Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

On this blog, I have featured sailor cats, ghost cats, witch cats, hoodoo cats, and, of course, hypnotizing cats.  So, naturally, it’s time to bring on the weather-predicting cats.  “The Menasha Record,” April 17, 1925:

Ever since the total eclipse of the sun scientists, storekeepers and post-boys in Middletown, Conn., have had a wholesome respect for Weathervane, the meteorological cat of East Hampton, which has been offered to President Coolidge by its owner, Louis James, the Boston Transcript says.

The cat predicted fair weather for the eclipse when the astronomers who came to Middletown to set up their instruments to view the eclipse were getting cold feet and taking out rain insurance to protect their expeditions from loss if the rain should come on that day. The success of Weathervane's prediction on that occasion won him name and fame as surely as did the prediction of the 1888 blizzard for the late Horace Johnson of Middle Haddam.

Weathervane was a foundling and was picked up by Ellis Hughes of East Hampton and taken to a warehouse in that village. Mr. Hughes told Richard Gillon, an employee, to give the cat a bed of blankets and to allow it the run of the warehouse. Mr. Hughes now claims he showed the cat a thermometer. and declared that is what stirred the meteorological instincts of the animal.

Later Louis James took the cat home to his wife, who gave it some catnip and three meals a day. The cat thrived under this treatment and soon began to predict the weather with a success that bade fair to rival that of the United States weather bureau. 

Those who have learned to decode the cat's forecasts say he is unerring in his predictions. For several years now he has been giving valuable dope on the weather. This is done by mannerisms and purrings as weather changes impend.  Strong, rhythmic purrings forecast fair weather. Contortions announce sudden changes. A haughty attitude indicates a frost.  If the cat insists on rolling over there will be ice and snow.

Weathervane is not handsome and does not take to many people.  A great many, however, now come to the James house to find out what the weather is to be.

Weathervane was born before his time.  Imagine the high-paying gig he could have gotten on the Weather Channel.