Green Eyes

Dec. 16, 1907
Los Angeles

And what ran on the sports pages in 1907? We certainly didn’t have the Lakers. How about a cat show at Chutes Park at Grand and Washington? I can just imagine the reaction of my distinguished colleagues on the other end of newsroom to this:

“In the class of white neuters, Col. Dunham Jr. was awarded the first place, and Tootsie, owned by Mrs. E.H. Coane, was a very close second. Mr. [Frederick] Story said he had never had to decide between two cats having so many equal points. The colonel was the finer and best furnished. The eyes and head of Tootsie were better than those of the colonel.”

Now this is intriguing:

“Judge and Mrs. Frederick Story will return to their home in Chicago in a few days. They brought out with them a fine cat for Mrs. H.A. Stearns of the Los Robles kennels. Mr. Stearns presented the cat to his wife, who owns several fine specimens. The new cat, a blue female, comes of an exceptionally fine strain. Her dam was Penelope, the famous Lincoln Park cat, known all through the East as a direct descendant from Spangles. The renowned Spangles is the cat that crossed the Great Sahara Desert upon a camel’s back and was later imported to the United States.”

Now I know nothing about the famous Spangles, but the image of a cat swaying on the back of a camel is too good to ignore. Let’s see what we can find. Alas, Proquest and Google are silent about Spangles the cat and its desert trek. We’ll just have to use our imaginations.



Bonus facts: The Times says that the cat with the greenest eyes was Amboy Lina Snow, owned by Miss A. Trahn.


Lmharnisch.com
Lmharnisch.blogspot.com
e-mail: lmharnisch (AT) gmail.com