world, and volunteers stepped forward to help the far-ranging feline find her way home. Raflatac covered the $7-per-day cost of her mandatory month-long quarantine in France. And when Emily was finally cleared to return, she did so courtesy of Continental Airlines, which flew her back to the United States in business class. She’d grown so enamored of French food that she arrived home a bit plumper than when she left.

Emily was reunited with her family at the Milwaukee airport, and she resumed the life of quiet anonymity she’d lived before her fateful encounter with the shipping crate. “She seems a little calmer than she was before,” McElhiney told the BBC. “Just a little quieter, a little, maybe, wiser.”

RUSIK

THE CAT WITH A NOSE
FOR (STOLEN) CAVIAR

Police dogs are old news. Police cats, however, are something special. Especially when they give their lives on the job. Such is the story of a Russian feline named Rusik.

Rusik’s nose made him special. He had been adopted by customs guards at a police checkpoint in Stavropol, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The guards soon learned he could infallibly detect the presence of caviar. This skill would have been useless almost anywhere except near the Caspian, whose sturgeon produce 95 percent of the world’s high-quality caviar. Not surprisingly, numerous poachers net Caspian fish illegally, steal their roe, then smuggle it out for sale on the black market.

Enter Rusik, who was so good at locating concealed caviar in vehicles that he replaced the sniffer dog the cops formerly used. Alas, his career ended tragically in July 2003. After inspecting a bus, he jumped out onto the street and was run over by a car—a car in which he’d previously found contraband fish eggs. Was it a contract killing? Many suspect so. Especially since another police cat died a short while afterward, allegedley from eating a poisoned mouse.