Room 8
Room 8 (* 1947 in Elysian Heights, Echo Park , Los Angeles , Calif .; † August 13, 1968 in Lockhart Pet Hospital in Hollywood , Calif.) Was a male house cat who became famous as the school cat at Elysian Heights Elementary School in Echo Park.
Life
Room 8 first entered Elysian Heights Elementary School through an open window in 1952. The cat got its name from the room number. The Domestic Shorthair -cat went to live during the school year in the school building. The hangover disappeared shortly before the summer holidays , only to return at the beginning of the school year every year. He achieved national fame and TV cameras were even waiting for his arrival. After the unusual story spread across the country through a background report in My Weekly Reader , the school received up to 100 letters a day addressed to the cat. As he got older, Room 8 was injured in a fight and has since suffered from pneumonia . A family near the school took him into their care. The cat stayed at school during the day and at the end of the day the caretaker brought him back to the family.
A documentary called Big Cat, Little Cat was made about the cat and she starred in a children's book called A Cat Called Room 8 . Look magazine reported in November 1962 on three pages with photographs by Richard Hewett about the animal fame. In 1971 the guitarist Leo Kottke dedicated an instrumental to Room 8 on the album Mudlark .
Room 8 passed away on August 13, 1968 at Lockhart Pet Hospital in Hollywood. The Los Angeles Times dedicated an obituary with three columns and a picture to him. Obituaries appeared in other daily newspapers as far as Hartford , Connecticut . The cat was buried in the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park in Calabasas . The associated tombstone was financed by donations. The school itself dedicated a plaque to Room 8 and a paw print on the sidewalk in front of the school.
In 1972 The Room 8 Memorial Foundation was established. The cat shelter takes care of abandoned cats and transfers them to new owners.
literature
- Virginia Finley and Beverly Mason: A Cat Called Room 8 . With drawings by Valerie Martin. GP Putnam's Sons: 1966, ISBN 0-399-60085-X
Web links
- A Cat Called Room 8 on the Elysian Heights Elementary School website
- Room 8 on the Purr 'n' Furr website
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Roger Vargo: Room 8, The Most Famous Cat in Los Angeles. (No longer available online.) Explore Historic California, May 2008, archived from the original on May 27, 2008 ; Retrieved May 27, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Room Eight. In: Find a Grave . Retrieved July 12, 2015 .
- ↑ About. In: Official website of the Room 8 Memorial Foundation. Retrieved July 12, 2015 .
