Pussy galore

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12 years 11 months

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This is a remarkable story aimed at all those who like me can be described as 'cat obsessives'.

I'm re-reading 'Carriers At War', by Adrian Stewart. He describes a remarkable story concerning one, Oskar the ships cat, known, for at least part of its life as Herr Oskar. Mr. Stewart refers to the sinking of the Bismarck and the rescue of a cat clinging to a piece of wreckage. The cat was picked out of the North Atlantic shaking with cold and matted with oil by some of the crew of the destroyer Cossack. The moggy was christened; Herr Oskar.

During October 1941, Cossack was attacked by a U-boat and sunk. Oskar was again among the rescued, taken to Gibraltar and there joined the Ark Royal as ships cat. A little later, Ark Royal was also sunk and once again Oskar was picked up and survived to be once more landed at Gibraltar.

At this point Oskar was thought to be a bit of a Jonah and given a shore based job. His life ended peacefully in 1955.

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11 years 2 months

Posts: 3,650

Hi All,
John - Not an obsessive but I do like them we have had four all having now passed away and still loved members of the family just like our Dogs. I don't know about a Jonah ? but you could look at it in another way, any the vessel/crew that had it on board would always be found if anything happened to
said vessel, a good luck charm if you like.

Geoff.

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14 years 6 months

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Wasn't there a WW1 British Tank Commander that had a cat wich he took into battle.
Both he and the cat survived the war.
So cats are a good luck charm.

Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

That makes perfect sense. It you're about to do anything dodgy - take a cat with you, it could save your life. You could also get a merit from Health & Safety.

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17 years 10 months

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I'd be a bit jittery if I was with the cat on his 9th ship.

Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

A cat that could count wouldn't be that happy.