Amazing Cat Stories

Myths about cats abound, such as cats having nine lives or being able to see spirits. Perhaps one reason so many seemingly far-fetched ideas exist is because of the amazing true stories about cats that have been recorded and verified.

Oscar, the Swimming Cat

In 1941, a small black cat aboard the German ship Bismark took to the ocean when the ship sank. British soldiers fished him out, and Oscar lived five months on the HMS Cossack until it also sank. Once again, soldiers fished Oscar out of the ocean and he resided on the HMS Ark Royal for three weeks until that ship sank. Hours later, Oscar was rescued once again and nursed back to health. He lived the rest of his days at the Home for Sailors in Belfast, when he died of natural causes in 1955.

Sooner, the Unintended Passenger

When Audra Dahl began her journey from Oklahoma back home to Texas in 2003, she had no idea that a feral tabby kitten had crawled into the engine compartment of her car. Audra heard a cat meowing after arriving home, but it took two days to discover the hiding cat. After another day of coaxing, the kitten finally crawled out of the car, and Sooner now lives in the life of a spoiled mouser in a horse barn.

Oscar, the Grim Reaper

Oscar's ability to foretell the death of hospice patients has even gotten him an essay in the New England Journal of Medicine. The white and gray male kitten was adopted by the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, and he lives on the third floor of the facility, which cares for people with diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Although normally aloof and not friendly with people, Oscar has an uncanny ability to identify people at death's door. When the cat chooses a patient to sit with, the patient's death usually occurs within a couple of hours.

Lucky, the Sky Diver

When Keri Hostetler left her office window cracked in her high-rise Manhattan apartment, she didn't think her three-year old cat Lucky would decide to take a stroll outside on the ledge. Two repairmen working on scaffolding on the building across the street saw the cat on the ledge and managed to get pictures of the cat walking on the ledge, falling 26 stories, and landing on a cement balcony. The workers signaled to a panicked Keri, who had returned from the laundry room to find the cat missing, that Lucky had indeed taken a dive. Keri found Lucky hiding in a grill cover and rushed him to a veterinarian's office, where he was treated for a broken toe and broken lower jaw.