Tribute to the Cats of World War I: 1914 1918

An estimated500, 000 cats served in World War I. Aside from doingrodent patrol, WWI cats also detected gas. This was, after all, the first war that saw the largescale use of chemical warfare. The Brits drafted 500 felines for this particular duty which was a canaryinacoalmine mission because cats succumbed much more quickly to the fumes than humans did. One cat saved a soldiers life in a more dramatic fashion. Pitouchi had been born in the trenches. His mother had been killed when he was a kitten, and hed been adopted by a Belgian soldier, Lt. Lekeux. Lekeux was hiding in a shell hole, sketching the enemys artillery works. A German soldier on patrol spotted him and called out to his comrades. Spooked by the sound, Pitouchi jumped out of the hole onto a piece of timber, writes Susan Bulanda in her bookSoldiers in Fur and Feathers. The Germans fired two shots at Pitouchi. However, as frightened as he was, Pitouchi was not hit, and he jumped back into the hole with his beloved Lekeux. The