Visit the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park in Calabasas, California, and see the graves of many famous pets, including Little Rascals’ dog Pete the Pup, and Tarzan star Jiggs the chimpanzee.
But one gravestone that catches the eye of many visitors is that of a cat with the unusual name “Room 8”. Who was this cat and how did he get his name? Read on to discover the heartwarming story of this special cat!
In 1952, a short-haired, gray-striped cat appeared at Elysian Heights Elementary School in Echo Park, California. As told in his 1966 biography A Cat Called Room 8, the cat was running around the room and being petted by the children. They fed the hungry cat their lunch food and he became attached, following them around.
They named the cat “Room 8,” after their classroom, and the cat stuck around for the rest of the school year.
At the end of the school year, room 8 disappeared for the summer… and returned when the children came back to class.
This went on for years and many classes of kids got to know Room 8.
“My first memory of Room 8 was Miss Mason introducing him to our kindergarten class,” former student Angie Nicolai recalled in a post from Explore Historic California. “I remember thinking that he was a big cat in her arms. She wanted to let us know that he was part of the school and that he sometimes came to visit us in our classroom. She put him down and he immediately jumped onto the desk by the window to take a nap in the warm sun.
Room 8 became a local celebrity. News cameras would show up at the school to take photos of the cat’s return. He received hundreds of letters in fan mail.
The story of Room 8 was the subject of a documentary, a book, and a three-page article in Look magazine.
The cat lived in the classroom until the mid-1960s when his health began to decline. He was reportedly injured in a catfight and suffered from feline pneumonia. A family who lived near the school took him in.
Room 8 died on August 13, 1968, at the age of 21. After his death, the cat received a lot of love: he reportedly had a three-column obituary in the Los Angeles Times that received nationwide coverage, and students raised money to purchase the gravestone that is still standing.
In 1972, the Room 8 Memorial Cat Foundation was set up in the cat’s honor and continues to operate today. At Elysian Heights Elementary School, Room 8’s legacy lives on: he is featured on a mural and his pawprints are immortalized in cement on the sidewalk.
What a heartwarming story. It’s clear that Room 8 was loved by everyone who knew him and is still remembered by people decades later. It goes to show the impact an ordinary cat can have on countless people.