Cat who saved Brooklyn Hall became a local hero. When he died, New York Times honored him with obituary

Jerry Fox, a stunning-looking cat, ruled Brooklyn for about 28 years. He used to live with undertaker Jacob M. Hopper until a larger black feline kicked him out. That's when he arrived at a popular café near the City Hall around 1879. Fox was about 2 or 3 years old and had become a regular sight at the café. Even on weekends, when it was shut, he would sit by the windows, attracting passersby. Fox soon gained the title of 'Brooklyn's official cat' and spent almost his entire life patrolling City Hall. He is also credited with preventing crimes and alerting people to danger, according to The Hatching Cat of Gotham. By 1903, Fox had gone almost blind and had to rely on special specs to move around the city. However, a year later, he fell down a subway shaft and lost his life. The Brooklyn City Hall lost its hero forever, but his legacy was so strong that his obituary was published in The New York Times in 1905, when his remains were discovered.

Fox was very serious about his patrolling job. Every day, he would move around the café and always alert the owners to any possible danger. This one time, a thief had apparently attempted to break into the café, but just in time, Fox's loud howls alerted the policeman, who then chased the crook away. The cat was a local hero, and almost everyone recognized him, but growing age had taken a toll on Fox. He had started to lose his teeth and had gone blind by 1903. Fox was clearly struggling with poor eyesight, and when Dr. Charles F. Hughes realized it, he made a special pair of glasses for him. The specs added more layers to Fox's extraordinary personality. In fact, people would often give him a newspaper, and he would pretend to read it with his glasses.

On May 22, 1904, Fox was roaming on the third floor of the Brooklyn Borough Hall when he entered the empty office of Judge Almet F. Jenks. There, he noticed some papers on the judge's desk had caught fire from a lit cigar, which could have spread into the entire office within minutes. Fox realized the fatal danger and immediately ran into the hallway to alert the authorities. He began howling as loudly as possible. It was something very unusual because Fox was otherwise a very calm and gentle cat. Policeman Harry Staton recognized his strange behavior, and that's how he was informed about the fire. It was just another incident where the cat's timely intervention prevented a fatal outcome. However, Fox's story ended in December 1904, when he was roaming without his glasses. The cat fell down a subway shaft, and his sudden disappearance made everyone think he'd run away. In 1905, the shaft was reopened, and that's when the workers found his remains. The heroic cat was loved by many, and to honor his life, the obituary was published in The New York Times.

Animals have an uncanny ability to sense danger before anyone else. Several studies have also found that they try to alert humans to danger before earthquakes. For example, researchers put special devices on certain animals on a farm in northern Italy that was prone to earthquakes. The devices were used to track even the animals' tiniest movements. Scientists continued to study data for about four months, during which more than 18,000 earthquakes had occurred. Consequently, they found that farm animals, when put together, showed increased activity and restlessness. This change in behavior was taken as a sign that animals might be more sensitive to early earthquake signals

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