Hide Article Text (OCR)
Cape Girardeau—Wotta Puss is a cat—but he’s been leading a dog's life. He had a friend whose life has been even more miserable This feline friend, just like Wotta Puss, had a face which reminded some persons of Hitler, and got his jaws kicked in for having such a mug. That happened in a New York City alley and the New York Humane Society took in the cat with the broken jaws. Chief Specialist C. S. Cooper of the U. S. Navy Recruiting Station here, saw a picture of the injured cat,. Now, cats have always play ed a definite part in Cooper's life, and he doesn’t like to see cats or any other animal abused. His ire aroused, he promptly wrote Miss Catherine Hill, secretary for the New York Humane Society, asking that the cat be sent to him and he’d see that it came to no further harm. Substitute Accepted. In a few days a letter came from Miss Hill with the news that the injured cat was gone, but that another cat with a Hitler face had turned up at the Humane So ciety shelter. She'd send that cat, if it was O. K. with Cooper. The naval officer lost no time in reassuring the Humane Society that the substitute cat, which has been dubbed “Wotta Puss” by the society attendants, will be wel come. Coiper is awaiting the cat, which is to arrive in a few days. As Wotta Puss apparently has been kicked around, he will re ceive a few days treatment at the Humane Society hospital before being shipped to Cape Girardeau to become the official mascot of the naval group stationed here. “I think it’s silly for any de cout American to take out his vengeance on a harmless and in nocent cat just because he has a mug that a stretch of the imagi nation might conjure up a re ssemblance to Hitler,” said Cooper, ‘then, while looking at a picture of Wotta Puss, exclaimed, “Say this cat don’t look like Hitler— he’s more like one of the Marx brothers.” Promises Protection. Wotta Puss has a dark strip of hair planted squarely between his scars and under his nose is another very dark patch of the hair, giv ing the impression of a moustache. “I'l see that nobody kicks his glass in. If they try it there'll be a naval battle on dry land, the officer said. Wotta Pass will be sent first to Mrs. Cooper in St. Louis and then will be brought to Cape Girardeau by the officer, Cooper’s love for animals goes ‘back to his childhood days. “My dad always had 15 or 20 dogs ‘and cats around the big place in the south where we lived,” he said, and remarked that he had always hated to see any animal mistreated for no good reason at all. Cooper took his fondness for animals to sea with him in the first World War when he went into the Navy. After training, was assigned to the U. S. S. Utah He promptly smuggled a kitten aboard and the cat became the ship’s mascot. When the officer left the ship in 1919 he left the war aboard as the mascot, but reaches with him a picture of the cat sitting on one of the Utah's Wig 14-inch guns. “Maybe my cat will look like “Hitler, but he’s sure going to be ‘a jinx to Herr Schnickelgruber,” the officer remarked.
Newspaper Details
Sikeston Standard
Sikeston, Missouri, US
Fri, Dec 04, 1942
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Stephen C.
USA 01 Sep 2026
Other Publications Near Sikeston, Missouri
Sikeston Daily Standard
Sikeston Standard
Sikeston Herald
Sikeston Standard Democrat
