|
How
I Research and Write Trilogy Cat Tale Novels for Various Holidays
By: Anne Hart
True historical cat or dog adventures often inspire me to research
even more happy ending novels or stories of cats or dogs. Here's what some research revealed about cats as heroes, cats receiving
medals, and cats as mascots.
***
Oscar, the seafaring black cat, should have been
named Jonah. Oscar began his ‘naval’ career as official mascot on the German Battleship, Bismarck during World
War Two. Oscar roamed the decks, ate his fish rations, and scratched at his posts as the Bismarck battled the British destroyer,
Cossack.
When the Cossack sunk the Bismarck, Oscar floated
on flotsam. The admiral saw a cat on a wet wood roof in the middle of the ocean and rescued him. Soon tomcat Oscar became
the mascot of the Cossack, living pretty much the same cozy cat life, when it was decided to transfer him to the British aircraft
carrier, Ark Royal. The admiralty noticed a black cat “walking the plank” and rescued Oscar once more from the
floating flotsam. And for a third time, Oscar became the aircraft carrier’s mascot and pet cat.
Along came an enemy warship and destroyed the
Ark Royal. Oscar survived again by floating on a wooden plank and looking so irresistible that the admirals couldn’t
help rescuing him. Oscar survived his second shipwreck and third ship, finally to be taken to Gibraltar to be someone’s
pet. The sailors kept tab of Oscar’s nine lives. In Britain, black cats are said to be lucky, that is, from the cat’s
point of view.
I found this Associated Press news story when
I went to photocopy a newspaper dated November 18, 1941, to see what happened in the world that special day. The original
article about Oscar appeared in the San Francisco newspaper, the Call-Bulletin
for that day. The title of the article was “Oscar Has His 9 Lives, But Loses
His 3 Ships.” The Associated Press article began, “GIBRALTAR, Nov.
18 (AP)—Oscar, the Nazi-reared black cat who has been the pet of three warships, is safe and sound here, but all three
ships are at the bottom of the sea. In fact, Oscar has been a Jonah to two navies.”
I write novels about hero cats. Cat stories dating from World War Two take a lot of research to locate. If you think
it took courage to be Oscar, the feline mascot of two navies, meet another cat named Windy, the pet of Wing Commander, Guy
Gibson, VC, the dam-buster of World War II. Windy accompanied Gibson on dangerous war time missions. Windy flew in planes
and knew how to swim. This cat put in “more flying hours than most cats,” From (Desmond Morris, Cat World, Edbury). See the “Famous Cats”
Web site at: http://myhome.ispdr.net.au/~pshaw/famous.html And Famous Cats We All Love at: http://petcaretips.net/famous_cats_tony_tiger.html
Whisky, the tabby cat slept in ‘luxury’ on the HMS Duke
of York as the British battleship sunk the German warship, Scharnhorst during World War II. Cats and other animals served
as mascots, mine sniffers, and pets with the British and Commonwealth forces.
Cat
mascot, Susan attended the D-Day invasion after making herself at home on a landing craft of the Royal Navy. The South
African Rifle Unit kept a lion as mascot. If you want to see photos of these World War II cat mascots, their photos are at
the Web site: WW2 Mascots (A Special Presentation from Hahn’s 50th AP K-9, West Germany), at: http://community-2.webtv.net/Hahn-50thAP-K9/K9History22/ . The site contains actual photos of a few of the World War II cats and also some dogs
and other animals that served with the military forces as mascots and pets on board ships, planes, or in the field.
Simon, the black and white “tuxedo cat”
mascot aboard the HMS Amethyst, a British Escort Sloop, was the only cat to ever receive the Dickin VC medal in April 1949,
soon after World War II ended. You can view Simon with the medal on his collar in a photo currently on the Hahn Web site mentioned
above.
Simon
became famous, according to the news story on the Hahn Web site, when the cat was aboard the HMS Amethyst, designed for convoy
escort duty during the Second World War. That sloop happened to be in China just as Mao Tse-Tung's forces consolidated their
hold on the country.
The
sloop slipped and became trapped on the Yangtze River. As the Chinese shelled the ship, Simon found a way to hide from the
bullets during the siege when the ship was hit 50 times.
Seventeen
humans were killed, with 25 wounded. Simon hid in the wreckage. And no one found him for four days. But call it the luck of
nine lives, Simon survived on fat, juicy rats that boarded the trapped ship. Picture this image: trapped cat, trapped ship,
trapped rats. But Simon quickly found a solution to the survival problem.
|
|
|
