One of the pioneers of the finest hotels in New York City is the Algoquin Hotel. For more than a century, since its inauguration in 1902, the Algoquin Hotel has served millions of customers who come and go to the heart of the city, Manhattan.
One of the features of this great midtown hotel that makes its special among the rest is the the hotel's tradition of a cat running the hotel. No, not running the sales and technicalities, I literally mean running the whole hotel, except for the kitchen and the dining room.
The tradition begun in the late 1930s, when a rather disheveled relative of Felix The Cat wandered inside the Algoquin hotel in New York. The poor little cat is searching for food and shelter.
The ever accommodating owner of the hotel, Frank Case, welcomed the wandering cat inside his establishment. Actor John Barrymore was there and called the cat Hamlet. From then on, a tradition in the hotel was born.
Every year, the hotel celebrates their resident cat's birthday. This year, the hotel's resident cat is Matilda, and has recently turned 13 years old.
Matilda is the hotel's 13 resident cat since Hamlet. She roams around the hotel everyday, but her favorite spot is in her threshold where she has a good view of visitors who come and go to the hotel.
She is loved by many, especially by the hotel's guess. She receives weekly mails from guests and online letters from around the world. She is so popular that when her collar was stolen, dubbed as the Algoquin Cat-Burglary, it immediately became the talk of the town.
You can send your letters to Matilda on her e-mail at matildaalgonquincat [at] algonquinhotel [dot] com.
