Did you know that a stray cat named Ned was the first non-human to cross the Brooklyn Bridge after its construction in 1883? Or that a blind cat named Jerry saved the Brooklyn City Hall from burning down in a fire? These are the types of stories you’ll hear on NYC’s newest tour for cat and history lovers alike, Cats About Town.
Led by cat historian and master storyteller Peggy Gavan, Cats About Town is “NYC’s first walking tour for cat lovers.” Gavan tells stories about the city through an unexpected lens you won’t find anywhere else: that of the historical felines who once resided here.
“I tell the history of the city, in this case today Brooklyn Heights, through true cat stories from the late 1800s to the early 1900s” said Gavan before the tour began. Despite how fantastical some of the stories may seem, all of them were written about in newspapers long past.
For one, the famous Hotel St. George on Pineapple Street that was once patronized by America’s most opulent guests, was also inhabited by a popular cat named Minnie who would go on to have 160 kittens.
Gavan tells the story while standing across from the historic place: “Minnie it seems was once a young tiger kitten, with nothing to distinguish her except a sort of fatal beauty.”
Every time she had a new litter, “the hotel people would give them funny names like Saloon and Harlor and Dinner Dance, all things connected to the hotel” said Gavan.
Many of these stories can also be found in Gavan’s book The Cat Men of Gotham, but this experience brings her storytelling right off the page and onto the streets.
The tour begins at Walt Whitman Park where participants gather and first meet Gavan, already being presented with a cat-patterned goodie bag.
Two guests, Carlos and Christina from Queens and Brooklyn, respectively, found out about the tour through Instagram and were excited to learn more about the city and some historical cats. “We’re just cat people,” said Carlos while sporting a cat graphic tee with the text “This is how you make biscuits,” a reference to what cat owners call it when cats “knead” with their paws on a soft surface.
“Maybe there are things I haven’t noticed living here my entire life,” said Christina. “If there is something related to a cat, I want to know!”
To note, there are no guarantees that you will actually spot a physical cat while on the tour, but according to Gavan it has happened before, once in a stroller and a couple times perched in window sills. It becomes a sort of game, as “the first person to see a live cat will get a free future tour!” said Gavan.
Our tour was unfortunately not graced by the presence of a cat (though there were some dogs). One way to guarantee a cat sighting is to book a reservation with the Brooklyn Cat Cafe for after the tour, as the last stop is just a few blocks from the business.
For cat lovers, whether or not they spot a cat isn’t important. To simply celebrate their favorite felines is worth the trek. As Henry Ward Beecher once said: “When we profess a warm liking for cats, we don’t wish to be judged by too rigorous an ideal. We do not like them above all animals, but simply among other things. It is as cats that we like them.”
