cat vintage postcard
Liège, Belgium 1879 - Thirty-seven plucky mail cats were trained and employed to carry bundles of letters (and postcards) to nearby villages.
Editor : Cats delivering mail? You've finally lost it!
Marie . This is history! Read this!.
They were 'trained' to complete this harrowing task for saucers of milk. The experiment was short - lived.....
The finicky felines proved to be undisciplined. (imagine that!) I've been attempting to teach my cat not to wake me up at 5 in the morning. I've changed her name to rooster. Francois has changed her name to *?!éx§£!
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43 cool cats commented:
Hello, thank you so much for stopping by. Your post is adorable! Love your blog!
Bless you, Shirl
Shirls Rose Cottage
That is some story! And a really adorable card.
"*?1exsl" is no name for a precious little darling who only wants to show you how much she loves you first thing each day! :)
What a nice stamp!!
I like cats very much: they are independent, clever, crafty, soft. :-)
I like the stamp and the kitty is very cute.
Haha, unbelievable.
I live in Aachen (Aix la Chapelle) and so I am often in Liège.
Next time on the fleemarket I will have a look for that stamp.
Have a fine weekend
Janine
Interesting story and adoreable cat. I also like the photo of Marianne, you have managed to find a very flattering picture of her, nice work.
Here's a tip to getting kitty to sleep in ..whoever goes to bed last/latest should feed her again right before they go to sleep .. I promise you will get to sleep later yourself!
Hi Marie, love the stamp and the kitty is adorable. The story is too funny.
debby
That is a crazy story. Cool looking stamp.
Marie,
You do your stamps with photoshop, correct? It would be too good to be true if you had a source for perforating paper so you could actually make your own stamps. I have in mind to create a virtual city-state where I am responsible for everything visually related, like signs, posters and - stamps.
Very nice stamp image Marie, even if it is only a stamp in cyberspace! And great story to 'go-with'!
Wow! I was very impressed at the beginning of your post learning that cats were trained to deliver mail!
haha but then as I read further... I realized the kitty-delivery system didnt quite make it.
Your kitty is so pretty!
(Have to say this again... so glad I found your blog! ...and thanks always for coming by and leaving your comments!)
No luck for delivery! Such a cute kitty.
They should have used dogs. Dogs are more superior in the smarts department and live to please their masters. Cats only have staff. [giggle]
We are cat lovers, so of course, we just love these! How cute!!!
Christina! :)
You are so funny! Cute stamp and what a sweet kitty and they definetly have minds of their own!!
Hugs,
Karyn
Loved this post! Amazing! Good luck with Rooster! :D My kitties get me up around 2 in the morning ... time to eat and play. !!!!!!!
Hi - loved this post, really funny and interesting too. Thanks for swinging by my pups blog too - we're also trying to train them not to get us up at 5.00 am so I really related to your comments, he he! BFN - CJ.
Lovely shots,
sooooo cute kitties :)
very special
Amazing that the postal system thought cats could be trained to ... well, do anything!
Cute card. Funny new names for your kitty. I hope yours sticks and not Francois'!
Great photo! Thanks for sharing.
I love cats and i love stamps. Amazing post!
I don't cats are actually 'trainable'. I think you can get them to do something in order to receive a 'reward', but if they don't want the reward, you're out of luck.
They were (tried to be) used in the British army as well! You would think that after two thousand years (and more probably) people would be wise enough to know cats will do as THEY please!
Wonderful! Such an example of human stupidity! We have a saying in the US, "It's as impossible as herding cats." The more I relate internationally online, the more I find that so many countries have the same or similar phrases in their own language, so maybe there is something in French about trying to make many cats go in the same direction. How impossible is that?
!!! "The criminal class of dogs" comes from your link. Sometimes that old writing is hilarious!
I was wondering how they were able to get cats to do anything - then I read the end of the story! ;o)
Had a Wonderful time visiting today. That Francois definitely has a mind of her own!
Cats don't seem like they would be reliable postal workers. Cool info.
Hee, hee! You can't train a cat to do anything, hardly. They're quite sneaky, you know. They'll pretend they're trained and while you're patting yourself on the back they sneak a whole container of milk from the fridge!
And that's the truth. Meow!
My cat have that same bad habit, but I have got him of it 99%, by buying a pet feeder, and the last 1% is where he forgets that we don’t give him food any more :)
Marie: What a cute kitten.
So cute!! Thanks for stopping by!
wow what a cute little kitty.
southbrowneyes
"changed her name to rooster" - classic!! I can relate to that!!
Love the retro stamp. Great post.
That is too adorable for words! I read this post to Stella (my fabulous feline) and she chuckled her little head off at the idea of kitties with jobs :D (Joking, of course ;D).
Big hugs & happy Sunday wishes,
♥ Jessica
lovely kitten. have a lovely weekend.
Too funny!
I wouldn't trust my mail to a cat.
I figure my cats need their morning exercise because they sleep all day. I do get concerned when they start running around like crazy and making noise and chasing each other and fighting... And I usually have to get up a couple times to get one of them off the kitchen counter. She has tags so I can hear them jingling and hitting against the dishes in my dish drainer. She still seems to think if I'm in bed and can't see her that I won't know what she's doing. She never climbs on the counter when I'm up.
LOL My cat is my alarm clock too! What an interesting factoid, not surprised it didn't work however! lol
Amusing Story Marie ~ as always! This one caught my attention because I am such a cat lover. I agree with trying to train cats to do anything. My little Sophie will try to run across our kitchen island when we are not looking. If we catch her and scold her she will just cock her head over the island and look at us and do a little meow ~ just to show us that she is really the boss. Sooo cute! Your kitten picture is adorable is that one yours??? Blessings,
Katie
Is that really true? How funny! Surely they would have known (knowing the nature of felines), that enterprise would not work?! How extraordinarily hilarious!
heehee!
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