Kiddo, the airship cat
Witches love cats, and cats love witches. Some traditions hold that our feline brothers and sisters are on a similar path to our own, and this explains our mutual affinity. Many who believe in reincarnation hold that cats do as well.(It comes as no surprise to us that the Egyptians had a hand in all this.)
Purr-n-Fur is about the best historic cat site. There you'll find out about the cats of WWII, cats who explored the Antarctic, and more. My favorite story is about "Kiddo", the airship cat. Kiddo was s stowaway in the lifeboat of an airship during a 1910 attempt at transatlantic crossing. At first the crew was annoyed by the cat. But after he settled in, proved to be a valuable crewmate:
...He soon regained his equilibrium and his spirits, and indeed the crew found him 'more useful than any barometer. You must never cross the Atlantic in an airship without a cat,' as the navigator Murray Simon put it. 'He is sitting on the sail of the lifeboat now as I write, washing his face in the sun: a pleasant picture of feline contentment. This cat has always indicated trouble well ahead. Two or three times when we thought we were "in" he gave most decided indications that he knew we would be shortly getting it in the neck...'
Unfortunately, the airship crashed at sea shortly before reaching its destination. The good news is that all hands were rescued, including Kiddo. The navigator reminded the crew that it had been a good idea to ship with a cat--as they have nine lives. Smart navigator!
(thanx to my friend Gomez Adams for pointing me to this site)
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