We know that cats can drive you insane. In 1895, Miss Lillie James was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Bellevue hospital. She was known as a "crazy cat lady" with at least a dozen cats. And she knew who was to blame.
Miss James agreed to being admitted–on one condition. The two cats that she brought with her to the hospital would also have to be committed to the asylum. After all, she said, it was the cats who were insane. She was perfectly sane and clear of mind.
“It is their conduct that has placed me in my present condition,” she told the doctors. “These cats and nine others have conspired against me and affected my health, with the idea of getting possession of my property. Are these guilty cats to go free while I am locked up?”
Although the hospital refused to admit the cats, one most wonder if they were allowed to stay on the grounds. By 1899, there were more than three dozen cats living at the large Bellevue Hospital complex. And in 1904, there was at least one feline in residence that we know about for sure: a white kitten named Red Cross.
The article at The Hatching Cat is not about Lillie James nor any other cat lady. It is about the adventures of the Bellevue hospital kitten known as Red Cross.
(Unrelated image credit: L. Prang & Co.)
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