Folks - I was going to continue today with the series of crypto reports from chronicling America but I have found something rather significant on the site this afternoon which I want to some more more research on, so I am returning to a theme I brought to your attention a few months ago,curious cats.
I have two stories. Firstly, from the Jackdaw column in The Guardian of February 19th 1997: `A cat`s tale.` (No,I`m not being very original today am I ?! )
“The large number of tail–less cats in the Flensburg * area on the German-Danish border is thought to be the result of a bomber crash in 1942. On the night of October 12 that year, 27 Halifaxes of 4 Group attacked the U-boat base at Flensburg, 12 being shot down by a new type of Swiss manufactured Oerlikon flak gun moved into the area a few days earlier.
Kurt Peuschel,then a boy of 14, and some of his school friends,were allowed by the German guard to inspect one of the crashed bombers, believed to be W7717 of 10 Squadron from Melbourne. The guard told them that five of the Canadian crew had been taken prisoner and that two bodies had been removed. The prisoners had asked the guard to look for their cat mascot,a tom,which they would recognise because it had no tail. Kurt and his friends were enlisted in what proved to be a fruitless search for the cat.
Now married and living in Switzerland, Kurt visited his 90-year old mother last year and while with her saw a local TV station report on the large number of cats without tails in the Flensburg area.
The report attributed them to the missing mascot, which was thought to have been obtained when the crew were at a rest centre on the Isle of Man. Taken from the Air Mile, the Journal of the RAF Association. Thanks to AJ Lne for spotting this jewel. (1)
* I had a German girlfriend from Flensburg that I met in Derry. She was deeply into the poetry of John Cooper Clarke. I bet you never knew that!!
Next, a favourite of mine, old moggies: “ The cat`s whiskers Spike is oldest moggie at 29. A 29 year old ginger and white tomcat called Spike was yesterday crowned Britain`s oldest living moggie. The 10lb puss – who is the equivalent of 203 in human years- won an entry in the Guinness Book of Records. Owner Mo Elkington claimed Spike ….lived so long because she feeds him trendy “healing” plant Aloe Vera. She said “ I put some in his food every day. It keeps his fur healthy and protects him against rheumatism.” Aromatherapist Mo,47,of Bridport, Dorset,bought Spike as a kitten for half – a – crown at a market. She only discovered Spike was a record breaker when she took him to a vet.She said: “ I`d no idea his age was that unusual but the vet was staggered so I called the record people.”
Mo added: “ He must be lucky because he was bitten by a huge dog at 19. Vets didn`t think he`d live. Britain`s oldest cat died in Devon in 1957, aged 34. (2)
Of course this is 11 years ago, so by now there may have been a new record.
1.The Guardian February 19th 1997.
2. The Sun. October 15th 1999.
The Beatles Blackbird
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting to be free….
Richard-o
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