"Blessed, Cats, and Family: PAT petermorwood:  surprisekitty:  wizardmoon:  skypig357:  giflounge: 1944 - Snowball the cat tries to take over a machine gun in Normandy so she can shoot some Nazis herself.  Blessed post. Good kitty  i want someone to read that headline in an old timey reporter voice  Okay fun fact: cats were actively deployed to trenches and ships to help deal with rodent infestations in both world wars, and they had the curb cutter effect of keeping the men's spirits high. One cat, Simon, was given the rank ""Able Seacat Simon"" after dutifully killing rats and mice that were destroying the HMS Amethyst's food supplies. The ship had come under fire during the Chinese civil war and many of its crewmen had died. The cat had been gravely injured, too, but he picked out the shrapnel himself – seriously – and went straight to killing the rodents that were overrunning the ship. He unfortunately passed from his injuries two weeks before he was scheduled to receive the Dickin Medal. To this day, he is the only cat to receive this award.  Here's another WW1 trenchcat, who would have been ratter, mouser, companion and gas warning - not AFAIK by dying, like a canary, but since cats reacted to the smell of gas long before it was strong enough for humans to notice, the troops had a bit more time to get their masks on, and the cats went into gasproof boxes. Meanwhile, somewhere on the other side of No Man's Land… Meet Percy, mascot of HMLS (D20) ""Daphne"" with Lt Drader. Both survived the War, and Percy retired to live out his peacetime life in the Drader family home.   (Here's a video clip; given how noisy, hot and smelly early tanks were, Percy seems remarkably unfazed.)  A US Army tank cat, Mustard of the 321st, with a Renault FT light tank and its driver Sgt Postal… A Royal Artillery kitten (the battery mascot)… Pincher of HMS Vindex on what looks like a Sopwith Pup scout… Togo, ship's cat of HMS Dreadnought (though I've also seen ""HMS Irresistible"")… Ship's cat of HMS Queen Elizabeth atop 15″ main battery… And speaking of big ships and big guns… ""Make nice all you like, Human. I despise you. I wanted a billet on a battleship, not this tinpot destroyer…"" (Ching, of HMAS Swan.)"
{}