Pittsburgh refrigerator cat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pittsburgh Refrigerator Cat | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Pittsburgh, USA |
| Breed status | Not recognized as a standardized breed by any major breed registry. |
| Domestic cat (Felis catus) | |
The Pittsburgh Refrigerator Cat, Refrigerator Cat, Cold Storage Cat or Eskimo Cat is a spurious breed of cat.
There is no standard for this fictitious cat breed; The cats upon which the reports were based were pink-eyed albino cats.
Newspapers reported these cats to be cold-loving, light-sensitive and prone to heat exhaustion or fits at normal temperatures.
Origin
In 1894, the New York Times ran reports about a race of thick-furred, short-tailed chubby cats that had arisen through natural selection in the cold storage warehouses in Pittsburgh. These cats supposedly suffered heat exhaustion and fits if taken from their home in a cold storage warehouse and placed near a warm stove. According to news reports that circulated, the cats had been developed to combat the thick-furred rats that had evolved to live in cold storage warehouses in Pittsburgh. They preyed upon the rats with the same enthusiasm that cats at normal temperatures hunted prey. The Reading Times attributed the story to The New York Tribune.[1][2]
The story of the refrigerator cats became more elaborate as it was reprinted elsewhere. Readers were told that the ordinary rats of the United States had originated in the cold climate of Spitzbergen and were well-adapted to a cold climate. They were fat with long, thick hair, furry tails and they had begun to infest cold storage warehouses. This, according to the stories, necessitated the introduction of cats into the warehouses. Most of the cats died due to the excessive cold, but one cat thrived when introduced into the cold storage rooms of the Pennsylvania Storage company.[3]
In 1895, The Pittsburgh Dispatch printed a more elaborate version of the story. It told its readers that in the Union storage warehouses there were particular cold-loving cats descend from ordinary well-behaved fireside cats. It was custom in the storage house to collect all of the cats into one room at the end of the day, but this one cat was often missing and was to be found lying on one of the cooling pipes which run along the ceiling of the room, fast asleep. The pipes were covered with a frost of about a half-inch, and, while the temperature of the room was maintained at 10 °F (−12 °C), the cooling pipes were much colder. Another peculiar effect of the cold upon the cats was its ability to rejuvenate them. Old cats became as playful and active as young kittens.[4] This account was widely recirculated during March and April 1895.[citation needed]
A month later, a report in the Cincinnati Enquirer transplanted the story from Pittsburgh to New York, crediting it to an anonymous traveling man:[5]
Finally a thick-furred cat was procured, that lived, and subsequently a mate for it. A litter of kittens came, and it was noticed their fur was longer than that of the parent cat. There have now been five generations born in the warehouse, the fur of each a little longer and thicker than that of the preceding generation, until now they are covered with fur as thick and close as that of a muskrat, and when removed from the warehouse they cannot stand the warm climate, and soon die. It is a distinct breed of cold-storage cats.
Publication in Britain
In Britain, the respected naturalist, Richard Lydekker appears to have taken the story at face value. His monograph in a volume of Allen's Naturalist's Library in 1895, though wholly based on an American newspaper report, gave credibility to the story. That monograph was the origin of the term 'Refrigerator Cat'. The Spectator was cynical of Lydekker's unquestioning acceptance of newspaper accounts, in particular, the claim that if the cats were taken into the open air from the cold storehouse during the hot season they became sick and died. As The Spectator noted, refrigerating-houses were cold enough to prevent meat from thawing, but not so cold as to "induce such a change in the natural habits of cats." It wrote that the story probably needed revision.[6]
In 1896, Lydekker documented the supposed cold storage cat in his Handbook to the Carnivora, Part I, describing them as a "peculiar breed of Cats, adapted to the conditions under which they must exist to find their prey." He noted that they were short-tailed and chubby, with thick under-fur and remarkable 'feelers'. Their cheek whiskers and eyebrow whiskers apparently grew to a length of 5–6 inches (130–150 mm), rather than the normal 3 inches (76 mm). He attributed this adaptation to the dim light in the cold storage warehouses making the cats primarily dependent on their sense of touch. His account mentioned that taking such a cat into the open air, particularly during the hot season, caused it to die within a few hours because it could not endure a high temperature. An introduction to a stove, normally a favoured haunt of domestic cats, would allegedly send it into fits (seizures).[7]
