New York’s Newest Walking Tour Is Completely Devoted to Cats

These walking excursions are a purr-fect way to learn about New York City’s fun felines.

In a time before humorous online videos and cat memes, felines like Ned—who crossed the Brooklyn Bridge a month before its official opening—made headlines.

This news was reported in a paragraph in The New York Times, dated April 22, 1883, and described how a gray cat was plucked for this publicity stunt. The shenanigans were orchestrated by a saloon keeper named C.W. McAuliff and City Alderman James J. Mooney, who conducted a search for strays on Brooklyn’s streets and grabbed this unassuming creature to participate in the bridge’s christening.

In publicizing his newfound fame, Ned was touted as being “inclined to see the world.” It was reported that he was carried from Brooklyn to Manhattan in a basket but was taken out briefly to set his paws upon the bridge itself. At the afterparty for his accomplishment, Ned was given a new collar and a newly christened name.

Ned’s story is just one of many unique cat stories that author, lifelong animal lover, and licensed tour guide Peggy Gavan shares through New York’s new Cats About Town Tours.

Gavan first became interested in these cat chronicles after reading about an Angora cat that would sit on eggs at the now-defunct Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey. This kitty was referred to as “The French Hatching Cat.”

“I was going to make a children’s story about it,” remembered Gavan. “But as I started doing all the research, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is really kind of a fun way to learn about New York history.’”

This egg-laden example would inspire Gavan to search the annals of New York’s history for more animal tales that she’d share on her blog, The Hatching Cat of Gotham.

Gavan’s postings eventually grabbed the attention of reporters and landed her a book deal with University Press to publish The Cat Men of Gotham: Tales of Feline Friendships in Old New York. Recently, Gavan also penned The Bravest Pets of Gotham: Tales of Four-Legged Firefighters of Old New York.

Gavan, who lives about an hour north of New York City, discovers the city’s cat stories through online newspaper archives. While she’s researched stories involving other animals, it’s her cat-related posts that remain the most popular with her readers.

“Back then, people loved reading about animals just as much as they love watching videos about animals today,” explained Gavan. “The newspapers would dedicate quite a lot of space to animal stories because people enjoyed reading about [how] a cat saved a building from burning down or a dog rescued somebody from drowning.”

Gavan co-founded Cats About Town Tours in September 2024 with her business partner, Dan Rimada. Rimada is behind the Bodega Cats of New York website and Instagram account, honoring New York’s convenience store kitties.

According to Rimada, the two initially met when he messaged her for advice about a cat history tour that he was planning. She, in turn, had a similar idea in mind. While Rimada handles their company’s business and tech logistics, Gavan leads their two-hour-long tours that run 1.5 miles in distance. One tour goes around Brooklyn Heights and another heads through Manhattan’s Financial District. Future tours will venture around other locations, including the Lower East Side.

The history of cats in New York City is about as lengthy and quirky as the city we know today. According to Gavan, cats could easily be found roaming around the city streets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some became mascots at firehouses and police stations. Some hotels even have cats in residence.

Since the 1920s, The Algonquin Hotel in Midtown Manhattan has housed a lobby cat. The tradition started with an adopted male street cat that was renamed Hamlet for actor John Barrymore, who was performing the Shakespearean role on Broadway at the time. The hotel’s line of feline succession has also included females who are called Matilda.

For a while, cats had important city jobs, so speak. They were once permitted in U.S. post offices to hunt down rats. According to a chapter in the 1917 book The American Postal Service: History Of The Postal Service From The Earliest Times, at one point, large post office locations across the country allocated finances in their budgets for keeping and feeding these felines. The chapter noted that “an appropriation of from $80 to $100 was annually made for this purpose for the benefit of the New York post office.”

Even more so, in November 1904, postal employee George Cook, who was referred to as “the only Superintendent of Federal Cats in this country,” marked his 81st birthday with a party welcoming 60 post office cats. The New York Times reported that calf’s liver and lamb’s kidneys were on the event menu.

That period of cat employment is now long over. Other reflective changes in NYC were ushered in by public health policies prohibiting animals from occupying venues such as establishments serving food.

Nonetheless, Cats About Town Tours keeps these unique stories alive and well. Their jaunts go by present-day buildings and sights—or the addresses where they once stood—linked to cats who made their paw prints on New York society and the city’s history.

In Brooklyn Heights, attendees can hear about Harry, a firefighter mascot along a firehouse on Remsen Street, or a “Hoosier Cat” belonging to preacher and abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher at Plymouth Church. The tour ends near a nearby cat cafe, where attendees can visit on their own.

When asked if she had a favorite cat story, Gavan spoke of Jerry Fox, a feline who hung around what’s now Brooklyn Borough Hall and became known and beloved by many. Jerry alerted his human friends to a fire that broke out in the building and helped to save the day by preventing it from being burned down. Jerry also made The New York Times with his obituary in April 1905. The cat was said to have lost his sight as he got older, and an eye doctor made a custom pair of eyeglasses for Jerry.

“Now, I don’t think they actually helped him or not, but the press had a field day with it,” said Gavan.