Here’s the story of a cat named Room 8

 

A bit of history that I just learned, that touched my sentimental side

 

“Room 8” ( 1947–1968 )

 

Room 8 was a neighborhood cat who wandered into a classroom in 1952 at Elysian Heights Elementary School in Echo Park, California. He lived in the school during the school year and then disappeared for the summer, returning when classes started again. This pattern continued without interruption until the mid-1960s.

 

News cameras would arrive at the school at the beginning of the year waiting for the cat's return; he became famous and would receive up to 100 letters a day addressed to him at the school. Eventually, he was featured in a documentary called Big Cat, Little Cat and a children's book, A Cat Called Room 8. Look magazine ran a three-page Room 8 feature by photographer Richard Hewett in November 1962, titled "Room 8: The School Cat". Leo Kottke wrote an instrumental called "Room 8" that was included in his 1971 album, Mudlark.

 

As he got older, Room 8 was injured in a cat fight and suffered from feline pneumonia, so a family near the school volunteered to take him in. The school's janitor would find him at the end of the school day and carry him across the street.

 

His obituary in the Los Angeles Times rivaled that of major political figures, running three columns with a photograph. The cat was so famous that his obituary ran in papers as far away as Hartford, Connecticut. The students raised the funds for his gravestone. He is buried at the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park in Calabasas, California.

 

 

Neat story! Somebody has to ask though how they determined his birth year? Just a wild guess perhaps?

Twenty-one years is a long life. I suspect that if he could have talked, he would have been able to teach the subjects!

 

A beautiful story.  It reminds me a dog story...Greyfriars Bobby.

It brought a tear to my eye because I recently lost my beloved Shadow.

No, Shadow didn't die, but I had to move to a retirement community and I couldn't take my four cats with me.

I gave them to cat adoption place here in Roswell and the person who took them kept Shadow for himself.

Shadow was my cat.  She was a Russian Blue and spent most of the day my side.  When I was flight simming she would lay by my stick and when she felt sleepy she would crawl behind my monitor and go to sleep.  She would come whenever I called her.

I can have one cat here where I live now and I would have taken Shadow with me.  But she was an indoor-outdoor cat with free run of the house and yard.  She would have been unhappy in this small apartment I have now because she wouldn't have been able to go outside.

I might get a small kitten later who would be raised as an indoor cat.  But she would not be a Shadow replacement because Shadow is irreplaceable.

Many people during their lives have had a dog or a cat that they were soulmates with.  They are the lucky ones.  Being able to communicate with a pet without words or hand signals is magic.  Just a facial expression or a look.  

So late in life I was so blessed.  Shadow, I will never forget you.

Noel

16 hours ago, n4gix said:

Twenty-one years is a long life. I suspect that if he could have talked, he would have been able to teach the subjects!

I was just looking at a video today about a 27 year old cat.

After that amount of time, I think I would be a complete wreck if/when that cat ever passed away, especially if he/she had been a childhood companion.

10 hours ago, birdguy said:

Many people during their lives have had a dog or a cat that they were soulmates with.

I'm glad I'm not the only one: not many people understand this, not even cat/dog lovers!

When my Luna (a 11-year old female Beagle) passed away (less than a year after I came here to Argentina), I was baffled with the attitude of some people when I let them know about her decease, people that I knew had dogs. Since then I felt like an outlier...until this message. Thanks, Noel, somehow I know your feeling!