The Forewarning of Felines

The day before the Titanic set sail on her fateful voyage; Jenny, the ocean liner’s newly appointed ship’s cat was seen by an Irish scullery attendant carrying her newborn kittens down a gangplank and away from the ship’s galley and cavernous food storerooms. 

Paddy the Irishman who was busy himself with loading the provisions for a transatlantic voyage could not stop Jenny from her mission. With every half hour that passed, Paddy and his shipmates would have to move aside in their loading of perishables to allow Jenny who was removing her ship-born kittens, one by one. As the kittens were moving away from the impending ocean crossing, many of the Irish crewmembers began to recall tales of Irish witches who would keep cats to foretell of disasters or warn of witch hunters. 

After Jenny’s last kitten was free from the fate of the Titanic, Paddy also made a life changing decision and began to pack his personal belongings. On the day before the Titanic set sail, Paddy felt the premonition and the forewarning, and he too deserted the ill-fated ship. 

Before the news of the devastating iceberg and the sinking of the Titanic began reaching wharfs in England, Paddy was suddenly wide awake on the night of the disaster when Jenny began to howl in the tiny room in which she and her kittens was given refuge by the kind but superstitious scullery attendant. There was no doubt in Paddy’s mind that Jenny removing her kittens had given him a warning signal and new chance on life. A new chance because of an age-old legend that has foretold that felines always have a warning of approaching catastrophes.

Before the infamous earthquake in Port Royal, Jamaica where the most wicked city in the New World suddenly fell into the sea, there was a thriving population of cats because the pirate-infested city of brothels and cutthroats was home to thousands of garbage-feeding rats. According to Port Royal folklore, the only priests in the city began to take notice when the cats began to carry their kittens away when the debauchery of the city was resting in the mornings.

The days before the wicked city sank; hundreds of rats began to swarm in the streets even in the daylight hours. When the only two priests saw that all the cats were missing, and the hordes of rats were unafraid and emboldened by the wicked pirate haven, the two men of God also escaped before the church bell began tolling with the first vibrations of the massive Caribbean earthquake. Afterward, the cats and the priests were the only survivors, but the pirates and their ladies of the night became the broken skeletons that still haunt the wicked city that is now and forever, under the sea. 

During the last days of Pompeii in 79 AD, multitudes of rats began to overrun the historic Italian metropolis. The grain stores were under attack from the overrunning rodents, the children in their beds were kicking at the gnawing teeth at night, but before the giant mountain began to rumble, there was not a cat remaining in the city which had only days to survive. 

When the incredible Mount Vesuvius erupted and the city of Pompeii became a tragedy under almost instantaneous volcanic ash, the daily lives of the people of the city became forever frozen in time. In the many centuries following, where scholars and archeologists have made studies of the city and the remains that lie under the volcanoes’ residue, there are many skeletons of the unfortunate humans and skeletons of beasts of burden, but there have never been any skeletal remains of cats found under the ashes of Pompeii. Before the volcano began to erupt, the forewarning cats sensed tragedy and vanished.

Tales of felines foretelling disasters at sea remain to be forefront in the superstitions of sailors. When Joshua Slocum was the first to sail around the world alone in 1898, he invited onboard his 38-foot sailboat two cats. According to nautical lore, the two calicos made themselves at home and were great seafaring companions throughout the lengthy global voyage. However, when a cat is onboard a vessel where misfortune and danger are lurking, a feline can foretell a dismal future and will not stay aboard—even for a short time, and apparently, the urge to leave the ill-fated vessel is overwhelming and obvious. 

During World War II when many merchant ships were crossing the world’s oceans and were trying to avoid torpedo attacks and shipwreck, live-aboard cats were a symbol of good luck, safe voyages, and happy shipmates. A ship that could not keep a cat onboard was often unhappy, unlucky, or even doomed to disaster. 

During one failed mutiny at sea, a kind captain’s cat, sounded the alarm with howling and hissing to alert his master that skullduggery was afoot, and a malicious crew was waiting outside the captain’s cabin on a desperate and stormy night at sea. 

There are rumors of a cat with the name of Lucy who lives in a mental hospital in England. She apparently can tell if a patient will recover or will remain as a guest indefinitely. If Lucy will enter a patient’s room and begin purring, the person will be on the mend in no time. If Lucy will not enter and only offers the foretelling warning of a frightful hiss, the staff of the facility will consider themselves forewarned. 

When the full September Harvest Moon appears on this September 28, summer is finally finished, but as October edges onto the calendar, the foretelling tales of felines will not be the only paranormal tale appearing under the upcoming autumn moonlight in the Coastal Breeze.