Puffy, the Hypnotist Cat

In 1945, the American Feline Society bestowed the title of "King of All Cats" to a Persian cat belonging to Arthur Newman. Puffy had a peculiar talent for hypnotizing people, always for benign purposes, after which they felt relaxed and even relieved of headaches. By then, Puffy was credited with hypnotizing over 300 people. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer:    

It was one night last fall that Puffy, then a kitten, first demonstrated his powers. "He was sitting on the end of a night club bar," Newman recalls, his voice becoming hushed, "and a couple of girls came up to pet him. I didn't pay much attention until one of the girls nudged me and whispered, "Look at my friend!'

"Well, sir, that girl was simply out on her feet. It wasn't from drinking, either. I'm something of a hypnotist myself and I quickly realized that she was in a real hypnotic trance, brought on by Puffy's staring into her eyes."

Newman, who had bought Puffy in a pet shop for purposes of demonstrating that people should relax like cats, immediately started training him to stare even more fixedly, with such success that Puffy now can stare Newman down any time.

No one these days is astonished that staring into a cat's eyes can bring relaxation, but Puffy was a sensation. Puffy was honored with articles in several newspapers of the time, and may have been the original therapy cat. Read more about Puffy at Strange Company.