10/29/2026
It's National Cat Day!
Like dogs, cats have been a familiar household pet for centuries. While most cats these days spend the day sleeping in windowsills or on couches, many of their Pennsylvania German ancestors were very competent workers.
A great form of pest control, barn cats hunt mice, rats, or any rodents running around that could potentially eat and pollute crops and stored foods. They are very adaptable and independent, allowing a farmer and their dogs to work around the farm while the cats were in the barn and the fields patrolling for rodents, feeding themselves in the process. Cats have historically provided humans with a great deal of companionship and stories about their mannerisms and personalities as well, as is evident in many artifacts from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The first image shown here is a reward of merit given to student Mary Kulp from schoolteacher A. F. Krout, dated February 9, 1863. A picture of Tom, the tomcat, is accompanied by a passage describing his mannerisms and job around the house in a slightly satirical manner. A section of the passage reads: "He is a very useful animal, and a great pet in the house, as he is good natured and quiet, and keeps all small animals at a distance...The rats and mice are the only occupants of our house that dislike Tom, for the reason for their dislike is, that his law is a little severe on them."
The second photograph shows a grandmother and granddaughter sitting underneath the shade of a tree in their rocking chairs, circa 1953. On the girl's lap sits a doll, and on the grandmother's, a large orange cat who appears to have no intention of getting up anytime soon.
