How I Research and Write Trilogy Cat Tale Novels for Various Holidays
By: Anne Hart
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 the day I
was born. 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.
By eating the rats and not the human’s food, the cat preserved the dwindling human’s food supply as
the sailors defended themselves.
According to the article about Simon on the Hahn Web site “The Communist forces then besieged the ship for
most of the summer. Despite his wounds, Simon, the cat, continued his duties, hunting rats on the trapped ship, helping to
preserve the dwindling food supply, until the incident ended. It should be noted, that Simon was the only cat to ever receive
the award.”
During World War Two, British
cats received their just rewards by having college dormitories open to them. The concept of the college cat continues today.
The Library rules and Emergency Procedures at Jesus College, in Cambridge, England states, “Please do not let the college
cat into the library.” Watchful cats feel at home among the academic courts of Cambridge, England.
The cat usually sleeps
on the sofas in the college offices and roams the campus. College cats are popular today as they were 65 years ago at Oxford,
Hertford College, Strong College, and Jesus College in Cambridge, England. View articles, news, and photos on contemporary
college cats in England on the Collegiate Way Web site at: http://collegiateway.org/howto/life/college-cats/
America has The Library Cat Society at: http://www.ironfrog.com/libcats/lcs.html. The Library Cat Society, founded in 1987 by Phyllis Lahti encourages the establishment of a cat or cats in a library
environment.
Address for further information on Library Cat Society is at:
The Library Cat Society
PO Box 274 Moorhead, MN 56560
Library Cats on the Web
According to their Web site,
Iron Frog Productions, an award-winning independent film and video production group, puts library cats on the map. To find
cats living in libraries, visit the Iron Frog Productions Web site (http://www.std.com/catalyst/ironfrog /). Designed by Catalyst Learning Systems of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the site features
the "Library Cats Map of the United States." Select any state on the map, and view a list of the cats known to reside (or
to have formerly resided) in libraries in that state.
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______________________________________________
About the author:
Anne Hart is an independent journalist and historian, author of 70+ books, plays, and numerous articles,
including the novel trilogy Problem Solving & Cat Tales for the Holidays, 2004
(ISBN 0-595-32692-7), and other cat novels such as Astronauts and Their Cats, and How to Write 45-Minute One-Act Plays for All Ages. Check out her Web sites at: http://www.newswiting.net or http://annehart.tripod.com.
Copyright
2006 by: Anne Hart
http://www.newswriting.net
newswriting@hotmail.com
