The Great Cat Heist: How 'Old Tom' Became Seattle's Most Wanted Feline
A market cat’s affection for stolen kittens turns a quiet afternoon into a scandal of the highest order.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
What is now known as Old Tom, once a well-known but for the most part unremarkable resident of this city, has suddenly become the talk of the town. For some time past, he had been in possession of a large, overgrown pet cat, known by the euphonious name of 'Old Tom.' Old Tom has always been a dutiful cat, and as such an admirer has won him the degree of fame. He appears to have died out upon his manner long ago, but late, he has done it. He went a few days ago to a house, and stole from thence two young kittens, and brought them to the market shop, depositing them in his own box. He has ever since tended and watched over them with the greatest care and affection, keeping them constantly supplied with buds, milk, and all the delicacies of the cat.
The mother of the abducted kittens stole into the market yesterday for the first time, and finding Old Tom nursing her kittens, attempted to carry them off. Old Tom got on his dignity at once, and after giving her a generous cutting and ratting, ran her out of the building.
In an era when Seattle was still a rough-and-tumble frontier town defined by mill workers and Chinese laborers, this lighthearted anecdote about a cat stealing kittens offers a rare glimpse into the domestic whimsy of early civic life. It mirrors modern viral stories about pets behaving like humans, reminding us that even in 1877, Seattleites loved a good local legend.
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