Hudson Cats

There's a sign in the window at Myers of Keswick on Hudson Street announcing the Facebook fan page of Molly the cat. You might remember her as the cat who got stuck in the wall and captivated the city for two weeks in 2006.

During that ordeal, she even got a free therapy session from renowned cat shrink Carole Wilbourn, who played "the music of humpback whales and ocean sounds" to soothe Molly in her imprisonment.



Three years after her rescue, Molly seems to be doing fine. But all the attention may have gone to her head. I walked by recently to find her waiting on the shop's doorstep. She looked up, fully expecting me, a passing stranger, to open the door for her. Of course, I obliged. She entered and didn't even bother to say thank you.

Her next-door neighbor, an unnamed bodega cat, is not so famous. No celebu-cat, he's not a "Baby Jessica." He didn't get trapped in any walls or wells. He doesn't have a single Facebook fan and he never got featured in the New York Times. Does he care? Does he feel overshadowed to this day by his more celebrated neighbor?

We may never know.