Mr W.J. F. Thompson And His Cats... (1939).
Sometimes a researcher and blogger finds wonderful local history stories unrelated to their specific subject that they have to share.
This is one of those stories about a man Mr W.J.F Thompson and his love of some stray cats he fed in the Supreme Court Gardens. He wanted a home for stray cats like the West Subiaco Dogs'' Refuge Home in 1939.
A cat haven has been operating in Shenton Park for over 60 years providing a range of services for cats and the community. One of their functions has been to take in stray cats and adopt them out as wished by Mr. Thompson.
The articles and photographs are from Trove, the database at the National Library Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
Daily News, 11 July 1939.
DAILY MORSELS FOR HOMELESS CATS
WILLINGLY carrying on Mr. Thompson's work, Mr. Alf. Hunt feeds three of the Supreme Court cats.
Mr. W.J.F. THOMPSON . . . should be a cats' home
OLD MAN FEEDS STRAY CATS
For more than six years stray cats in the Perth Government Gardens have been regularly fed through the kindness of a 78-year-old West Australian cat lover. He is Mr. W. J. F. Thompson, of Cottesloe, a white haired, neat moustached jovial old gentleman, who thinks there should be a home for stray cats as well as dogs. For five years he has fed the cats personally, going every afternoon to the gardens with dainty tit-bits for the dozen or so animals which depend on his bounty.
He is now staying at Cottesloe but before leaving Perth he made arrangements with a young man to feed regularly the Government Garden cats. 'My sister, the late Miss Alice Thompson, started feeding the cats about six years ago,' Mr. Thompson said yesterday. 'If you had seen the thin, miserable, half-starved creatures became healthy-looking, as the result of regular feeding, would not have had the heart to stop the good work, either,' he continued.
DAILY DUTY
'Therefore, when my sister died about five years ago I took on the job myself and visited the gardens every afternoon with scraps for the cats. 'They soon got to know my voice - as they had known my sister's - and, as I was retired and living in Perth, there was nothing to prevent me looking after them,' he said. Under kindly treatment they throve and before long there were over a dozen sleek-coated cats and playful kittens. 'About a year or so ago they got gastric influenza and several of them died,' Mr. Thompson added.
KINDNESS BEQUEATHED
When he left his Perth boarding establishment three months ago the cats were again numerous, and when he visited the gardens this week they responded to his call as before. 'Whenever my sister and I went away on holidays we al ways arranged for someone to feed them during our absence,' Mr. Thompson said. 'And I have always done the same since my sister died. 'It would be worse than cruel to leave them unfed once they had grown to expect it,' he added. 'I am an old man now and I hope someone will continue to feed the cats when I am no longer here.' Mr. Thompson said that the cats gathered in the lower gardens near the Repatriation buildings. Judging by the starved appearance they had before being regularly fed there was little in the way of food to be found there. He thinks someone with money should start a cats' home on the lines of the West Subiaco dog home.
