On The Roof, Eastern State Penitentiary
I was gone most of last week running a little errand.
In The CellBlock
Last year my wife and I went to Philadelphia on vacation. One of the things we did was visit the Eastern State Penitentiary. It is an old prison in downtown Philadelphia that is no longer used and is now a museum. It is a very interesting place. If you want to see and read more about our trip last year click here.
Philadelphia Subway Station
One of the exhibits at the prison were the "Ghost Cats". This is an art installation commemorating the 40 cats that lived in the prison when it was operational. When the prison closed, a retired prison guard returned each day to feed the cats (who couldn't escape...it is a prison after all) until they all passed away. The art exhibit consists of 39 unique hand made concrete / plaster cats that were placed throughout the prison. A link to the artist and the exhibit is here
Philadelphia Subway Bench
Since my wife and I live with 5 cats in our home, we inquired what would happen to them when the exhibit was over. They were to be sold to patrons that wanted to buy one. We put down a deposit on one and it was to be shipped to us at the end of 2007. When it arrived via FedEx, we discovered that one of the FedEx warehouse gorillas had destroyed it and the cat was in pieces inside the shipping box.
Inside Pennsylvania Station
After arguing with FedEx for a month regarding the value and insurance on the cat, we decided to accept another cat from the Penitentiary, and let the Prison deal with FedEx regarding the value of the destroyed cat.
Fort Worth, Texas
So, I flew back to Philadelphia, picked out another cat from inside the prison (Casper is the crouched one on the roof in the first photo) and hand carried it back to Phoenix on Amtrak,.... a 4 day train trip.
Living Room, Phoenix, AZ
The last photo shows "Casper" in our living room, where he now resides. I saw and did a lot of things on this trip. It was an eye opening experience in more ways than one. Look for more glimpses of this cross country journey in the coming months.
Welcome Casper, to lovely AZ.
ReplyDeleteLoved your cat story,
ReplyDeletekisses to Casper
I love when people take the time to feed and care for animals.
Cat folk are the best folk in the world, I always say.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes from Philadelphia! So glad Casper made his trip back and is healthy. He looks beautiful in your living room!
ReplyDelete-- Sean Kelley
Program Director
Eastern State Penitentiary
Philadelphia
Casper is beautiful. He looks so regal and posed at all times. What a cat!
ReplyDeletexx
Hes a cutie.Loved the story!
ReplyDeleteIf each statue represented one of the cats, what happened to the statue that was destroyed? Being an employee at a DC shelter, I would love to take the broken statue and give it a home. I think that the broken cat would like to live with me and my cats. Plus, as a grad student at GWU, I am doing research on the preservation of historical landmarks. I could think of nothing that would make me happier than to give the broken a cat a home!
ReplyDeleteAmanda, the broken cat was sent back to the musuem to be presented to UPS for a claim on its value, I am sure that the cat has long since made its way into a landfill. We no longer have it.
ReplyDelete