Jimmie was a drug store cat, following the same occupation as Tiger in the story called Tiger. One of the clerks in the store found him in the alley one morning while burning some old boxes. The kitten was poor and hungry and seemed to be homeless and friendless. He was a stranger in the neighborhood and no one ever came to the store to claim him. He was lost and lonesome when picked up and seemed very glad to find a friend. He was only a stray kitten and no one knew of his mother nor where he was born. This seems sad but with Jimmie it gave him a distinguished place later in life which I will tell you about in this story.
In a little while Jimmie was growing and happy in the new home. He had made friends with all of the clerks in the store and especially with the proprietor. They became devoted friends for life; even money could not separate them as a large sum was offered for him but his master loved him more than money.
Some of the clerks taught him to jump through hoops or through their arms or over their feet. On one of the counters in the drug store there was a large clock which became the resting place for Jimmie. When told to go and get on the clock he would obey instantly and then look around at those watching him as though he was proud of the feat. One day his master took a picture of him as he sat on the clock and he seemed to pose for it. The picture is now in the desk of the drug store although Jimmie has been dead three years. When I asked Jimmie’s master for the facts about this story he turned to the desk and showed me the picture. While we were speaking of the kitten’s life a man came into the room who used to know and love Jimmie. He was asked if he knew the picture and when he looked at it he exclaimed, “that’s Jimmie!” This shows how much he was loved and that he was well known. Like Thomas of the grocery store in the other story Jimmie had scores of friends and is remembered by many citizens in the town in which he lived.
During one of the cat shows in Convention Hall in Kansas City a few years ago, Jimmie was also on exhibition. He attracted much attention although he was not a thorough-bred and was only a stray. His fur was striped like a tiger and in the show he received first prize as the best tiger cat shown. He also won first prize as a stray, but to receive the premium his master had to take three witnesses before a notary public and make affidavit that Jimmie was found in the alley and that no one knew of his birth or his pedigree. After receiving these prizes Jimmie’s master thought more of him than ever. He attracted much attention in his home town, too, when the news went out that Jimmie had won first at tiger and stray. New friends went to the store to see him and he, too, became a good advertisement for the store.
One day a physician’s wife from another town went into the drug store and saw Jimmie sitting on the old clock. She soon made his acquaintance and became attached to him. She was a lover of kittens and Jimmie so large and beautiful seemed to her an ideal kitten. She asked all about him, of his birth, pedigree, disposition and many other questions. When told that he was only a stray picked up in the alley as a homeless kitten she seemed to think more of him than ever. Perhaps she had been kind to some homeless kitten sometime in the past and understood what it meant to care for one that needed a friend. She was anxious to have him as her own and let him live in her own home. I am sure that she would have given him the best of care and that he would have had a good home in which to spend his old age. In a few days the woman’s husband was in the town and went to the store and offered twenty-five dollars for Jimmie. The proprietor would not sell him for that, and then the physician offered him fifty dollars, but Jimmie’s master said that money could not buy him. Such was the love for a kitten that had been so kind and obedient during the many years in the store.
About two weeks after the physician had offered the fifty dollars for him, Jimmie in some way got hold of poison and died. He was nine years old at the time of his death and left many friends who have greatly missed him during these past three years.
