NO WAY, the Catskill Mountains in New York State is not an abattoir for cats. On the contrary, it was God’s own shelter for stray cats. The first Dutch immigrants were the ones who introduced the domestic cat to America, early in the seventeenth century. They came with the Dutch crew of Henry Hudson’s Amsterdam-based ship, and were also onboard Adriaen Block’s vessels. Once a regular service for America-bound migrants got underway, from Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Texel and so on, more and more Dutch cats came along.
Not even so much as pets. The Dutch cat was primarily an ideal mouse and rat catcher. In New Amsterdam, later New York, but especially northward towards Fort Oranje, Beverwijck, now Albany. There they often became roaming outdoor farm cats, strays.
How many? More than enough to freak out new immigrants as they sought out the hills halfway between New York and Albany, between Jan de Wits Island in the Hudson and Claverack. Then they sailed up a little river they called Katskill (kil is an old Dutch word for a creek, a stream, still used in names such as Sluiskil, Dordtse Kil), and that led to the hills where countless feral cats roamed free, ’t Land van Kats kill.
It is still called the Catskill Mountains today. And still America counts an unusually high number of feral cats, an estimated 75 million strays. I am going to do absolutely nothing against that when I am president next year. Feral cats are my heroes. In fact, expect me to grant them voting rights.
* VanderBus left home at the age of six weeks and went hunting for a city bus in Maine. He caught the bus. It cost him one eye, but he won a standing ovation from everyone who watched him do it. VanderBus, since then mayor of Bicker Hollow, is running for president of the United States.
