The Cats of Brooklyn

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Manolo Morales (1:17)

Perhaps I shouldn't start this episode by saying that I'm not the biggest cat fan. Once in a while, I help my friends feed their cats Santino when they're away. He's a chunky American short-haired cat who loves to eat, sleep, and rest. What a great life, right?

If I don't feed him on time, he'll get grumpy and maybe growl at me. He's territorial, and I'm always afraid he'll scratch me when I place his foot in his bowl. I find cats very intimidating. Silent predators. I know that's a bit dramatic, but that's just me.

And I know there's a whole community of cat lovers out there who adore these pets. So, I'm giving them a chance by taking a walking tour in Brooklyn, New York, guided by one cat lover.

Jeremy Diaz (2:01)

Why do I love cats?

I used to be a dog lover. I was turned to cats by my partner who had two cats herself. Her male cat, Dane Bosco, one day out of the blue, started meowing and meowing at me until I went to the couch to cuddle with him. And I think that's all it took. That one time that a cat defied all the stereotypes, you know, cats are supposed to be like aloof and not very friendly. And this one cat was just so lovable.

He just immediately melted my heart. And from then on, I've just loved cats.

Manolo Morales (2:44)

This is Cats About Town.

I'm Manolo Morales, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible and wondrous places. Cats About Town is the first and only walking tour dedicated to cat history. It's a tour that uncovers the surprising role cats have played in shaping the city life. Today, we're going to hear some of those stories about one of America's favorite felines. And if you love cats, this is a perfect episode for you.

Cats About Town would not exist without the work of Peggy Gavin, who spent more than 10 years writing about quirky animal tales for her website, The Hatching Cat NYC. Peggy looked at her 19th century newspaper, City Records and Photographs to find stories about cats. She even wrote a book about them titled The Cat Men of Gotham, Tales of Feline Friendships in Old New York. But it wasn't until 2024 when she was approached with the idea to create a walking tour solely dedicated to cats by Dan Ramada. Dan is also a cat lover. He has a site called Bodega Cats of New York, where you could find stories about cats living in independent convenience stores. Together, they worked on the logistics, and today, we're taking one of their walking tours in Brooklyn Heights guided by one cat lover, Jeremy Diaz.

Jeremy took us back to the 1500s through his time machine to tell us about Brooklyn history. But early cat stories began around the 1800s when people began to move to Brooklyn Heights for one particular reason.

Jeremy Diaz (4:34)

An outbreak of yellow fever takes place, and the rich people who live in Manhattan say, we don't like living in this place anymore. They look to here, to Brooklyn Heights, to the farmland and say, we're going to gobble up all that land and we're going to build our houses there. That gives Brooklyn Heights the honor of being America's first-ever suburb.

No, it's true. And it was actually commemorated in 1965 by a law that preserved around 600 of those original suburban homes.

Manolo Morales (5:09)

Then around 1870, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began. Tenements near the bridge had to be torn down, leaving people to find somewhere else to live. Inside those tenements were cats. But they stayed. And they were given the name the Brooklyn Bridge Cat Tribe.