The incredible story of Room 8, the cat who went to school!
- Rita Rose
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
We all love positive animal stories, and here is one about a special cat that has been making the rounds on social media. Posted on Facebook by Fat Cat Art:
A stray cat walked into a classroom in 1952 and attended school for the next 15 years. He got the name Room 8 after his favorite room in Elysian Heights Elementary School in Echo Park, California. He wandered in through a window being a skinny feral cat. Teachers and children cherished, fed, and treated him and his maximum weight reached 17 pounds.
In the 1960s, Room 8 became world famous. Beverly Mason, the school principal, said in a 1968 newspaper story: "He disappeared all summer, but the minute school started, the day the first bell rang, down the street he'd come. On the first day of school, every newspaper and television station in town showed up at the crack of dawn to watch this cat appear from out of the hills."
Room 8 enjoyed it when students read books to him and often slept on their desks. He received as many as 100 letters a day with some addressed simply to "The Cat. Los Angeles." Student "secretaries" helped fellow students reply to the fan mail.
When he became old, a family near the school adopted him. When he had difficulty
walking the distance between his home and the school, the school's janitor carried him across the street each day.
Room 8 lived a long, happy life. He was already 5 when he began to attend the
school, and passed away in 1968 at the age of 22 after attending school for 15 years, longer than most humans. After his death, his obituary in the Los Angeles Times was a major event, and students raised money for his gravestone at the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park.
The cat also was featured in a documentary called “Big Cat, Little Cat” and a children's book, “A Cat Called Room 8.” Elysian Heights Elementary School has a wall mural on the outside of the school that features Room 8, and the teachers read his book to each new class. Room 8's paw prints are also displayed in cement on the sidewalk outside the school.
In 1972, a cat shelter was started in his name, called The Room 8 Memorial Foundation, which is active nowadays. Such a wonderful cat life!
For more about Room 8, click here: https://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/famous/room8.html
